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Context Of Practice 3 - Research Skills Lecture

Disseration / Extended Written Piece.

There are plenty of books in the library about writing dissertations.

Library Twitter - @LibraryArtLeeds

Key words:

Focus & Relevance.

If the title is well defined and understandable, the content will be easier to both research and write.

For example:

"The role of costume within the film "A Taste of Honey" - Is a very focused title and gets straight to the point.

"Did western society ever need cars' are they a necessity and how have they contributed to the formation of the urban environment" - This title is very wooly and doesn't have a focused theme for the dissertation.

Spider diagrams using the words of the title help a lot when planning content.

Use primary and secondary research thoroughly.

Primary Research - Gathering your own original data.

Secondary Research - Reading up on the subject, making use of the research and findings of others for corroboration, disagreement, triangulation, theoretical underpinning, etc.

Research methods:

Visual Practice, experiment, interest & enquiry (research and critical diaries).

Questionnaires (qualitative/quantitative) always draft it before the real deal.

Interviews.

Case Study.

Site visits.

Literature Search.

Books - Use a combination of pictorial and writing based.

Journals

Websites / Blogs / On-line forums

Videos /DVDs

CDs / Tape Cassettes / Vinyl Recordings

TV / Radio

Printed Ephemera

Literature Search 2

Knowing where to look most effectively.

Effective use of catalogues:

- Narrowing and broadening search terms.
- Using related terms.
- Browsing using Dewey Decimal Classification.

Use of contents page and index.

Reading the introduction or abstract.

Book Search:

Leeds College of Art Library
Leeds Metropolitan University Library
University of Leeds - Sconul Card needed.
The British Library in Boston Spa - www.bl.uk
COPAC - copac.ac.uk

Journal Search:

InfoTrac - a store of online magazine articles - http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/leedscad

If at college, click proceed.
If at home, use password - tryinfomarks

Another store of online magazine articles - JSTOR - www.jstor.org - Only available on college computers.

Journal Index - Art Full Text - Accessed via the portal - Library - Online resources

Ebooks - Athens - Get username and password from library.

PDF Articles - Google Scholar - scholar.google.co.uk

Harvard Referencing:

Information is on the Library resource page on estudio.

Tips:

Don't bite off more than you can chew (keep the topic and title focused and manageable).

Create a sense of momentum (note taking, writing a draft section when you can, keeping your bibliography up to date)

Email Chris - chris.graham@leeds-art.ac.uk

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