The purpose of background research is to improve your initial knowledge. 

Encyclopaedias or Wikipedia help give you some background to a topic. 

There are several different types of non-fiction texts and your use of them depends on your stage of research. At the beginning of a research task, you are looking for an overview of your topic, not too complicated, in which to immerse yourself.  You have a choice at this stage between print and electronic versions of a simple non-fiction text, like an encyclopaedia. 

Your focus is the broad picture.

Interrogating an encyclopaedia article – print or Wikipedia

Before: 

• What do I already know about this topic?

• What am I interested in finding out about this topic?

• What questions do I have that this article might answer? 

• Do I need to focus closely on the whole article?  Are there sections I can leave out?

• What does the layout of the article tell me? 

• What do the headings and subheadings tell me?

• What do pictures, charts and web links (if an online encyclopaedia) tell me about the topic?

During:

• What answers does this article have for my questions? 

• What does the introduction tell me?

• Is there a topic sentence in each paragraph?

• Can I distil the content of each paragraph in one sentence? Do I need to? Or should I just distil the content of paragraphs that are relevant to my area of interest?

• Are there pictures, charts, multimedia and other linked content that could inform me more clearly of the content?

• Does the article force me to ask new questions? 

• What are they?

After:

• What broad concepts have I learnt from reading this overview article? 

• How will I record these concepts? Shall I make a mind map, make dot points, make a table?

• What further questions do I now have to direct my research? 

• What interests me about this topic?

• What search terms are emerging for me as I read about this topic?

Remember: 

When you are reading an encyclopaedia or other overview, keep your notes VERY brief. You are looking for the broad brush, the context, of your topic.  Do not go into great detail at this early stage of your research, because it will confuse you. 

You do not need to record bibliographic details for an encyclopaedia.