literature review Archives - Enhancing Postgraduate Environments

Information literacy: How supervisors can help students develop their information literacy skills

PostGrad — Mon, 12 Oct 2020 14:59:30 +0000

In order to complete a quality research study, you need to know how to find and use relevant literature, and ethically incorporate these into your study. This presentation introduces you to information literacy, a topic which is often neglected by both supervisors and postgraduate students. It elaborates on the role of the supervisor in identifying students’ abilities in terms of information literacy and reflecting on the support they need in order to find and use information effectively for their research studies. The resources referred to in the video are shared below in the Additional Resources section.

Frea Haandrikman at the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University wrote and narrated the presentation. The material was originally developed for a postgraduate supervision course.

Explore these additional resources

Who might find this useful?

This material is mainly for supervisors, although postgraduate students would benefit from the discussion on the importance of information literacy and where they can get support in this regard. The additional materials would also benefit both students and supervisors.

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Reading for a PhD

PostGrad — Thu, 20 Jun 2019 16:06:34 +0000

Postgraduate students often ask How much reading they should be doing. There is no one answer but this brief audio recording offers a few ideas as to what is a suitable length. Importantly, it argues that you cannot make a contribution through your research if you don’t know about the current debates in the literature.

This audio and transcript offer a means of assessing how much reading is enough for postgraduate studies. It looks at the hours that should be spent reading and the purpose of reading. The transcript also offers links to a number of other resources.

https://postgradenvironments.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/65A-Reading-for-a-PhD.m4a

Developed by Sioux McKenna, Director of Postgraduate Studies, Rhodes University. Download the transcript here.

Explore these additional resources

I strongly recommend watching the video on how to keep reading journal to help you with this process.
Writing resources book – see especially the section on keeping a reading map
Two minute tips – these short videos outline how your relationship to the literature changes at postgraduate level:
Just Write video – this video shows the indivisible link between reading and writing at postgraduate level (Remember the mantra: “For every reading there must be a writing.”)

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Using technology to your advantage: Mendeley (Part 1-6)

PostGrad — Fri, 27 Oct 2017 07:15:00 +0000

This 6 part video series provides an in-depth explanation of how to use the free Mendeley reference manager effectively during your research process. With this application you can integrate all your literature into one platform that can be accessed on any device, anywhere and anytime, allowing you to stay organised. You can also add colour coded annotations to the documents that you read, and seamlessly insert citations with a related bibliography, into your working document.

With a wide network of researchers, Mendeley also allows you to collaborate with like-minded people and to receive alerts of new research in your focus area/s. More information can be found at www.mendeley.com

Developed by Nuraan Davids-Latief, University of the Western Cape.

Who might find this useful?

This might be useful to any student starting a postgraduate degree or research project. Even professional researchers could find this tool very useful.

Explore these additional resources

www.mendeley.com

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Guidelines for writing funding proposals: Advice from funding managers

PostGrad — Fri, 13 Oct 2017 10:55:52 +0000

Financial constraints are one of the biggest challenges of postgraduate students. Many students underestimate the cost of postgraduate studies. Grants and scholarships can provide the necessary funds to relieve the financial constraints during your postgraduate journey but, the application process is very competitive and requires a lot of planning and effort. This video provides advice from funding managers about the preparation of funding applications. The video is supplemented with project worksheets that students can use to write a funding application.

Developed by Ms Joy Nogabe and Mrs Eleanor Van der Westhuizen in collaboration with Dr Henriëtte van den Berg (University of Free State). Thanks to Mr Brian Munro for the video recording and editing.

Who might find this useful?

Postgraduate students and supervisors may find this video helpful.

Explore these additional resources

Download a set of Do’s and Dont’s for Grant Writing Here
Porter, R. Writing successful grants: A 12-Step program. http://www.research.msstate.edu/rresources/pdf/GrantWritingHandouts.pdf

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