Research Skills
ExPLORE
5 simple steps for effective
research
ExPlan
Locate
Organise
Represent
Planning
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Think about the subject you are
researching
What do you already know?
What do you need to find out?
Make a list of questions you would like
your project to answer
Which keywords which you will search for?
Make a mindmap or a list of bulletpoints
Where you will look for information?
Locating
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Books – have a look at the books in the library,
they may be easier to understand than the internet
as they are written specially for teenagers.
The Internet - contains everything that anybody
puts on it. You will need to search carefully using
your keywords to see if you can find relevant and
understandable information.
Every time you find a useful website or book make
a note of the web address or the author and title of
the book, so you can find it again easily and your
teacher knows where you found the information.
Website Addresses - URLS
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Before you decide to look at a website –
have a look at its url.
The url will give you clues about who
produced the site, how reliable it is likely to
be, whether it is biased in any way etc.
Look at your sheet on website evaluation to
see which addresses are likely to be the
most useful to you.
Pitfalls
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Do not automatically go to the first
website in your list – it may be totally
irrelevant.
Check who made the site –read a bit
about them, they may be an expert, or
they may be someone with a particular
bias they wish to get across etc.
Useful websites
www.idebate.org/index.php
(debatabase)
 www.independence.co.uk
(issues key facts)
http://www.eastrenfrewshire.gov.uk/index.aspx?article
id=2153
East Rnfrewshire’s online resources ( you will need to
know your library card number to access these)
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Organise
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Look through all the information you have
found
Keep anything that is relevant
Get rid of anything that doesn’t really
answer the questions you wrote at the
beginning, as well as anything which says
the same as other information you have
found.
Organise all the information you are keeping
so that it answers your questions in a
sensible order.
Represent
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Introduce your subject, so that people reading it or
listening to you know what areas you are going to
cover.
Use all the information you have gathered to
answer your questions,
BUT – remember to put it in your own words.
DO NOT just cut and paste information straight
from the internet or books.
Finish your project with a BIBLIOGRAPHY – a list of
all the books and websites you have used to find
information.
Evaluate
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After you finish think about how you
found the information
Are there things you would do next
time?
Are there things you definitely
wouldn’t do again?
What else could you do next time to
make your research even better?