Computer Science 1

How to make an assignment?”

Assignment # 2.

“How to Make Assignment?”

Submitted to:
Mam Sumaira

Submitted by:
Sara Manzoor
(BS (hons) _1)
Jan 21, 2010

January 21, 2010

 Computer Science 2
How to make an assignment?”

“How to Make an Assignment?”

Table of Contents
1. Choose a Topic:.........................................................................................................3
2. Prepare before you search: .......................................................................................3
Before you choose a topic, make sure you know what your final research project
should look like........................................................................................................... 4
3. Brainstorm to get research topic ideas................................................................... 4
4. Read general background information ...................................................................5
5. Focus in on your topic. .............................................................................................5
6. Identify key concepts and add synonyms .............................................................. 6
Analyze for concepts .................................................................................................. 6
7. Restate your topic as a focused research question .................................................7
8. Research and read more about your topic. .............................................................7
9. Formulate a thesis statement...................................................................................7

January 21, 2010

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How to make an assignment?”

1. Choose a Topic:

Need to do some research? Not exactly sure where to start?

Students who are new to doing research often feel some of what’s listed below:

Anxiety: How do I start this project? I feel stressed.

Frustration: I have other things to do. This is a stupid assignment.

Disinterest: I just want to get this done. This is boring.

Curiosity: I know how to do research. I’m sure I’ll find what I need.

It’s normal to feel any or all of these reactions. How you react depends largely on these
factors:

 Your past success or failure at research

 Your general knowledge about how to do research
 Your familiarity with the sources available to you.


2. Prepare before you search:

Good news – you are invited to a party!

Bad news – It is in a different town.

Do you hop in your car and start driving, hoping to find it by sheer luck?

No—if you want to get there in time, you will probably want to focus your search with a
map and some instructions.

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How to make an assignment?”

The following steps can help you save time and lots of frustration.

 Understand the assignment

 Brainstorm topic ideas
 Find something about the topic that interests you
 List key concepts and keywords

Before you choose a topic, make sure you know what your final research project
should look like.

 What exactly is the assignment? Each instructor or course has different

requirements and purposes.
 Ask your teacher questions on parts you don’t understand. Make sure you have
approval from your teacher on your topic—it may save you a lot of anxiety and
frustration later.

3. Brainstorm to get research topic ideas.

Choosing a topic and getting your question right is probably the most
important part of starting any research. Be specific—don’t over
generalize! Your topic must be narrow and focused enough to be
interesting, yet broad enough to find enough information.

4. Always choose a topic that interests you. Use these questions to help you
gather topic ideas.
 Curious or excited about a current social or political controversy?
 Have a personal interest you’d like to know more about?
5. Look at some of these web sites for more ideas.
 Are you interested in current events, government, or something in
the social sciences?
 Try Speakout.com (www.speakout.com)
 Are you interested in health or medicine?
 Try Healthfinder.gov or Medline Plus
(www.medlineplus.gov).
 Are you interested in the humanities—art, literature, music?

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How to make an assignment?”

 Look at web sites from the National Endowment for the

Humanities (http://edsitement.neh.gov/websites.html) or
Voice of the Shuttle (http://vos.ucsb.edu).
 For many other subject areas:
 Try Opposing Viewpoints or the New York Times/College
(www.nytimes.com/college/) web site.
 For other topic ideas ask at the reference desk.

4. Read general background information.

Scan a general encyclopedia article on two or three topics you’re considering.
This will give you overview ideas on how the topic relates to other issues.

 Using your topic ideas, browse the Encyclopedia Britannica

(http://search.eb.com) from the Library web pages.

5. Focus in on your topic.

Any topic will be difficult to research if it is too broad or too narrow. A great
way to fine-tune a topic is to use the method traditionally used by newspaper
reporters—who?-What?-Where?-When?-Why?

1. Who is involved?

2. What is the problem?

3. Where is it happening?

4. When is this happening?

5. Why is it happening / why is this problem?

Be flexible. It is common to modify your topic during the research process.

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How to make an assignment?”

6. Identify key concepts and add synonyms

Analyze for concepts

 Keep track of the words used to describe your topic.

 To successfully search online article databases and the Internet you need
to be specific in asking for what you want—and sometimes creative.

Research Idea Concept 1 Concept 2 Concept 3

I want to know about smoking. smoking

Does smoking cause cancer? smoking cancer

To what extent do teens know smoking teens, teenagers,

cancer
smoking causes cancer? cigarettes adolescents

 Add synonyms and related words.

 List synonyms and related terms (keywords) for each concept. This will expand
your search capabilities.

Example: I want to look at using wind to generate power in Oklahoma.

Keywords to use: wind power, wind generation, wind generators,

Oklahoma (might also try Plains states, United States)

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How to make an assignment?”

Example: Some sources may use capital punishment while others may use
the term death penalty. The more related terms you try while doing research,
the more successful you will be.

7. Restate your topic as a focused research question.

Example, if your topic were the ethics of human cloning, possible research
questions could be:

1. Why do some people and groups oppose human cloning?

2. What is the history of human cloning?
3. How would society benefit from human cloning?

8. Research and read more about your topic.

 Use the keywords you’ve gathered to quickly search in the Library catalog, article
databases and Internet search engines. Find more information to help answer your
research question.
 Can you find enough information on this topic? Do you need to try other sources?
Need tips on search words or how to talk to a search engine? Or is it time to
modify the topic instead?

9. Formulate a thesis statement.

 Write your topic as a thesis statement. The thesis statement is usually one or two
sentences that state precisely what will be proved, answered, or what you will
inform your audience about your topic.
 The development of a thesis assumes there is sufficient evidence to support the
thesis statement.

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How to make an assignment?”

More examples:

If you started Your focused Your keywords Your thesis statement

to brainstorm research might include… might be…
with… question
might be…

Sharing music Does sharing Music, down- Sharing music files has been
files music files loading, file sharing, the center of a huge Internet
infringe on P2P, Internet, copyright controversy.
musicians’ copyright, musicians People wanting to share
rights? music they love are at legal
odds with the music industry
wanting to control the music
it produces.

Sports and Are professional professional Many factors contribute to a

violence athletes more athletes, sports, higher than average rate of
violent than the violence, abuse violence among professional
average male? athletes.

Low voting voter turnout, voter When young people don’t

participation behavior, young vote, their ideas may be
Why is voter
by 18-25 year adults, teenagers, unfairly ignored by elected
turnout for 18-
olds youth, college officials of government.
25 year olds so
students, [18-25 year What motivates some to vote
low?
olds not as effective] and many others to neglect
this civic duty?

REFERNCE:

http://www.occc.edu/libraryresearch/start.html

January 21, 2010