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Study & Research Skills

A guide to smart study and research skills

 

 

Help! There are over a billion websites online, how are you going to find what you need in this lifetime?

You need a search strategy:

1. Know what you need (read your assignment instructions carefully)

2. Choose some keywords (brainstorm single words and phrases related to your topic)

3. Choose your source types (books, newspapers, interviews, data, videos, websites?)

Look for:

Government websites  |  Websites created by governments, look for '.gov' in the web address

EXAMPLE:   https://www.abs.gov.au/

 

News media  |  Online news sources may be limited to paid subscribers.  Norwood students have access to the NewsBank database which provides unlimited access to Victorian newspapers.

 

EXAMPLE:   https://www.theguardian.com

 

Professional organisations  |  Look for the '.org' in web addresses, and check to see if the organisation is credible and reliable before trusting their information.

 

EXAMPLE:   https://www.afgc.org.au/

 

Online journals  |  Journals are collections of articles written by experts on a topic who have studied and researched in depth.  Journal articles are often written in academic language, and may only be accessible through paid subscriptions.  The State Library of Victoria provides access to online journals for members, and it's free to join.

 

EXAMPLE:  https://foodandnutritionresearch.net/index.php/fnr

 

Online databases  |  Organisations and institutions may provide free access to their online databases of information.  We have created a list of databases which may help your research process.

 

EXAMPLE: https://scholar.google.com/