Research, research, research

Tomorrow our EPQ class is visiting the library located at the University of Hull as we will then have access to a huge number and range of resources that may help us with our research. I think this will benefit me massively as I have been struggling with finding a starting point within my research so I believe having access to thousands of books and resources will inspire me on where to start my research and the direction I want to take it in. I know the areas that I want my research to focus on, but actually finding a specific area to begin with is difficult. As we are heading there tomorrow, I thought I would take the opportunity to utilise the free time I have tonight to search for resources using the uni's library online catalog. So far, I have been quite successful as I have managed to gather a list of books and essays that are relevant to my project that I will specifically look for tomorrow. As well as searching for resources, I am continuing with my preliminary source evaluation that I started last week so hopefully I'll get that done tonight.

I decided to create a preliminary resource evaluation table in order to see which resources I will mainly rely on during my research by comparing their reliability and usefulness, and also how they will fit into the body of my study. Of course, by doing this I am not excluding a particular resource completing from use within my project. I plan on finding useful information from a range of resources, however I think that evaluating different types of resources as a preliminary action will make my research that more efficient and beneficial. Here are the headings of the table:

Resource

Positives

Drawbacks

How frequently do I plan to use this type of resource during my research?

I also created a LITERARY REVIEW TABLE which I forgot to update you on so here are the headings for that too:

Title, type of source, date published

Author (and credentials)

Relevance to topic

Reliability

What are the main ideas?

How do I intend to use the information in the body of my project?

I believe this table will ensure that I evaluate every piece of literature I use as thoroughly as possible, therefore when it comes to using the information within the body of the project, I can easily see the most useful and reliable sources that I will most likely use. Moreover, I may use colour coordinate the ones which I think will be most useful to me so it will be even easier for me to identify the sources that are most useful to me.

Anyway, I'll be back soon with a log on how tomorrow went!