What is InfoSkills?
Discover what InfoSkills is, and how to make the most of how we can help you complete your assignments and research a topic, and prepare for your future career.
InfoSkills
The Library’s InfoSkills programme provides online and face-to-face support to help you complete your assignments and develop the research skills employers value.
The programme offers a variety of workshops, videos and online guides.
In addition to this help, you can also ask us for support by emailing library@mmu.ac.uk.
InfoSkills includes five areas to focus on when working on your assignments, and are all useful areas to think about transferring to the workplace too.
Planning your search will make researching your topic more effective and will save you time when locating relevant information for your assignments. By having a plan, you will keep a record of which search engines and databases you have used to look for information and which specific books, articles, reports and other items you have referred to.
Keeping a record will prevent you duplicating searches and ensures you have the necessary information to cite and reference the sources you have used in your work.
Locating good quality sources of information will help to enhance your assignments.
The Finding sources of information guide helps you locate different types of information sources. It is good practice to use a selection of academic sources in your work, such as textbooks, journal and newspaper articles, etc.
The most relevant resources and databases for your subject area are listed on your subject guide
Alternatively, look at the full list of databases. There are help videos available for each of our databases.
An important aspect of researching a topic is to evaluate the information you find to make sure you are using;
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reliable sources of information
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information which is relevant to the assignment question
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appropriate types of sources for an academic assignment
The Evaluating information guide will help you to consider the quality and relevance of the sources you find.
Organising the information you use in your work includes recording source details and accurately citing and referencing those sources.
Our Referencing guide provides instruction on citing and referencing sources, including Cite Them Right Harvard and the various other referencing styles we use at the University.
You can also take a look at the EndNote software guide for information on how to automatically manage your references.
Communicating information refers to how you structure, write and develop your answer to the assignment question. This includes using the evidence you have located, from a variety of academic and good quality sources, to support your findings.
For guidance on writing essays and reports, you can attend academic study skills workshops, use the interactive resources in Skills Online or ask for advice by emailing studyskills@mmu.ac.uk
If you find there are gaps in the information you need to answer an assignment question you should review the process. Was there another database you could have used to find further information? Were there other keywords you could have looked for?
After you have received feedback from your tutor, decide which areas of the research process you need to develop further for future assignments.
