You will search for information on the Internet for clients. The types of clients who would use this information can be people who offer course/training material and require course information. Authors who need research for books they write. Students need research on subjects that they do their Masters, MBA, and PhD degrees for. There are many other people who also require research.
A client will give you a subject that they need the research on and they will ask you to find specific data on that subject. My starting point when I do research is to start by doing a Google search on the topic/subject. Keep track of what you are doing; record the time you start to do your research and the time you finish. I normally take a few hours or more. Open a document and record everywhere you look, take a copy of the website URL address and place it in your document and if you find the information you need, you copy it into your document. If you find pdf information then you can usually send the pdf to your email address and then copy it into your document or forward it to your clients for their information. With doing Internet Research you have to sort of think like your client, get as much information as possible from them about what it is they really want, ask questions, show that you are interested in finding the information they require. I very rarely will spend under an hour doing research so therefore I charge my hourly rate when doing this; it can be charged in 15 to 20 minutes increments. Programs to record your information can be MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. It is very time consuming doing research, I normally will do a few hours, and then if I come up with nothing which does happen I take a break and then start again later. It is pointless going on if you are not finding the information you need, take a break and start again.
When doing research for Students for degrees etc:
• Go into Google, press more, then press even more, then go into Scholar. This is where you will search for articles on the subjects that your student is writing their thesis/assignment/dissertation etc.
• Copy information you find into your word document also coping your website URL address.
• With student research and finding articles you must make sure you copy the article references as this will be used within their thesis/assignments etc. Some articles can be copied, some are available in pdf format, and you can send these to yourself and your student in email format. There is often always a link with pdf articles to send via email.
• Here is an example of the referencing that you must make sure you copy with any articles you take with your research.
Examples:
This reference will be placed within their document text. Treux, D. (1996)
This reference will be placed in the reference listing: Treux, D. (1996). Qualitative research method panel: The merits of three qualitative research methods, discourse analysis. Georgia: Georgia State University.
This reference will be placed within their document text. Van der Reit, M. & Boetiger, M (2009)
This reference will be placed in the reference listing: Van der Reit, M. & Boettiger, M. (2009). Shifting research dynamics: Addressing power and maximising participation through participatory research techniques in participatory research. South African Journal of Psychology, 39(1):1-18.
Hope this is helpful.
Written 4th November © Copyright 2012 AMF Typing Services/Tavasa. All rights reserved.
