Spring Term 2010

 To assess your independent learning skills  To understand the steps for a logical research method  To learn how to avoid plagiarism  To think about note-taking and referencing skills  To find out where to find guides and templates to help you

 Asking questions & resolving problems  Identifying and evaluating sources - searching  Choosing and organising key information – making notes, avoiding copy & paste – copyright & referencing  Reflecting, evaluating and reviewing  Communicating – presentation

 Question  Understand  Identify  Choose  Know  Assess your own independent learning skills  QUICK guide and Assessment grid available on LRC intranet pages

 To find your way through the maze of information  To help you organise your time and work  To help you analyse and evaluate information  To assess and improve your own learning  To avoid plagiarism  To reach your own conclusions and communicate them effectively AND LAST, BUT NOT LEAST!  To get the best possible marks for your work!

 Three levels of research:  1. Fact Finding - who, what, where, when, why, how  2. Gathering opinions - differing viewpoints  3. Umbrella questions – don’t have one answer, make a difference, require decision making

 Is cannabis harmful ? is an “opinion” question?  A good source will give you the facts, then differing opinions, making clear which is which  Issues – in print and online – are a good source for gathering opinions

 Use OLIVER for material suitable up to 19  Use other search engines - try Ask.com & Google Scholar  Try Issues, Essential Articles & Fact File  Use NewsUK for news articles

 Use a wide variety of sources i.e. books, magazines, websites, encyclopaedias  Use CARS to help you evaluate sources – Credible, Accurate, Reliable, Supported (available on LRC intranet)

 Oxford English Dictionary: “to take and use as one’s own the thoughts, writings or inventions of another”  Merriam-Webster online dictionary :  to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own  to use (another’s production) without crediting the source  to commit literary theft  to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source  “The failure to acknowledge sources properly and/or the submission of another person’s work as if it were the candidates own’ - JCQ

 Lack of awareness of regulations  Poor time management; quick solution.  Pressures to succeed  Increase in coursework components  Greater availability of info on internet.  Encouragement to use internet freely  Websites that provide completed coursework  No one will check  Lack of skill in using resource material

In order to avoid PLAGIARISM you must:  NOT copy whole chunks from books or websites (or another student!)  Make effective notes  Cite your sources - ensure you use references (footnotes)  Record your sources properly (bibliography)

 Devise questions to answer  Skim your source for answers to the questions  Highlight key words and phrases – transfer to bullet points, mindmap or your preferred note-taking method – DON’T copy whole paragraphs from books or websites  Write down your source

 When you use quotes or refer directly to someone else’s work in your text, you should cite your source  Either in your text (in brackets) or as a footnote  Word 97 has a References tab which will help you

 Keep a record of ALL your sources throughout your research  For books or periodicals: Author, “article title”, Title of publication, date & page nos.  For websites: Site name, url, any other person to acknowledge, date of publication if appropriate and date accessed

 Download Bibliography template from LRC Intranet  Enter details of ONE printed resource and one website  Complete Independent Learning Assessment  Hand in or Bibliography and IL assessment to  This presentation is available on the LRC Intranet

 Ask.com, accessed 29/12/08www.ask.com  BBC News, accessed 29/12/08  Valente, J. Plagiarism, 10/09  Lewis, H. (2007) Plagiarism: the need to be vigilant  JCQ (Joint Council of Qualifications) Coursework guidelines, available on the LRC Intranet  Talking about Cannabis, accessed 29/12/08  Cannabis Seeds, accessed 29/12/08www.cannabis-seeds.biz