How to search for information

You can go to Mriga Online Academic Support website to get practical feedback to help you develop your assignment.

Plan:

·         Start your search by planning your search strategy and brainstorm (mind map) your topic / essay title / question

·         What you need to find out?

·         How much information do you need?

·         Think of keywords (concepts)

·         Remember to think about synonyms, variant spellings, abbreviations e.g.  carers, care, caring, caregivers, informal care, anaesthesia/anesthesia, anaesthetics/anesthetics etc.

·         Define your limits – language, date, geography, gender, age etc.

·         Decide what type of information you need and where you are going to look.  For example - Do you need books?  Do you need journal articles?  Do you need guidelines, statistics, government policies, research?

Search:

·         Think about where you are going to search:

·         Start with your library website and login to search and where available access full text resources (e-books, e-journals – full text of journal articles etc.)

·         Books - use Quick Search on the library website to search for books and e-books. 

·         Journal articles - use databases e.g. British Nursing Index, CINAHL, Medline, ASSIA etc. via the Advanced Search on the library website

·         Websites - use subject gateways e.g. Intute: Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health, Intute Social Sciences, Intute: Medicine etc. via the Advanced Search on the library website

·         Guidelines and policy e.g. Department of Health, NICE, NHS Evidence, NMC via the Advanced Search on the library website

·         Statistics e.g. National Statistics, Department of Health, WHO via the Advanced Search – Health Statistics sub category on the library website

·         Use your keywords from you plan as search words.  Combine words and short phrases using AND, OR, NOT e.g. wound care and diabetes

·         Make use of other search tips for the database (truncation e.g.* or $, wildcards - ?, phrase searching etc.) and also online help and guides

·         Refine – be prepared to change your search words

Evaluate:

·         What you find - check for authority, quality, authorship, currency, reliability, quality and use of references, bias, research quality etc.

      (see reverse for more information)

Record:

·         Keep details of what and where you search as you go along.  

·         Keep details of the full references for future use.  For websites include the web address (URL) and date you accessed the information. 

·         Remember to use the Harvard Referencing style.

·         Save to My Digital Library within Advanced Search or use RefWorks

Evaluating information

Where?

·         Where has the information come from?

·         Is it from an academic publisher?

·         Have you used an academic database indexing journal articles, or library catalogue?

·         Is it from a peer reviewed journal?

·         Is it from an official source e.g. Government department, Royal College, Conference?

·         Have you used Google or similar? - academic credibility will need verification

Who?

·         Who wrote or published the information?

·         Can you establish the academic credibility of the author(s)? 

      Have they got the authority to write what they are writing about?

·         Has the information been peer reviewed?

·         Has the author published other works?

What?

·         Is the content and coverage suitable? 

·         What level is it?

·         Is the content primary research (new information), secondary research, an overview, literature review etc.?

·         Can you check for the accuracy and quality of the information?

·         What is the purpose of the source and what audience is it targeted at?

·         How does it compare with other sources?

·         Are there any obvious biases?  e.g. geographical focus, organisational viewpoint etc.

·         How good are the references – currency etc.?

·         Is it relevant to your work?

When?

·         How up to date is it?  What is the date of publication?

Further help with searching and evaluating information:

Online help via the library website (Help and Advice section)

• Information Skills Tutorial (PILOT) –   Online tutorial to help you with searching for and evaluating information

• Library Guides –includes Harvard Referencing, RefWorks, Subject Guides e.g. Nursing, Database guides e.g. CINAHL 
•  
• Harvard Guide to Referencing as well as other systems (go to the referencing systems blog)

• Internet for Nurse (Intute)

      A tutorial about how to find nursing information on the web 

• Internet Detective

      Online tutorial to learn more about evaluating websites

           

• Library website - Internet Searching – Search Tips section

    

Argumentation theory

You can go to Mriga Online Academic Support website to get practical feedback to help you develop your assignment.

Fundamentals of Argumentation Theory: A Handbook of Historical Backgrounds and Contemporary Developments. Contributors: Frans H. Van Eemeren - author, Rob Grootendorst - author, Francisca Snoeck Henkemans - author, J. Anthony Blair - author, Ralph H. Johnson - author, Erik C. W. Krabbe - author, Christian Plantin - author, Douglas N. Walton - author, Charles A. Willard - author, John A. Woods - author, David F. Zarefsky - author. Publisher: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Place of Publication: Mahwah, NJ. Publication Year: 1996.

Stephen Toulmin developed a theory of argumentation and this is described in the Toulmin Project Home Page with further explanation on assumptions, counter arguments and implications on another website. Pragma-Dialectical Theory is another argumentation theory. The ideal model stipulates ten rules in writing an argumentative discussion. Violations of these rules frustrate the reasonable resolution of the difference of opinion and they are therefore considered as fallacies.

http://www.ditext.com/eemeren/pd.html site provides information about some basic characteristics of this theory.

van Eemeren, F.,H. & Grootendorst, R., 2004, A systematic theory of argumentation: the pragma-dialectical approach, Cambridge University Press.

Discussion and argumentation

You can go to Mriga Online Academic Support website to get practical feedback to help you develop your assignment.

The assignment at level 2 / diploma tend to require a discussion. What is a discussion? It is necessary to understand the term as often in assignments you are asked to discuss a topic. There are a few simple steps to follow to write a good discussion especially within a research paper or a literature review. Here the discussion moves into the realms of argumentation. There are different theories that explain how argumentation is used in learning.

The online writing lab gives a good explanation of how to write an argumentative essay. A hand out from a university is available to examine why argument is needed in essays and how can you develop your writing to argue your point.

Reflective Diary

You can go to Mriga Online Academic Support website to get practical feedback to help you develop your assignment.

Reflection is a good way of learning particularly in the work place. There is a good online site by practice based learning organisation for understanding and working through the use of reflection to learn in the workplace. There are activities that you can do to help you learn. The authors are Allin L & Turnock C (2007).

A free business template for carrying out reflection is also available online. Monash university some information about reflective writing and shows some examples.

. What are academic levels?

You can go to Mriga Online Academic Support website to get practical feedback to help you develop your assignment.

There are many levels of learning and courses from National Vocational Qualification to Higher Education. The Directgov is a government website providing an explanation about each level and education framework. You can browse through other pages on this website to learn more about university and higher education in the UK.

Within a university programme there are different levels of academic study to achieve. The Royal College of Nursing, UK provides a guide to explain these levels which are validated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council of UK. There is additional information showing generic level descriptors for each level within general education from University of Wales.

Referencing Systems in Academic Writing

You can go to Mriga Online Academic Support website to get practical feedback to help you develop your assignment.

 One of the ways of ensuring that you avoid plagiarism in your assignment is  to correctly reference all your writing. There are some specific elements that should be referenced within your assignment.

There is an online guide to referencing academic work; another site for Guide to referencing (various)

The different referencing systems used by various subjects, academic institutions, journals -

Harvard Referencing System (is the most commonly used system)

Modern Humanities Research association

Numeric Referencing System

Vancouver Referencing System

Oxford referencing System -

Cambridge University Press

OSCOLA: The Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities
APA: American Psychological Association
MLA: Modern Languages Association
Turabian – this site gives information about the 2 forms of turabian style of referencing.
Chicago
Open University (Harvard, but might vary in different faculties the open university version can be found as a handout which you can download)
BMJ referencing styles are identified on this site.