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Waterford High School Library: InfoTech

Your Information Headquarters

Information Literacy

What Is Research?

What Research IS NOT

Research IS NOT simply an informative collection of other people’s ideas on a topic

Research IS NOT copying and pasting the work (words/ideas) of others into your paper

What Research IS

Research IS seeking answers and solutions to problems

Research IS exploring others’ ideas, but also discovering and creating NEW ideas

Research IS actively thinking about, explaining, and working with those NEW ideas, NEW solutions, NEW proposals, NEW insights and discussing them in your paper

Research IS using existing information, but drawing YOUR OWN conclusions, and incorporating YOUR OWN original ideas into your finished product

Research IS using work from others to help SUPPORT and VALIDATE your own claims

Big 6

Image result for big 6 research

The Big6 Research Process

Steps of the Big 6 Research Process

1.  Task Definition
  •  Define what your information problem is (Essential Question!)
  •  Make your task manageable (Narrow your topic)
  •  Ask researchable questions
2. Information Seeking Strategies
  • What are all the possible sources to check? 
  • What are the best sources of information for this task?
3. Location and Access
    -Where can I find the information in the source?
    -Where can I find these sources?
4. Use of Information
    -What information do I expect to find in this source?
    -What information from the source is useful?
5. Synthesis
    -How will I organize my information?
    -How should I present my information?
6. Evaluation
    -Did I do what was required?
    -Did I complete each of the Big6 stages efficiently?

The "Big6™" is copyright © (1987) Michael B. Eisenberg and Robert E. Berkowitz. For more information, visit: www.big6.com