5 TIPS FOR CONDUCTING AN EFFECTIVE ACADEMIC RESEARCH ONLINE

       

Of course you are advised to read all the prescribed texts and it’s good to do that but let me tell you one thing, reading those 8 huge books will waste your time. At the end of the semester you will still find yourself scoring Cs and luckily Bs. There a lot of good and time saving resources  which can help you to learn the same thing on the internet. 

Before showing you the way to how you can identify scholarly sources and get information easily on the internet, let me warn you. There is a lot of crap on the internet since anybody can post anything! Bad sources, like bad seeds, will ruin your GPA. Follow these guidelines when searching for scholarly information on the internet.

1. Check the date the research was conducted

The time in which the research was done is very crucial in academic writing. The expiry date of researches depend on the field of study. Results of chemistry researches that Isaac newton conducted thousands of years ago remain valid to date while results of a research about HIV/Aids that was conducted 1990 cannot be used today. If you know that a lot of development has taken place in your field of study e.g. information technology, make sure that the information you use should be from a research that is less than three years old.

2. Check the author and publisher of the research

Most scholarly articles are written by students or professors. Visit websites of professors who you know are gurus in the area you are doing research on.   Sometimes you don’t necessarily need a professor’s article as your reference. Let’s say you want to write about rape cases in Africa in your human rights Essay. You can site a newspaper article as your reference but you have to ensure that it’s from a trusted source.

3. Check if it is backed by other scholarly sources

Authors of scholarly material base their research on previous works of others. Scholarly articles are not a personal point of view on a topic. You should check the works the author is referring to in his or her work.

4. Use Google scholar 

This is an educational search engine. Visit http://scholar.google.com and you will access a lot of scholarly material which you can read free of charge.

5. Visit university libraries

University libraries are another trusted source of scholarly material. Forget about admission! You will be granted access to most online university  libraries even if you are not a student at that university.