Starting your Research Investigation

So we've spent lots of time finding out how to conduct Primary and Secondary research, and how to turn those things into an essay...

You've got the tools and the talent!

Here is what you need to do to get started...

Create a new post entitled 'Research' and label it with your name and the shortened version of the research investigation project you have decided to do (e.g. Representing Fear Moral Panics in the Press and Online has been shortened to Moral Panics - check the information page for each project to check what it should be shortened to).

Then you need to:

• Find academic texts
• Find articles
• Find relevant video clips
• Find books - yes books, from a library or a book shop!

Post them on your new research page like a bibliography. Explain briefly what the site is useful for and find the author of the article or website.

Photocopy any chapters from books.

Please, please, please use the Media Magazine website - this is a vital resource and I expect to see at least one article from it quoted in your final essays! It is time consuming trawling through it all but then so is the whole of the internet! At least with Media Magazine you know that it is all full of relevant trustworthy media theory. If you can't remember how to use it or how to log in then click here.

Now for the time consuming bit...

• Read the chapters, articles, journals etc
• Highlight/Annotate/Make notes
• Post research logs of the quotations you have found with page numbers and explanations as to why you think the quote might be useful

This will definitely take a long time but is key to the success of this essay - you must show me and the examiner that you understand the academic texts that you have researched. (you only need to label the posts with your name)

Next...

• Choose the text or texts you are going to use as case studies for your essay.

These will be what you use to do your primary research - by the end of this project you will be an expert on these texts you will know them inside and out and you should be able to use them as your specialist subject on Mastermind!

Think carefully about whether they are appropriate and useful for the essay.

I expect you to own a copy of the texts you are using and to have done thorough research into them.

I always think it's embarrassing if I know more about your chosen texts than you do.

Have copies;

Read, Watch, Play, Research!