Finding information for Post Module Assignments

An example of a title of a Post-Module Assignment which you might be asked to undertake is:

"The environmental properties of materials that are used to make consumer goods, from mobile phones to cars, are becoming increasingly important in today's society. Select an everyday consumer product (or component of a product) and critically discuss the environmental issues associated with the manufacture, use and disposal of the item, making reference to legislation and consumer pressures as appropriate. In your discussions, consider both the materials used at present and any possible more "environmentally friendly" options."

This example question is used as part of this tutorial to demonstrate how you can develop a good search strategy. To go straight to that section of the tutorial, click on "Developing a search strategy" in the left-hand panel menu. However it would be worth reading through the sections on Finding books and journals and on Bibliographic databases before you do this.

The research process

For Post-Module Assignments (and also later for your dissertation) you will need to show that you can carry out research on a topic, survey the literature and critically assess it. Although your lecturers will probably have given you lecture notes and other resources relating to the module, the PMA question is likely to require you to research a topic more widely or deeply, using information beyond that provided in the course notes, and you will be expected to read round your subject and find additional reliable and up-to-date published information for yourselves. Although books are a useful starting-point, your research will involve searching primarily for journal articles and conference proceedings but, depending on your topic, you might also need statistics, newspaper articles and government publications. You might also find information on the Internet but you cannot always rely on the quality of this.

Tutorial aims and learning outcomes

Aim:

To improve your understanding of the literature searching process for finding quality information.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this tutorial you should:

• be confident about using the Library catalogue to find books and journals and e-resources
• understand the importance of bibliographic databases
• be able to develop an effective search strategy
• have carried out a search using the EI Engineering Village platform and found some relevant results
• be able to access the full text of e-resources held by the Library
• be able to transfer your expertise when searching other databases
• be aware of other useful sources of information