Study Skills Core Modules

This method is ideal if you need to do lots of internet based research for coursework or projects.

Read & Write 10 Gold is a program available on the college system. It incorporates a research tool to help you revise or prepare information to write reports or assignments. This Fact Folder allows you to capture text and pictures from any application, classify it and record its source. This information can be converted to a Word document to help with studying and revision.

You will need to be on a college computer and have access to the internet.

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Method:

1. Open Read & Write Gold by clicking on the desktop icon, or searching under the start tab search box.

2. Make sure you can see the 'Research Features’ toolbar options. If you are not sure, click on the black down-arrow (menu button) to the right of the 'textHELP’ button on the far right of the toolbar, choose 'Current Toolbar’ and in the dropdown menu, select 'Research Features’.

3. Begin your internet research on the topic of your choice. If you are just practicing, try researching volcanos by opening any search engine (e.g. Google) and typing 'volcanos’ into the search box.

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4. Once you see something of interest on a site, select the relevant text on the page and click on the Fact Folder button.  The Fact Details panel appears.

5. Notice how the Item Title, Date, Author and Source fields have been completed automatically. You can alter this by clicking in each box and editing as required. Changing the title will not delete the text you copied, so call it whatever you want.

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6. In the Author field type the name of the website or the site/article author if you know it.

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5. Next to Category, click on the 'three little dots' button (see image below) and then click 'Add' and type a category name, e.g. Volcanos, into the box and then OK to add it as a Category. Select it and then click OK. You can leave the description box empty, or type in a short description of the pasted text, then click OK. A little popup will appear on the right of the screen to confirm that a fact has been added.

6. To add an image from the internet to your collection of facts, click on the black down-arrow to the right of the Fact Folder icon and select Add web Image. The Texthelp Web Hover will appear in the bottom right corner. Move your mouse over a picture on the web page and it will appear in this panel. Click on the picture to capture it. The Fact Details panel will appear as before. Complete this with details relevant to this picture, either selecting the same category as the one you previously created, or starting a new category.

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Complete the above steps as many times as you need to whilst you collect together your research and notes.

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To see all your facts on one page:

7. Click on the black down-arrow beside the Fact Folder icon and select Review Facts.

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8. The Fact Folder opens with the information you have added. If you want to see the content of any fact, select it and a thumbnail will appear on the preview panel, or click on the 'Display Content' button. You can also edit your facts and delete them in this Fact Folder too. Hovering your mouse over an icon will give you a description of what each button does.

Note: before you move on to the next step, you must make sure you have saved any Word document you currently have open, as sometimes the Fact Folder crashes Word if there are too many windows open on a computer, and you will lose any unsaved work!

9. Select all the items you want to review and click on the Word icon ('Export all facts to Microsoft Word').

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10. Select the bibliography format you wish to use, such as Harvard, and then click OK.

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A Microsoft Word document will now be created with all the information you have just captured and the Bibliography will be available below it in the format you have chosen. You now have all your web research, notes and images in one place, ready for you to use in your coursework or essays.

Quick Activity

You can upload your own example of creating a Fact Folder by uploading the Word sheet that you create with facts of your choice using the link below. You could do this for a subject project, or you could just pick a random topic, such as 'volcanoes' to research.

Note-taking Fact Folder Activity: Upload your completed Word sheet example here