The Essential Guide to Using the Web for Research

In recent years, the internet has provided students and researchers with fantastic opportunities and a distinct set of challenges. In his new book, Nigel Ford shows how these opportunities and challenges impact on student research projects and explains the skills needed to navigate the web and use it effectively, emphasizing independent learning and the ability to critically assess information and transform it into effective evidence.

In connecting these online skills to the research process, Ford helps students to understand and answer research questions, construct an argument and present their evidence.

The book includes sections on:

• beginner and advanced search techniques

• assessing online information

• organising and storing information

• social networking sites and other online tools

• referencing, copyright and plagiarism.

As well as providing all of the basic techniques students need to use the internet as a research tool, this book will also help them to convert their online findings into a well structured, high quality research project.

Nigel Ford is Professor in the University of Sheffield′s Information School.