Effective Information Gathering: An example of how to research an Arts and Humanities Essay

Organise your work

It is important to organise your work from the very beginning. Here are some effective research techniques:

1. Find your focus. Make sure you know what the major focus of your research is and stick to it. It is easy to get side-tracked, and you may find information that is interesting, but it may be irrelevant. You may lose marks if you do this
2. What do you already know? Evaluate and make a list of this information. You can then effectively work out what you still need to find out.
3. What do you need to find out? Define what you need to investigate further.
4. Discard irrelevant information. Be brutal. You may find some interesting information but if it is outside the scope of your report, discard it. If you try to fit too much into a report, it will take the focus away from the important facts and discussion. Be realistic in what you can cover in a single piece of work.
5. Organise your research. Keep a record of all the information sources you have found so far. This will make sure no important information is lost.
6. Organise your work. Structure your essay and try to make it as clear and logical as possible to the intended audience.

Example

1. The focus of Kate's essay will be the Spanish Armada, which was a defining moment of Elizabeth's reign.
2. Kate has a keen interest in Tudor History and lists the following as an area of interest of which she has sufficient knowledge: The major events in Elizabeth's life
3. Kate needs to research the following: the Spanish Armada; significant dates; the religious landscape of the time.
4. She will avoid the following topics: Elizabeth's traumatic childhood, including the death of her mother Anne Boleyn and her relationship with her father Henry VIII.
5. She keeps a logbook of all the information she finds, along with relevant dates.
6. Kate has developed the following structure for her essay:
   • Elizabeth's religious beliefs
   • What drove her to do what she did
   • The Spanish Armada
   • Elizabeth's role in history
   • What Elizabeth gave up for her throne.

Now the essay outline is taking shape it is time to make a start on the research.