LearnEnglish Professionals - Exam and Study Skills

Study and Exams

Read: Study tips
Listen: Finding information

finding and using information

Read the study tips below and check how well you have understood.  Click here to match these words from the text to their meanings.

Look at these tips on finding and using information from the internet.

Using a search engine to find information is the first and most obvious thing to do.  However, many thousands of results may be returned, and you will need to spend some time looking through all the information to find out what exactly is relevant to you, and which is reliable.
As well as websites, look at the sites of newspapers, magazines and journals.  Many newspapers have their own search facilities which may be more accurate.  If you can find a journal that is specifically relevant to your subject, even better.  For some of these, you may be asked to register and pay a subscription – evaluate for yourself if it’s worth it or not.  If it is a service that you will be using frequently, it may be worth it.
Remember that the internet is also a community”, and not just a library”.  Check out any usergroups or forums that are relative to your subject.  Often, posting a question on one of these forums can get an answer very quickly.

Dos

Do try and use a reliable source.  It can be difficult to identify a good or reliable website, but remember that websites affiliated to large organisations are reliable, and ones that are clearly homemade are to be treated more carefully.  Papers from sites with ac” or edu” in their url are from institutes of education.
Do try to use more than one source to verify information.
Do check the date of the information.
Do try to contact the owner of the site or webmaster to have a personal contact with the author of the article you want to use.
Always quote the sources of the information you use in your finished article, report or presentation.
Always go back to a print version if one is available.

Don’ts

Don’t quote verbatim.
Don’t only use one source.
Never assume everything you find is true.
Don’t use information that’s been around a long time.

Now look at the article again and decide if some statements about the article are true or false.  Click here to do this activity .

Click here to Play the Writing Game - complete these paragraphs from the article.  You decide how difficult you want to make it and you can listen again to the lecture.

DCSIMG

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