by Sun Meilan

Created on: June 22, 2010   Last Updated: July 21, 2011

Whether you are a newcomer to academia or not, working on a large project, especially if it is important for your final results, can be an incredibly daunting experience. You will be expected to gather together information from a variety of sources to show that you have considered all the angles. Here are some ways to gather research material in ways that will ensure you have what you need and can progress to analysing it as quickly and easily as possible. 

Consider your topic carefully

First of all, think very carefully about the topic you have chosen. You may have a clear idea of what you want to do, but you need to check that you are not either overwhelmed with information or you don't have enough. If you are overwhelmed, then the chances are that your topic is too general and you may need to make it more specific. If you don't have enough information, you may be able to create an original piece of work - but you still need to think about how you are going to build on the little information you have. 

Research the key texts

There are almost certainly some key texts that you will either know about, or will be able to easily find out about. Do some basic research to ensure that you have the right texts; then make sure that you can get hold of them - many journal articles, for example, are available online, but you may need to go further afield to get hold of books. You may not want to rely on them wholly while doing your research, but your professors will almost certainly want to know that you are aware of them and that you have taken them into consideration when going your research. 

Check other author's sources

You can begin to build on your research material simply by looking up the sources that other authors have used and searching out the material. It will broaden your experience of different people's writings and it will help you to develop your own ideas a little further. As these ideas come to you, you should make a careful note of them - you will be able to use them in your final piece of work. You should also make notes of useful quotes and facts that you find as you read through your material.

Talk to people who can help

If you know there are people that you can talk to about your project - either within college or outside, then try and arrange appointments to meet with them. You will be able to gain useful information and they will probably have good ideas of material that you should look at. If you are concerned that they won't

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