The first step in planning for research is to understand what is required of you. As part of any research project, and as part of the research process, one of the first steps is to conduct background Research.
Any initial research involved formulating a search question. After the search question is formulated, we can break it down to identify its different components.
Take for example a Business search topic:
Compare three common management styles used in Manufacturing Industry and discuss their effectiveness. Restrict your discussion to Australian Industry in the last 5 years.
Taskwords |
Instruction words tell you what you have to do, every assessment question will have at least one instruction word. Tip: It’s usually a verb. In our example question, the task word is compare. This means we need to select some examples and make a comparison between them, highlighting the differences. Look at your own assessment to see what the task word is. |
Content words |
The content words in your research topic tell you the topic area. These are the words that you will need to research. Tip: Not all content words need to be searched for. In our example question, the content words are management style, Manufacturing industry and effectiveness
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Limiting words |
Limiting words can narrow your topic or give you a particular aspect of a topic to focus on. |