The Internet is probably the most common starting point for most research nowadays, with an increasing number of academic journals now available online. The best way to access these is through your library website. However, you need to be careful about how to narrow your search, as you may find you have far too much information to look through. Many libraries have suggested guidelines to help you search. One example is the University of Reading library guide at https://www.reading.ac.uk/library/lib-home.aspx; the University of Reading's Unicorn system allows you to search for materials in the library; it also helps you search for journals online.
As there is a greater volume of information available than ever before, it is essential to be systematic and critical when choosing your sources. It can be difficult to decide if websites are reliable; however, certain websites may be considered well researched. Examples of reliable websites are those constructed by educational or government institutions. You can recognize these websites by the use of the following in their web address:
.ac and.edu refer to academic websites. These are always linked to academic institutions. An example is https://www.reading.ac.uk
.gov refers to government websites. These are linked to official government organizations, e. g. https://www.defra.gov.uk/sustainable/government/
Other websites may have a commercial interest and can be recognized as follows: .com and .co. Websites containing .org, on the other hand, are usually non-profit and non-commercial.
A website that contains the ~ symbol (tilde) refers to a personal website. You need to be cautious when using such websites, unless you have a good knowledge of the author.
| Exercise 5. Study the information in the following table and discuss it with another student. |
The explanations in the table should help you to critically analyze
the websites you encounter. If you cannot find answers to the key questions in the column on the left, then you should not rely on the source, i. e. you may not be able to use it in your work.
| Title: What is the name of the text? | The title will often suggest whether the contents are very specific, or if the text gives an overview (you should think carefully about your particular purpose). |
| Authority: Who (or what organization) is responsible for the website? | Is it a reliable organization, e. g. UNESCO or a well-known university? If you cannot find the author or organization responsible for the website, it really should not be used, as you have no way of checking its reliability. |
| Date / currency: When was the most recent update? | In some cases, you will need up-to-date information, so the website needs to be seen to be regularly updated. |
| Content: What is the text about? How useful is it for your purpose? | When looking at content, you will realize the importance of having a clear focus. Make sure the content is relevant to your understanding of the topic. Your evaluation of the content will depend on your reading purpose. |
| Accuracy / reliability: Does the information appear to be accurate? Are there references to other sources? Are there links to other websites? Who is sponsoring the site? | You may be able to check the accuracy of the information from another source. It is expected that ideas will be supported by other sources, which can be a way to check the reliability of the website. |
| Audience: Who is the intended reader? Who is the article aimed at? | Information will be presented very differently according to the background knowledge of the intended audience. |
| Exercise 6. Use an appropriate search engine to find two websites: one for a definition of your area of study and one about the subject of your master's degree thesis. Critically analyze websites and when you find what look like useful websites, complete the table. |
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| Title | |
| URL | |
| Authority | |
| Date | |
| Content | |
| Accuracy / reliability | |
| Audience | |
| Further comments / notes |
| Exercise 7. Write a literature review. |
You are required to prepare an annotated bibliography with attached synopsis as a means of summarizing a body of literature pertinent to your chosen question. Along the way you will submit a list of literature you have identified for use.
You are required to review some scientific literature on what is known about your question. You will be restricted in the number of sources that you are to use in order to make this assignment feasible. Your source list should contain seven distinct literature sources. You should restrict yourself to these numbers of sources:
• primary research papers: 4–7;
• review papers or chapters in edited scholarly books: 0–2;
• textbooks: 0–1;
• web sources: 0–2.
Thus, you must include at least 4 primary research papers (a paper reporting on original research carried out by the author(s)) and no more than 2 web site sources. Overall you should have 7 sources – no more, no less!
Because of these restrictions in numbers of sources, you should select
the sources you use wisely, so that you can paint an effective picture about
the things known pertaining to your question. In other words, do not select sources almost all of which concentrate on one sub-area of your topic, leaving other areas unexplored. Your ultimate goal in reviewing the literature is to produce a summative annotated bibliography and a synthesis of what you have found.
Your main purpose is to basically answer to "What is known about my chosen question?" This purpose and your end product should be kept in mind when reading the literature and selecting from it. Take effective notes so that they will facilitate the development of your final product.
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DANGER: You must be very careful not to simply use the abstract
(or summary) or sections of the abstract as your annotation. If your using published material (or such with only minor changes) are revealed, it will be considered as a serious case of academic misconduct. NO QUOTATIONS ARE ACCEPTABLE in this assignment you MUST synthesize things in your own words!
Most of the seven sources that you use in your paper should be available.
If you utilize something not generally and easily available, you will need to hand in a copy of it for the teacher to use. You will need to have copies of all your sources at hand. Any web site that you use falls into this category: you will need to submit copies of the relevant web pages.