Research Skills

A research project can teach you some extremely valuable skills, including:

• how and where to find source material information;
• how to make your own investigations;
• strategic planning;
• time management;
• analysing and interpreting primary and secondary source material;
• forming your own conclusions;
• writing clearly and concisely when you have a lot of very varied material to present; and
• making a convincing case.

Despite the time it may take up, a research project can be one of the most rewarding pieces of work you will complete during your time at college.

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To sum up, when you undertake your own research project:

• Don't be too ambitious at the outset; define a narrowly focused question which you can investigate fully in the time available.
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• Make a timetable for your work and stick to all deadlines; start early and allow plenty of time for each project stage (especially writing the report).
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• Make sure you include analysis and evaluation in the project, not just explanation.
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• Try to achieve different things in each of your draft stages.
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• Use the CRAVEN scale to help you decide if a source is credible.
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• If you are really struggling with any stage of your project, make sure you talk to your teacher or mentor as soon as possible about your concerns, and ask to see exemplar work.

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Research Skills Review Quiz

Now that you have worked through the Research Skills course, you need to complete the Review Quiz. Open the Quiz in Word and either print it out and handwrite, or type in your answers on the screen.

You must upload either a scanned pdf or a saved Word version below.

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Congratulations on completing this course - hopefully you will soon be celebrating the successful completion your research project as well!