"Standing On the Shoulders of Giants"
Research skills are largely taken for granted in our internet age. We can copy, cut, and paste our way into thinking that we're doing a thorough, accurate, and quality job of research for our class projects (or, we simply don't care). The problem is that the convenience of the internet has often replaced critical thinking skills with those that are superficial, and "not caring" about developing these skills puts students at a disadvantage for post-secondary learning or even just being a literate citizen.
Research is all about:
- Thinking about and brainstorming what you know and want to explore about your topic in an original way
- Finding diverse and accurate sources to support your research
- Taking accurate, but not lengthy nor too-brief notes
- Knowing what plagiarism is and how to avoid it like the plague
- Crediting the use of ideas (text, photos, videos, diagrams) to the original source--"standing on the shoulders of giants"
Research is NOT about:
- finding information about a topic that you already have knowledge of or is too vague
- looking it up on Google and being done with it
- Cutting and pasting information and not crediting the original source
- Cutting and pasting information without even thinking about what your just read or viewed
Now, let's begin...
Novice Research Skills |
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"I'm doing a research project for Science 7 and my friend is doing one for Social Studies 8. What do we need to know?" |
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Intermediate Research Skills |
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 "I'm doing a research project for Science 10 and my friend is doing one for Social Studies 9. What do we need to know?" |
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14. Citing Sources--Toolkit:
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Advanced Research Skills |
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 "We're doing a research paper for Social Studies 11 and one for English 12. What do we need to know?" |
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8. About Plagiarism:
9. Citing Sources:
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