Читать книгу How to Write Brilliant Psychology Essays - Paul Dickerson - Страница 64

Olivia is faced with the same essay title, but she is more proactive and uses the the Stop – Look – Think approach outlined above. She doesn’t rush blindly to search a database and doesn’t feel the need to restrict herself to the one that was quickest to use. Looking at the essay title, Olivia sees that it is really centred on the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion – not attitudes or persuasion in general – so her initial search terms focus specifically on the Elaboration Likelihood Model. Olivia realises that she probably won’t find all that will be best for her essay in one search. She knows that varying the search terms (including Elaboration Likelihood Model, criticisms of the Elaboration Likelihood Model, etc.) and refining the parameters of her search (such as date of publication, journal, authors, etc.) will really help. For example, paying attention to some of the recent literature by refining the date range in some of her searches will ensure that she includes contemporary as well as classic references. Olivia also notices that the essay title emphasises evaluation and she thinks about how she needs to find out about the ways in which the ELM has been evaluated. Olivia identifies that there might be theoretical or conceptual evaluations of the ELM as well as methodological ones, and that this could inform her search terms. By using different databases Olivia not only identifies a wider range of citations, but also finds articles that are more relevant for the argument(s) being developed in her essay. Olivia’s thinking about the essay and planning of it are happening concurrently with her searching for articles. This helps her to set up a thoughtful, scholarly, argumentative essay. In addition, by using different databases she has found full-text access for the key papers she wants to include.