English: Independent Research Project

Bloom's Literature is a great resource for students when studying authors and texts in-depth. 

Developing a strong research question takes time and effort. You will need to keep coming back to the question and ask yourself is this feasible? Use the following example to draft your question.

The question should guide their analysis and exploration of the values and manifestations of their chosen key text. Here's an example of a well-crafted inquiry question for this purpose:

"How do the manifestations of [selected key text] in different contexts and media parallel, challenge, or offer alternatives to the values embedded in the original text?"

This question prompts students to critically examine and evaluate the various manifestations of their key text, exploring the similarities, differences, and contradictions in values across different contexts and media.

Literature Searches Require a Strategy

1. Define parameters:

• From research question: identify key search term
• Use synonyms and antonyms to broaden scope
• Read articles to find alternative terms used in other countries/contexts/fields
• Watch for definitions of key terms - these impact on what you identify as worth examining, how you examine it and what you mean when you talk about it.

2. Determine scope:

• how many articles
• how old (date range)
• how comprehensive/wide will the search be (Australian only/multiple countries)

3. What types of articles: theoretical, review, commentary, empirically based, historical - blogs, websites, videos etc

4. Use databases!

5. Begin the seach

6. Generate articles, begin notetaking and create a reference list

There is no single way of taking notes. Browse these resources to find what suits you.

Join the State Library NSW and gain access to thousands of online resources. They have an excellent selection for HSC studies. Below are a selection of the great research databases that they have available:

TOP RESEARCH DATABASES