Student Research Skills Worksheets

Printable Student Research Skills Worksheets

These worksheets are great for working on library and media skills. In order to complete these printables students will need to intensely research the topics independently. It is also a great idea to have them properly cite the references that they use.

Research Skills Worksheets Related To History and Social Studies

Research Skills Worksheets For Grade 3 to 6 Students

Research Skills Worksheets For Middle School Students

How to Improve Your Research Skills

Research is one of the universal requirements that we come across more often than we think we do. Whether we are deciding which new car to buy, the best fat loss strategy, or authoring a thesis, research is one of the unavoidable processes we must go through.

It can also be said that when we go through research, we most definitely grow through it. Considering its ever-increasing demand, being a good researcher is a must-have skill. With the vast armada of information and disinformation available in today's world, the ability to separate useful from the highly abundant irrelevant material is indeed an art and a skill.

Like any skill, it can be learned, and if you are looking to tackle your woes of not being able to research properly, you've come to the right place!

In this article, five tips are highlighted for your consideration: time-tested tactics that people use and recommend related to searching and researching. These tips will assist you in refining your research skills and, if done properly, will result in speedy execution with less effort. Read on to find out!

Essential Tips on How to Improve These Skills

Research skills are essential for both your academic and professional lives. These skills enable you to identify problems, search for solutions to solve these problems, or perhaps even come up with new solutions altogether.

These types of abilities are necessary for building knowledge and facilitating the process of learning. With increased awareness, you understand social issues and become more aware of your surroundings. If you are well-researched and well-versed on a topic, you will be in a better position to disapprove lies and uphold the truth while building on creating authentic and reliable knowledge.

Here are some essential tips for improving your research skills!

Plan Bottom-Up

When you are researching, you may be initially overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the task at hand. This is a common occurrence that the result of planning ahead can overcome. A recommended planning strategy revolves around starting on broad terms on the top and then narrowing it down into subsections.

Suppose you are writing a paper on a particular event in history. It will help you go through a general overview of the topic on an open-source online website like Wikipedia. It will give you a gist of the occurrence in a brief manner.

Now to narrow down on the causes, detailed occurrence, results, aftermath, and the effects of the event, you can search accordingly in search engines for more detailed articles.

The critical takeaway is to begin research by first getting a general overview of the article and then going into its depth after getting that basic understanding. This way, you will have a mental image of the desired product at each stage and will definitely hit the bull's eye without wasting excessive time and effort.

Verify Your Sources

The internet presents us with various options that are not always accurate in what they say. It is impossible to ensure the authenticity of everything that is listed online.

However, by cross-checking multiple sources, you will be able to establish fact from fiction. This may appear to be a time-consuming process, but it may actually be done through the correct use of search engines and websites with the reference list for the source of information.

Be Organized In Your Research

Being organized in your research pays more dividends with each passing moment. While the attraction is strong towards having more and more information available to us, it becomes a challenging task to keep it in a manner in which we can access it at the required time without making too much effort. Being organized can be done in multiple ways. For example, you can save essential links in the bookmarks section of your browser; this will enable you to access information quickly and easily while your record will be maintained effectively.

A second tip would be to keep an annotated bibliography of research material which you can use at a later stage as per requirement. Another way people keep organized is to make folders regarding different subtopics of your research topic, which can assist you when you need to cite a particular reference. These tips help you achieve optimal performance and are a must learn for the academic researcher.

Do Not Disregard Library Sources

Libraries are one of the best places to do research. Library resources offer organized systems with search engines like Google, Yahoo, etc. The databases available in libraries contain a vast amount of data and information and superior searching capabilities that allow you to verify and evaluate your information sources. These databases come in different forms that are as follows:

- Catalogs
- E-books
- E-journals
- Internet Resources
- Trading Print Resources

So, if you doubt your research skills, you need not worry –there are numerous places where you can carry out research. Several high schools and colleges allow the general public to access their resources. So, keep an eye out for any such facilities in your area.

You can access research guides or gain access to specific databases by checking out the library websites. Remember that the key to successful research is knowing how to use and select appropriate resources that meet your requirements and are relevant to your study.

Be Open

You may come across certain answers that sound surprising to you during your research. To be a good researcher, one must learn to be open to such answers.

If you only look for information that confirms your idea or thoughts, you are not doing a very good job. You would selectively pick and choose only that information supporting your theory. This approach prevents you from developing an accurate understanding of the subject matter. So, have an open mind while conducting your research.

The key to successful research is identifying the problem, collecting information from relevant sources, and verifying your sources. Remember to always be open in your research!