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Introduction to information literacy

Filtering quality material from rubbish is as important a skill for a researcher as actually finding the original evidence. Watch Chris explain more.

There is a well-known adage called Sturgeon’s Law, which states something similar to ‘90% of everything is rubbish.’

The American science fiction writer and critic, Theodore Sturgeon coined this adage in defence of science fiction, which was often derided for its low quality by its critics. Sturgeon argued that all other fields had similar levels of low quality material, and that terrible examples could be held up from any field in order to discredit it.

In this video, Chris explains why this matters to you as a researcher.

Through this week’s activities we encourage you to:

  • familiarise yourself with commonly used book & journal terminology

  • put a system in place for systematically checking out sources and recording your findings

  • consider why searching out primary sources rather than using secondary information can give you the ‘edge’ in your research project

  • experiment with ‘exploding’ out the terms of your draft title to get you started with your research

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Developing Your Research Project

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