research skills

New to research? We have topics to help you master the skills you need for a great university research project.

how to write your literature review

A great literature review is an integral part of a great project, dissertation or thesis - and it's usually worth a lot of marks! Discover why you need to review the literature and how to write your review.

how to write your dissertation

The research may be the most exciting part of doing a dissertation, project or thesis, but it's the write-up that gets the marks. You need to make sure you put all the right info in the right places, and make sure that your write-up does justice to all your hard work.

how to do your research project

If you think clearly about each stage of the research from generating an answerable question to interpreting your data, your project will be do-able and rewarding, and will help you stand out from the crowd when you're job hunting.

how to use critical analysis

Getting to grips with critical analysis is worth doing, as it attracts a lot of marks. This topic introduces you to the basics of adding critical analysis to your writing and how to be a critical reader.

how to start research at university

Get a grounding in the basics you'll need to start researching at university. This topic includes an introduction to carrying out original research as well as researching for written assignments

how to write an abstract

Your abstract needs to tell readers what you did, why you did it, what you discovered, and why this matters - all in a couple of hundred words. This topic will help you to write an abstract with all the vital ingredients.

how to reference

Referencing is tricky: even seasoned academics struggle with it sometimes, but it's vital to get to grips with it, as good referencing is an integral part of university work - and, equally importantly, plagiarising is stealing. If you get the hang of referencing as an undergraduate, you'll find postgraduate studies are a lot easier too.

Research - Study Skills