Assignment research

It’s a 3000 word assignment, you’ve picked your title and now just need to do some reading and writing. Pretty simple? You’re even given a reading list, access to the library and numerous online journals. So why is it so hard?

Well, learning new things and working at different academic levels is diffiicult. As my PhD supervisor said to me ‘if it was easy everyone would do it’. Well, I’m here to make research just a little bit easier. Spend less time on searching AND get better quality academic resources.

Cards 10 and 14 – 20 are here to help you locate, assess and utilise knowledge.

First lets go Boolean, yes Boolean searching. This is a method of searching databases and search engines that uses AND, NOT, OR. gving the database more information to narrow or widen a search.

Image from https://www.scribbr.com/working-with-sources/boolean-operators/#:~:text=A%20Boolean%20search%20uses%20specific,Search%20exact%20keywords

From the example given using the command words means

1. AND – you include all material on genetics AND cloning. Useful for a first search to see what is available, identify key authors and texts.
2. OR – divides the search results into two fields – genetics OR cloning. The first search will have brought you the maximum amount of resources but you need to be specific to get good quality materials. The results here will let you see which sector has more recent research and identify the works that are either only in one field, or are found across both.
3. NOT – narrows the search to just one key word. This will being a smaller set of results but ones more focused on what you are doing.

Using Boolean searching is even more helpful if you time your search sessions.It’s easy to spend a long time on fruitless searches. Its also mentally draining. So use my stressfree and silent timer. 15 – 20 minutes to do all 3 Boolean searches and have a record of

• 1) the 3 most mentioned authors
• 2) which term has the most relevant resources for your assignment , and are the 3 authors from 1 still there?
• 3) decide which term to narrow down to – now get picky with PROMPT – thats in another blog!