Basic level

Develop basic search skills

This level is a starting point, where you will gain awareness of some basic search techniques. This is a foundation to go on to develop the research skills you need to succeed on your degree.

instructions:

  • work through the tasks and materials here
  • we recommend you start at the beginning and move through, but you can do them in any order you want
  • if you already have a good grasp of the material, you can skip that section
  • when you are ready, move on to the next page to take the progress test. If you do well, you can progress to the next stage. If you still have work to do, you will need to come back here to go over material again.

Breaking down a topic into keywords

To find sources for your research, it is tempting to just put your whole report topic into a search engine such as Google. However, you might not get very good results this way:

  • you get back a mix of academic and non-academic sources
  • searching with many non-important words means you may get results that are not relevant to your topic


To start your research, you need to break down your topic into key words. For example:

The influence of talker-listener accent similarity and accent intelligbility

  • keywords: accent, similarity, intelligibility - these words show the main points of the research
  • not needed: the influence of (you will make the connection in your writing), talker-listener (it's obvious, so you don't need to specify in the search)

Task 1: identify keywords in a title or topic

1. Watch this video explaining how to identfy keywords

2. Complete this tutorial about keywords from the University of York Library

3. Consider a research topic that you are working on, or are interested. What are the keywords?

Types of sources

In academic writing, it is important to base your argument and points on evidence - we can't just write about our own thoughts. This means we need to do research in sources to find evidence relating to out topic.

Different types of sources you might use for research at the IPC include:

  • textbooks
  • organisational websites (e.g., the NASA website)
  • journal papers
  • conference proceedings (short summaries of presentations given at conferences)
  • good quality non-academic writing about your topic (e.g.: The Guardian, The Conversation)

Task 2: understand and recognise different types of sources

1. Click to read this introduction to difference source types.

You can also read this comparison of the pros and cons of different types of academic sources

2. Watch these videos to understand more about different types of sources, and how to identify different source types

3. Complete this tutorial about academic sources by the University of York Library

Searching for information: the basics

Google Scholar

access at: scholar.google.co.uk

Google Scholar is an academic version of the Google search engine. It will help you to find acacdemic sources related to your search, without including 'normal' web results.

It is a really useful tool, so it's important that you know how to use it. At the basic level, it's enough just to have an overview of how to use Google Scholar - we'll cover more advanced searching in the next level.

Task 3: understand the basics of Google Scholar

1. Watch this video: it is an introduction to Google Scholar from Lister Hill library.

The most useful information is after 02:20

2. Watch this video to hear some advice from a student about using Google Scholar.

Note: he talks a bit about using Booleans (AND, OR, NOT) - we'll look at this in the intermediate level

3. Read the University of York Guide to Google Scholar

YorSearch

access at: yorsearch.york.ac.uk

YorSearch is a tool to search through the university library catalogue - you can find the location of physical books in the library itself and also access e-books and journals on your computer.

You may find different information here than you would using Google Scholar, so both are important in finding sources for your research.

You can search by:

  • keywords (if you want to see what sources are available for a topic)
  • author name or source title (if you're looking for a specific source)

Task 4: understand the basics of YorSearch

1. Watch this video: it is an introduction to YorSearch from the University of York Library.

2. Complete this tutorial by the University of York Library:

  • go through the #UoYTips slides for an overview of using YorSearch
  • read the YorSearch Quick Guide

Task 5: use Google Scholar and YorSearch

  • open Google Scholar and YorSearch
  • search for your keywords from Task 1 in both websites:
  • Compare the sources you get in each website - what are the similarities and differences?
  • Identify examples of:
      • a book held in the library
      • an eBook
      • a journal paper
  • complete the YorSearch quiz on the UoY skills guides pages (click on the arrow in the box on the right to show questions)


Quiz

Complete this quiz to test your knowledge. Get all the answers right to get the code to move onto the next level.