Welcome

Hi! I'm Jess, your embedded librarian and I've created this guide to help you with your research for EML102 Written Communication. 

Each section introduces the steps you should take when researching for an assessment. You'll find links to videos and resources that will give you the tools to find great information. Use the activities on the test your knowledge tab to see what you need to revise.

Getting started with your assessment

The first thing is to make sure you clearly understand the task and what topic you are seeking information for, this is called topic analysis. We are going to look at the question:

Computers have had a significant impact on education in the 21st century. Discuss several key changes driven by technology in your education setting. 

With an understanding of your task you then need to plan how you will search for information. Let's starts with identifying and brainstorming keywords.

From your assessment task:

Keywords Synonyms or related terms
Computer technology, laptop, tablet, device
21st Century twenty first century, millennial, modern, contemporary
Education teaching, school, learning, training

Does your task place any limits? These might be "in the last X years", the level of education or type of education setting, or Australian content.

For guidance in topic analysis check out:

Create a search strategy

When you search using Primo Search or a library database use the keywords and limits you identified above to create your search. Combine the keywords with "search operators", rather than searching with a whole sentence or question. Search operators tell Primo or the database how to search with your keywords.

Search Operator Example
Use AND to retrieve results that contain both of your search terms. teacher AND educator
Use OR to retrieve results that contain any or all of your search terms. 21st century OR twenty first century
Using NOT to exclude irrelevant results. secondary NOT tertiary
Combine terms with parentheses to create complex searches. (tertiary OR university) AND education
Use quotation marks to search for a phrase "digital literacies"
Search for terms with different word endings using an asterisk. manag* = manage, managed, managing, management
A question mark can be used to replace a single letter within a word. analy?e = analyse, analyze

Note that the terms AND OR and NOT are sometimes referred to as Boolean Operators, using quotation marks is called a phrase search, and using the asterisk is called truncation.

Remember: you will need to try a range of searches. Don't stop after just one.

These search tips can help you to find more relevant results in Primo Search and many other library databases. If these tips don't work in the database you are using check their help section for their set of symbols.

To understand how search operators work check out:

Choose the right place to search

Before you start searching, think about what types of information you need and where you can search to find those types of resources.

Primo Search

Primo Search is a good place to start as it allows you to use one search box to bring back results from most of our Library collection including books, ebooks, journal articles, newspaper articles and more. You may get a large number of results and some of these will be from outside your subject/discipline area. Check the content is relevant to your assessment task before you use it.

Library databases

Databases will help you find academic resources and are often subject specific. You will get fewer results than Primo, but they will be more relevant to your subject/discipline. 

I recommend trying the following databases:

Evaluate

Using credible information will improve the quality of your assessment and may result in better marks, but how can you tell whether the resources you've found are credible and suitable for your assessment? Have you been asked to use peer reviewed, academic or refereed articles? Are you using authoritative websites?

The information below will help you evaluate the information you find, in books, journal articles, or online to make sure it’s reliable.

Reading, writing and referencing

The Academic Skills team can help you to build your writing, referencing and reading skills to be successful at Charles Sturt.

Explore resources from the Academic Skills team in the Learning Skills section of the Student Portal.

Here are some pages to get you started:

Your textbook

Good news!

Your textbook is available online through the library!

However access to your textbook is limited. Follow the best practice in the video below to ensure you have access to what you need without disadvantaging other students in your subject.

eBook etiquette

Keen for more?

If you're interested in finding out more, check out the following:

Contact us