Getting Started

The case has begun! Who murdered Andrew West?

The following steps are basic to any type of research. They provide an organised approach to the research process. You will have been given a research question or hypothesis or you may have to develop your own question. In all cases it is essential to clearly understand what it is asking you to do.

Breaking the Question Down

• • Do you clearly understand the question/task? (Can you write it in your own words to ensure you understand it fully?)

  • What about the rest of the task? Are you clear on what else is being asked of you?

• Use the student activity 'understanding the question' to help with this

Brainstorming

• • What do you already know about the topic that is relevant to your question

  • Do some quick preliminary research around the topic to help you identity key words (significant words used to find information when researching)

  • Use synonyms for key words to identify more terms for searching (www.thesaurus.com)

• Use the student activities 'brainstorm' and 'compare and contrast' to help with this

Developing Your Own Key Questions

• • Develop questions to help you explore and draw conclusions about your topic

  • Keep the questions open-ended and unbiased

• Use the student activity 'the social inquiry process' to help with this

Now you have identified the relevant key words and questions, you are ready to start collecting evidence.

A nifty tool to help you plan your timeline step by step is the following Assign Calendar http://owll.massey.ac.nz/academic-writing/assignment-planning-calculator.php