This document provides guidance on researching for academic essays. It recommends choosing a topic you are interested in and not worrying if it is too broad, as you can focus on specific areas. There are no set rules on the number of references needed - quality is more important than quantity. References should be used to back up your own statements and opinions, citing experts and research. The document then gives tips on finding good sources like academic journals, newspapers and websites, and using effective search terms related to the topic. It emphasizes allowing yourself to read across disciplines but being clear about the context.

1. GUIDE TO RESEARCHING
Louise Sopher
Sp07, Warwick Sociology Grad

2. PRINCIPLES OF ACADEMIC ESSAYS
• If choosing a topic:
• Don’t worry about whether or not it is too big. You can always focus on only one or two areas of that topic
• Pick anything you are interested in. You will have to sit through hours of reading!
• There is no official guide on how many references should be in an essay. Some tutors for some subjects
will tell you 6 per 2,000 words. For other subjects, or with other tutors, it’s 1 per 100 words. My advice?
Stop counting! Start writing.
• If you write a good essay, or more importantly if you use your references well, it doesn’t really matter how many
references you have. See the next slide for more on this.

3. HOW TO USE YOUR REFERENCES WELL
Remember this:
• When writing essays, we are unqualified academics. So:
• When stating something, who says we’re right?
• Someone else has probably said the same thing in another way.
• Someone else has probably done some research that ‘proves’ this might be true.
• Someone famous, someone respected, or someone with titles to their name has probably expressed
an opinion we want to use.
• Quote them.

4. START WITH IDEAS

5. START THINKING ABOUT WHERE TO GET
YOUR INFORMATION FROM
PRF & MEMORIES
FROM THE JOB
WILL GOOGLE WILL GOOGLE
WILL USE
TEXTBOOKS
WILL FIND
NEWSPAPER
ARTICLES

6. GOOD SOURCES
• Good sources to use are:
• Academic ones – journal articles, textbooks
• Quality Newspapers (The Times, The Telegraph) for furthering your argument
• Relevant Websites (East of England Ambulance Service, PatientUK, GOV UK, Kings Fund, HSE & other sites like
charities for specific medical conditions)
• Using a combination of good sources in your essay make it look better. It shows that you have read
around i.e. you haven’t just stuck with what your JRCalc tells you, and you are up to date on your
topic.
• To prove that you are up to date on your topic, you can also use recent news articles or quote
organisations that so happen to mention, say, the number of calls the ambulance service are currently
receiving to chest pain, if you’re writing about chest pain.

7. FINDING GOOD SOURCES: TAGS
• Google is a search engine that picks up on titles of pages as well as
whatever they are tagged with
• What do I mean by tags? Have a look at the next slide

8. Common words or
phrases in a book
on Google Books
The NICE website allows you to search
for titles of guidance sections & also
tags. Search diabetes for example and
you will be able to select a ‘diabetes,
pregnancy’ tag. That is not the title of the
guidance

9. All blogs and articles contain tags.
Tags make it easier to find them.

10. NOW THAT YOU KNOW THIS, YOU CAN
START TO GOOGLE BETTER

12. LETS GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAN GET
YOUR INFORMATION FROM
PRF & MEMORIES
FROM THE JOB
WILL GOOGLE
WILL USE JOURNAL
ARTICLES
WILL USE
NEWSPAPER
ARTICLES
WILL USE
TEXTBOOKS

13. FINDING JOURNAL ARTICLES AND
TEXTBOOKS
• It is easiest to use Google as suggested on the slides before, but you can also search on these websites:
• Books.google.com
• Openathens.net
• Jstor.org
The problem with using sites like openathens is that you will not be able to access all content with the login the
Trust (or the university) provides for you.
Google Books & Amazon tend to show you limited free previews of books. TIP: Occasionally it may be worth
checking both Google Books & Amazon for the same book to see how much of it you are allowed to read. You can
also try refreshing the page, or opening the link through a different web browser (Firefox instead of Chrome, for
example) if Google is telling you that you are only allowed to read a certain number of pages. If you open it in
another browser and start reading from page 20, it doesn’t know you’ve already read 20 pages!

14. TIPS FOR WHAT TO SEARCH
• Your topic is about treating chest pain?
• Search for national chest pain guidelines, Trust specific guidelines, and
guidelines relating to your role (EMT, Paramedic etc)
• Search for PPCI criteria. You could even search for PPCI criticism
• Find success stories
• Find stories about failures
• Find statistics about the number of calls we get to chest pains, and the
prevalence of Mis.

15. TIPS FOR WHAT TO SEARCH
• Your topic is partly about communication?
• Try searching for journal articles on communication with healthcare
professionals
• Try searching for the same thing from the patient’s perspective (newspaper
articles, blogs, websites etc)
• Try searching for our guidelines
• Try searching for charities that offer training & quote their reasons for it
• Try searching for information relating to your role:
• Healthcare Student + communication/Newly qualified + communication
• Paramedic + communication

16. TIPS FOR WHAT TO SEARCH
• Your topic is partly about decision making?
• Try searching for guidelines
• Search for information relating to your specific role (students/newly qualified
vs those with experience)

17. GENERAL TIPS
• Allow yourself to read up on different disciplines (nursing, etc) but be
open about it in your essay, e.g. ‘although this refers to nursing, the
same problem could be said to apply to our profession’)
• Write it in the right way, and you can say pretty much anything. Want to
input your opinion without making a statement?
• ‘It could be argued’
• Then find some research to back up your argument. Say, ‘in fact, this research
appears to agree’

18. MORE TIPS
• Make a point
• Back it up
• Conclude your point (Point, Evidence, Explanation)