Research: B2+. Anneli Williams

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СКАЧАТЬ The research process

      Doing research is a complex process, so it can be helpful to divide it into tasks. How you break down the process depends on your assignment, your preferred ways of working, and your strengths and weaknesses as a researcher.

      Remember, in practice, doing research can be a ‘messy’ process. You may do some tasks, such as making an outline plan, more than once. Or, you may do some tasks at the same time, for example, you will probably continue reading while writing your first draft. However, in general, if you are new to research, you should probably aim to spend about 50% of the time available preparing and gathering information, and 50% writing up. As you gain experience, you can adjust the length of time you spend on each stage. However, students who spend more time preparing tend to score higher marks.

      

Exercise 1

      Imagine you have 30 days to write a 3,000 word essay on a topic related to your course. The tasks you might do are listed in the table below. Tick the tasks that you think are important. For each task you have ticked, write approximately how much time you think it would be reasonable to spend on that task.

Stage	Tasks	✓	Time
1 Preparation	Think about the research topic and the instructions given.
Find out what information is available – do some background reading.
Devise a rough outline plan.
2 Gathering information	Gather books and articles from the library or online.
Read and take notes.
3 Writing up	Write a more detailed plan.
Write a first draft.
Revise your first draft.
Write a second draft.
Proofread your second draft and make corrections.

      When your essay has been marked and returned, set aside time to carefully consider the feedback given. This will give you useful information about how to approach your next essay. If you do not understand the feedback given, it is important to seek clarification and advice. Although lecturers cannot always provide one-to-one meetings, your university is likely to have study advisors who can help.

       Tips

      

Think carefully about your essay question and why it is worth asking. This will help you choose a worthwhile focus for your paper.

      

Do some initial background reading. If you discover that there is not enough information to support your chosen essay focus, you can choose another essay title.

      

Write a rough outline plan before you start reading and taking notes. This will help you read efficiently and with a clear purpose.

       Understanding the essay question

      Sometimes set essay questions can be difficult to interpret. You may not know exactly what you are expected to do. However, if you break the question down into parts, you will find it easier to answer.

      Essay questions can generally be divided into two parts:

       Glossary

      trait A trait is a particular characteristic, quality, or tendency that someone or something has.

      1The topic – this tells you the general area of your research.

      2The focus – this tells you what you need to find out about the topic.

      It is important to pay careful attention to the focus of the essay question because this indicates the boundaries of your research. The question ‘Is generosity an innate human trait?’ limits your discussion to the issue of whether human beings are generous by nature. You should not be tempted to discuss at length other issues such as whether generosity is morally good or bad.

       Glossary

      boundaries The boundaries of something such as a subject or activity are the limits that people think that it has.

      Notice also that the question requires you to focus on generosity in humans. You may find it useful to make comparisons, for example to behaviour in animals. However, you should keep your focus on human beings.

      Once you understand the topic and focus, you need to think about how you are expected to approach the question, that is, what you need to do to answer it.

      

Exercise 2

      Choose the option a, b or c which best describes how you should approach the question.

       Is generosity an innate human trait?

      a You should answer ‘yes, it is’ or ‘no, it isn’t’ and give your reasons.

      b You should evaluate the arguments for and against the notion that generosity is an innate hum an trait and come to a conclusion expressing your opinion.

      c You should write everything that you have been able to find out about generosity in human beings.

       Instruction words in essay questions

      Sometimes essay questions contain an instruction word or expression which indicates the approach СКАЧАТЬ