Guide to researching your essay
An essay is a short literary composition. When writing essays you should provide evidence to support your ideas. You should always check grammar and writing style before submitting an essay.
There are books written on just about every conceivable subject which can be borrowed from your local library. However, depending on the subject matter of your essay, a library may be of limited use. Other sources of information include magazines, newspapers and journals. These have the advantage of always being current and many libraries carry a limited number of back copies. If you can’t find what you want at the library you can try accessing the magazine or newspaper’s website as they will often have archives of back copies. Television programmes can also be used as a source and Open University programmes or documentaries can provide useful information.
If you are writing an essay on a particular company or institution then if you contact their press office they may be prepared to send you information that will be useful for your essay. Public relations are important to many companies and you might even be able to arrange a tour of the company or an interview with one of the managers.
The internet can also be used as it contains huge amounts of information. You can use a search engine to find documents on the topic that you are interested in. Sources such as Wikipedia can be very useful. However, be aware that not all internet sources are reliable.
Once you have obtained all the information required you will need to sift through it and discard anything that is not relevant. If you are using direct quotes from any material it is important to make a note of the source so that you can properly cite it in your finished essay. When this process is complete you are ready to go on to the next stage of writing your essay.
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