Task: Research and Revision

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Research

Research according to the Oxford Concise Dictionary is "the systematic investigation into and study of materials, sources, etc, in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions."  

This may mean looking for information online as well as in a library.  But when it comes to using search engines Spivack, N. (2008)  has pointed out that  "the problem today is that Google does not work the way our brains think..."   The keywords we choose do not necessarily return the results we expect.

Many people use Google Scholar which has advanced search support and with Google's spell checker it can capture a wide range of errors to help with the results. But this may not solve the problem of word finding difficulties, where the choice of a keyword is sometimes incorrect. Yahoo offers some advice.

Recognised subject related catalogues such as those offered by a library or the BUBL LINK Catalogue of Internet Resources. can be used to search for e-books, journals, articles and other papers.

 All universities have library catalogues and usually there are support pages to help with using electronic resources such as that offerred by University of Southampton.

The University of Edinburgh 'The Researcher's Bible'

 Revision

This involves "organising material and finding ways of remembering it, that suit your own particular learning style." as described in the Open University Learning Space  which has some useful hints and tips as well as further links.  The University of Bournemouth offers ways to avoid 10 common pitfalls to effective revision.

Finally Brain HE has some advice about exams and revision that may help everyone, but the site has been designed specifically for those with specific learning difficulties including dyslexia.

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