In the audiogram (mini podcast) our Learning Development Mentors help students with their studying dilemmas. In this episode a student asks "How do I get started with research?"  The response is based on resources that can be found on the skills hub.

Hi Tamryn here, a UoN Learning Development Mentor and also a student at the university and I'm here to share my top uni tips with you today. Let's dive right into it with today's theme of uncovering the truth and research skills. So let's get an answer to today's burning question.  "How do I  get started with research?"

Starting off with your topic, ask yourself the following:

What are you researching? Do you understand the question being asked? How do you interpret the task? What information do you need? Then move to  the planning phase and plan your search by asking yourself, what are your criteria? Give yourself a list of key words to use and develop your search strategy so you understand what you are searching for and how those key words fit into the topic.  you need to choose search tools, such as the library, NELSON, google scholar or contact the academic librarian for information of databases specific to your discipline. Explore and read the information widely, abstracts are really good places to start, reading those first will help you save time. Search filters are also your friend, so you can edit out any information that isn’t relevant.

Finally, the evaluating stage asks you to  consider your information. Who> What> Where> When? And how is this relevant to your topic? How can you use this information? Are there any permissions that you need to ask for? Or is it free to use? Make notes, organise, and bookmark and save your results. Keep a running record for your referencing, this will definitely come in handy later on. Happy Research! 

 Don't forget answers to more questions. Links to show notes, resources and more are all available on the skills Sub. Simply type Skills Hub Northampton into Google, and away you go!