Basics

Research Skills

Doing Research

© Ann Elisabeth Stevens/Copilot (2024)

When you are in high school, research often means searching for information online. You may feel like you are quite good at it, but in order to do efficient and academic research, you need to practice your research skills. You need to know where and what to search for, and you need to know how to evaluate the information you find, which requires substantial critical reading skills. Below are some tips for how do be an effective researcher:

The number one thing you need to do is to find out exactly what information you are after. If you try to search for a topic like “climate change”, google gives you millions of articles. How do you know where to start? Write down some more specific questions for yourself in order to do a more focused search. The same goes if you use AI tools – you need to define clearly what information you are after, and use a specific and clear prompt.

Try searching with google scholar – this gives you more academic and serious search results

Look at the url address of the pages in your results: those ending in .org, .edu or .gov are often (but not always!!) from serious sources like registered organizations, educational institutions or government pages, and often more reliable.

Remember that books might also have the information you are after – use the library and ask a librarian -they really know their stuff!

When you have found a source you think looks useful, test whether you should use this source by subjecting it to a CRAAP test (see below).

CRAAP

When assessing sources, a useful (though quite comprehensive) tool, can be the CRAAP test (fun acronym, I know!). CRAAP stands for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy and Purpose:

CURRENCY
  • When was the source first published?
  • Has it been edited, revised or updated?
  • Do you need current information, or can older sources work?
RELEVANCE
  • Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question?
  • Who is the intended audience?
  • Is the information at an appropriate level (i.e. not too elementary or advanced for your needs)?
  • Have you looked at a variety of sources before determining this is one you will use?
ACCURACY

The reliability, truthfulness and correctness of the content

  • Where does the information come from?
  • Is the information supported by evidence?
  • Has the information been reviewed or refereed?
  • Can you verify any of the information in another source or from personal knowledge?
  • Does the language or tone seem unbiased and free of emotion?
  • Are there spelling, grammar or typographical errors?
AUTHORITY
  • Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor?
  • What are the author’s credentials or organizational affiliations?
  • Is the author qualified to write on the topic?
  • Is there contact information, such as a publisher or email address?
  • Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source? (.edu, .org, .gov often reliable sites)
PURPOSE

The reason the information exists. Why has it been expressed?

  • What is the purpose of the information? Is it to inform, teach, sell, entertain or persuade?
  • Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear?
  • Is the information fact, opinion or propaganda?
  • Does the point of view appear objective and impartial?
  • Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional or personal biases?

Referencing Sources

Being Systematic About It

 

WHAT?

When we use information, ideas or quotes from a source, we need to acknowledge where we found this information. This is done in two ways: in-text references, and in a bibliography or list of sources at the end of your document.

WHY?

The ideas and information that others have produced are that person’s intellectual property. If we use someone else’s information or ideas without properly referencing the source, it is considered plagiarism.

Another reason is that it makes our text accountable and can serve as a starting point for others to do research. It shows that you have put work into finding relevant sources, and that the information you provide is backed up by other sources.

HOW?

Referencing sources correctly is a matter of practice. For instance, it can be hard to know when we are supposed to reference a source or not. As a rule of thumb you reference the source whenever you have taken information from somewhere. If the information is considered common knowledge, such as “the capital of Norway is Oslo”, you do not need a reference.

At our school, we have chosen to use the referencing style APA. You can read about the details of this style at Purdue University´s webpage about the APA-style.

We encourage all students to use Zotero for referencing. This tool makes it easy to keep track of your sources, and generates all the relevant information for you.

Arne Mjelde Sæther

47 69 59 80

arnemjeldesaether@gmail.com

 

Arne Mjelde Sæther

47 69 59 80

arnemjeldesaether@gmail.com

 

Arne Mjelde Sæther

47 69 59 80

arnemjeldesaether@gmail.com

 

RESEARCH SKILLS AND REFERENCING

➤ Research Skills

○ CRAAP

➤ Referencing Sources