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A GUIDE TO REPORT AND ESSAY WRITING: Gathering your material
and keeping notes
Introduction
The purpose of this guide is to provide you with information
on how to prepare effective coursework assignments at the
Aberdeen Business School, and ultimately, effective research
reports throughout your career.
The guide focuses on the approach that you should adopt to
gathering, analysing and developing your material.
It is recommended that you refer to this guide each time you
begin work on a new coursework assignment. The effort that
you make at this stage will be reflected in the quality of
the work that you eventually submit, and in the grade that
you will be awarded.
Gathering your material: sources of information
In order to understand all the various aspects of a coursework
assignment, you will be expected to read several sources on
the subject of the coursework, selecting relevant quotations
and ideas, and then writing your assignment in your own words
based on:
· what you have read;
· what you think about what you have read (i.e. whether you
agree with it or not, if it ties up with your experience).
As you prepare the substance of your report or essay, you
need to make sure that all your arguments are substantiated.
Therefore, your opinions need to be supported by reasoning
based on evidence or accepted theories, or both. You need
to make good notes from the sources that you have examined,
and you need to be able to find them easily once you start
writing.
For most assignments, using the lecturer's course notes is
not appropriate. For some assignments, you may need to use
relevant course material supplied by the lecturer, and this
will normally be specified in the instructions for the assignment.
All your coursework should be firmly based on the accepted
theories and concepts in the appropriate subject area. These
are usually described in the standard textbooks on the topic.
You are expected to refer to these at appropriate points in
your report or essay, giving adequate acknowledgement to the
original author through referencing.
You are also expected to support your argument by referring
to examples appropriate to the particular context of your
essay or report, whether you are discussing a country, its
institutions, or its commercial and industrial practices.
These examples should be based on information selected from
relevant secondary sources, such as journals, newspapers,
government statistics, trade surveys, or web sites, and you
are expected to acknowledge the source of this information.
Once you have clarified the objectives of your assignment,
you should then write down key words that describe all the
factors that you think might be relevant. You should use these
key words to search for relevant material in the Library catalogue,
in the general and subject encyclopaedias that you will find
in the Library's Reference section, and in the databases that
index journals and newspapers. These databases are available
on CD-ROM in the Library or online through the Library's web
pages. The Library staff will show you how to search the databases
if you are not familiar with them. The full text of many of
the journal articles or newspaper reports is also available
online, and is linked directly to the indexing database, so
that you can access them quickly to assess their relevance
to your report or essay.
A search through 'Google' or one of the other Web search
engines will simply throw up a lot of information that may
take you a long time to sort and, unless it is from an 'official'
web site, the accuracy of much of the information available
on the World Wide Web cannot be verified. You should, therefore,
search the Web only as a last resort. The exception is 'Google
Scholar', which reports only papers published in recognised
journals.
Sources of evidence may also include primary research such
as the findings from interviews with key organisational personnel,
surveys or information from records. This will only be necessary
if it is specified in the instructions for the assignment,
or if it is identified as the appropriate methodology for
gathering evidence for your dissertation.
Systematic record-keeping: a working bibliography
It is vital that you keep a record of the material gathered
through your preliminary research. Do not wait until the writing-up
stage or you may spend additional hours searching for these
sources of information so that you can ensure that you have
cited them accurately.
The record that you keep should include a full citation for
the source. The correct approach to citations for different
kinds of sources of information is provided in the University
Library's guide.
It is useful to have a working bibliography kept on computer
file or in a card index so that it can be added to or re-arranged
easily. The Library staff will show you how to use 'Refworks',
an online tool in which you can keep your own personal lists
of sources.
Record the following information:
· your own reference code;
· library reference number (if it is a book);
· publication details.
As a guide, the publication details should include:
Author's name together with the initials
e.g. Jones, T. and Christie, M.
Date
e.g. 1996
Title of work
The title of a book is italicised when the entry is made in
the references or bibliography in your coursework. If the
work is in a journal article, the title of the article is
in normal text, and the title of the journal is italicised,
e.g. Computers and Security.
If there is an edition number, it follows the title, e.g.
The business student's handbook. 3rd.
Place of publication
e.g. London
Name of publishers
e.g. W. Green / Sweet and Maxwell
When keeping records of Websites used in your research, in
addition to the above information, also record the full URL
(Web address) of the specific part of the site visited e.g.
http://www.rgu.ac.uk/library/howto/page.cfm?pge=25531
and the date of access; these will be required for the entries
your references or bibliography.
Following this procedure will save you a great deal of time
later on as the file or the cards will contain all the information
you need for referencing and for compiling your final list
of references and bibliography.
Making Notes
Your report or essay must not simply comprise sentences or
paragraphs from other people's work. You need to demonstrate
that you actually understand the topic of the coursework.
To be able to do this effectively, you need to read a range
of different sources, understand them, make notes on the important
parts, and then incorporate the findings from your research
into your essay or report.
Do not copy large sections direct from textbooks, or web
pages. Your work should not solely consist of other people's
work, whether quoted or paraphrased.
Using short extracts from other people's work is permissible,
but only if the extract is in "quotation marks",
and a full reference is given to the source.
In developing your review of the literature, it will not
be sufficient merely to re-state what an author has said.
You do not turn someone else's ideas into your own by changing
a few words. You should use your notes to support your own
argument by explaining or commenting on other people's ideas
or evidence in your own words. Do not be afraid to present
contradictory evidence or statements of opinion. You must
be prepared to analyse an author's work, interpret it, evaluate
it in the light of a variety of other studies, and criticise
it if appropriate.
Read the first and last part of any source material carefully
before spending time on the rest of it, unless it is clear
that it is so central to your topic that it needs to be studied
in detail. When you then read through each source, look for
information that is relevant to your topic, such as:
· statistical information;
· empirical evidence from research studies;
· ideas and opinions by recognised experts and others;
· short quotations that summarise ideas or evidence effectively.
Each individual takes and uses notes differently, but accurate
systematic notes are essential to research for any course
assignment.
· Putting the author's name, the date, and the page numbers
next to key ideas in your notes is essential. You may want
to refer to these ideas later, and it is easy to forget exactly
where you read that useful point that has now become essential
to your work.
· Write complete thoughts, not just key words.
· If you are recording material word for word, then use "quotation
marks" as well as noting the details of the source.
· Do note whether the author's statements are simply opinion
based on experience or judgement, or the results of empirical
research.
· Keep notes of your own thoughts relating to what you have
read alongside your notes on the original passages.
Conclusion
This guide has focused on the approach that you should adopt
to gathering, analysing and developing your material. It is
essential to understand the different sources of information
available for your coursework, how you make use of these sources
and the requirement to acknowledge them in your work.
Further reading
The RGU Centre for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching
(CELT) http://www.rgu.ac.uk/celt directs students to a number
of useful resources, including:
An Overview of Plagiarism (for internal users at RGU):
http://www.rgu.ac.uk/celt/learning/page.cfm?pge=7018
You will also find the following text helpful:
CAMERON, S., 2005. The business student's handbook - learning
skills for study and employment. 3rd ed. Harlow: Pearson Education
Limited.
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