Effective Information Gathering and Management: A Comprehensive Guide, Slides of Effective Business Communication

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LITERATURE REVIEW

Finding Information

and

how to deal with it.

Aims and Objectives

of this Presentation

• To familiarise the participants with methods

of data collection and different systems of

recording the information

Objectives:

• demonstrate the skills of effective reading

and note taking

• Present efficient techniques of storing &

retrieving collected information

Introduction

• Where is the information to be found?
• What should be done with the information?
• What use to be made of the information

Finding the information

• Follow a systematic process
  • Do as complete and as accurate a job as possible , e.g. page numbers, author’s name, journal’s title etc.

Sources of information

• Library
  • Books
  • Reports
  • Periodicals
  • Technical reports
  • Academic theses Bibliographic aids and indexes:
  • indexes
  • Catalogue Secondary resources: books, journal articles, reports and papers

Library catalogues

• Offered now on computer as well
  • Reference by author, title and subject.
  • Possible to search other libraries worldwide through the internet

Journal of abstracts

• Appear at regular intervals and commonly

comprise catalogues of the bibliographical

details: journal title, issue number, date,

author/title of article etc.

Index journal

• Similar to journals of abstracts but do not

contain summaries of articles

Bibliographies

• Lists of references on specific subjects
• Published in response to demand or as the

by-product of research

• Can be found via the library catalogue

Bibliographic database

• Most books and many abstract and index

journals are now available in bibliographic

database form for key word searching

• CD-ROM data bases are available and can

be searched online

Task

• Go round the library and familiarize

yourself with the sources of information

mentioned above. Find out where the

sources of information are and how you can

use them. You need to keep up to date with

the latest facilities offered

The Internet

• Thousands of pages being added every day, the www is the biggest source of information in the world. However, the content is of variable quality. Biggest challenge is to track down good quality material.
• Easily waste hours trawling through rubbish in search of the goodies.
• Not all information on the web is free.

Types of search engines

• Free text
  • altaVista, HotBot, infoseek, google
• Index-based compilers
  • Yahoo.com, Galaxy, Looksmart, Lycos, Netscape
• Multi-search engines
  • Dogpile, Metacrawler and Mamma
• Intelligent agents
  • Learn from your choices as you accept or reject the results they offer.

Evaluating web sources

• Is the website accurate?
• What authority is it based on?
• Is it biased?
• How detailed is the information?
• Is it out of date?
• Have you cross-checked?
• Have you tried pre-evaluated ‘Subject gateway’? Try BUBL Link (www.bubl.ac.uk/link/)

Search techniques

• Be clear what you are looking for
• Searches rely on single words or a combination of several
• Learn and use standard key terms
• Narrow your search by indicating place and time
• Adding a* to words or parts of words automatically widens the search parameters in the form of wildcards
• Boolean logic is a fancy word for using connecting words

Dealing with information

• Reading
  • To review the text
  • To use context clues and a dictionary to understand words
  • To identify and mark important ideas in a chapter
  • To recognize how authors organize and develop ideas
  • To identify new words and phrases that describe the methods or patterns of organizing and developing ideas
  • To apply comprehension skills to vocabulary and text material

Reading techniques

• Skimming
• Scanning
• Reading to understand
• Word–by-word reading
• Reading for pleasure

Stages of reading

1. To gain quick impression of what the book is about, how the book is structured
2. Formulate the question that you anticipate will be answered in the book
3. Locate the parts of the book where your questions are dealt with. Then look for the answers or conclusions that the author has drawn
4. Record your data in note form

Note-taking

• Use your own active vocabulary and not the author’s reasons for taking notes
• Remember something
• Keep a permanent record of something
• Help in planning
• Reorder material
• Understand what you are learning
• Concentrate
• Show other people

Note-taking techniques

• Clarify your purpose
• Write all notes on the same sized paper or cards
• Set out your notes properly: make a full bibliographic record of the source of the notes
• Use the title of the chapter or lecture to help you anticipate the main ideas of the text
• Keep your own ideas, comments and criticism separate from those in the text
• Sum up what you have written

Collecting and Ordering Notes

• Paper based
  • – Needs no electronic equipment; write on sheets of paper or card and then order the sheetsEach card must include only one idea or one fact or one item or one question
  • Use A4 sheets or index cards and store them in boxes designed for the purpose under certainheadings: key words, author names, publication titles, dates, subjects or aspects of the main subject
  • Facilitates shifting, comparing, grouping, and ordering
• Computer based formats
  • Various database programs
  • – Come with standard program packages such as Endnotes, ProCite and CitationDevise your own using WP package
  • Should be short and on a single topic
  • Should be thoroughly referenced
  • Should be stored under alloted headings Advantages: – Easily retrieved, copied, revised and edited
  • Do not need to rewrite

Essential information to record notes

• The author (s) of the text—surname and first name
• The title of the book-including a subtitle. In case of journal the full name of the journal
• If it is an article or paper in an edited book or journal, with different authors for different chapters or papers, then the title of the relevant chapter or paper is also required
• If it is a website, the URL (web address)
• The date of publication
• The place it was published
• The name of the publisher
• The page number or numbers where the information you have made notes from appears
• Reference to where you found the information
• Might use material from lectures or conferences. In this case, give full details including the speaker, title of talk, conference title, venue and date

Checklist of information needed for each reference

• The author or authors
• The date of publication
• The title of the book, paper or article, or anything else
• The place of publication and the publisher
• If it is a paper in a journal or an article in a newspaper, the title of the journal, the volume and issue numbers, the page numbers of the paper or article
• If it is a chapter in an edited book, the title of the edited book, the name of the editor, the page numbers of the chapter

Critical reading skills

• The structure of the argument
  • What evidence is given to support the conclusions?
  • Is the evidence credible, i.e. does it come from reliable sources?
  • Is the logic of the argument sound?
• The assumptions upon which the writings and arguments are based
  • All writing is rooted in theory and based on values, and must be appraised in relation to these
• The wider context of the work
  • Intellectual work is carried out in a complex arena where power, politics, fashion, economics, competing orthodoxies and many other factors play influential role determining factors in the formulation of views and need to be exposed in order to understand the forces behind them
• Comparison with other work
  • ‘research writing is a contested terrain, within which alternative views and positions may be taken up’ (Blaxter et al. 1996, p.106)