If you need to produce a written assignment then it is important that the information that you present in your assignment is accurate, relevant, up-to-date and that it thoroughly answers the question. Searching for quality information is an important skill.
Make sure that you understand the task!
It is vitally important that you completely understand the question or assignment title. You must be very clear about what is expected of you. Take a look at Key words in Assignment Briefs at the top of this guide. If you are in any doubt then don’t be afraid to ask your tutor for clarification.
Look at your assignment title / question and make a list of words and terms on which to base your searches. Make a list of similar / alternative words that you may also use. To help with this you may wish to use a thesaurus, which is a book similar to a dictionary that actually lists words with similar meaning. You will find these in the college library.
A huge range of resources are available to you, everything from the familiar printed text books to special Internet-based services that the college has purchased for your use.
To help simplify your task of identifying useful resources we recommend that you:
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To research articles for your subject; select the Databases and Journals tab. There are two types of Databases available to you:
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General Databases: General databases are like searching in a shopping centre. They will cover a wide range of subjects and index a variety of publications including: scholarly journals, newspapers, magazines: |
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Subject Specific databases: Subject-specific databases are like independent shops. They specialise in a specific subject area and tend to include scholarly journals, book chapters, and dissertations. Databases in certain fields such as business, may also include trade journals: |
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 The IEEE Xplore digital library is a powerful resource for discovery of and access to scientific and technical content published by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and its publishing partners. |
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 Mintel reports analyse market sizes and trends, market segmentation, along with customer attitudes and purchasing habits in Europe, the UK and the United States. Each report that Mintel publishes provides a unique overview of a market's dynamics and prospects |
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 The on-line version of the 'Issues' series, this online reference source provides up-to-date information on contemporary social issues taken from a wide range of sources including newspaper archives, articles, key facts, government statistics, and key organisations. |
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Do they overlap with the general databases?
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When searching for information, use and/or to combine your terms.
Use AND to combine your main concepts, this will:
Use OR to combine similar terms, this will:
Databases follow commands you type in and return results based on those commands. Be aware of the logical order in which words are connected when using And or OR
Examples:
Understand your search results
Hopefully, your search will return a list of results consisting of citations. Sometimes you hit the jackpot with your first search, but often you will find that you need to modify your search.
Here’s a quick technique for modifying your search:
Limits
There are limits that you can apply to your search term. If you know that you have a specific constraint--e.g., you can only use scholarly journals, you can apply that limit before searching. Alternatively you may wish to search without limits; as this will greatly increase your results, view your results and then refine as needed.
Useful Limits
| Full Text | This will limit your results to complete articles rather than an abstract. |
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Scholarly Journals |
Limit results to items published in scholarly journals |
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Date |
Limit to current years if required by an assignment or your topic requires up-to-date info. |
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Language |
Limit to English, unless you are fluent in other languages. |
Should I use this article?
You'll want to evaluate an article not only for its authoritativeness and reliability, but also for its relevancy to your topic and the requirements of your assignment.
Most of the information you will need will be available by looking at the detailed record for the item and reading the abstract.
Ask yourself:
And remember... Most databases have a feature that will generate a citation, check carefully when selecting the type of reference.
Websites can be created by almost anyone, regardless of their academic / professional background. They can also be created for various reasons other than simply to provide accurate and trusted information.
Popular search engines such as Google and Yahoo can be very useful if used wisely, but they can produce many indiscriminate results. Sites like Wikipedia can also be useful but be aware that a lot of the information is not authenticated.
For this reason, we strongly recommend that whenever possible you try to make use of those resources that are accessible via the college LibGuides.
Evaluate Websites
When you do make use of general web sites you will need to be particularly careful to evaluate them to ensure that they are trustworthy. For each web site that you use, ask yourself the following questions
We recommend that you refer to the guides for writing essays and reports that follow. These will provide you with guidance on planning, structuring and writing your assignment.
Reference your findings
Create a bibliography and citations, guides on how to use the Harvard Referencing system
can also be found on the LibGuides
Credo Reference is an example of a general database, it is a completely customisable general reference solution for learners and Tutors. Its full-text, aggregated content covers every major subject from the world's best publishers of reference. A selection of reference books including encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesaurus and books of quotations. It allows you to create Mind Maps that will assist you with independent study.