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This particular presentation will require a certain amount of research to be completed over the course of a week before you present your chosen topic. Research skills are important and can be used to help you prepare and revise for other exams but only if you approach them in the right way. The following lists of things to do and things not to do should help you to approach your research in the most productive way possible.

Things to do

1. Make sure you are fully equipped before you begin your research; you will need a notepad, pen and highlighters.
2. Before you begin your research, make sure you are certain which topic you are going to be covering in your individual presentation. You do not want to spend hours researching one topic, only to change your mind later.
3. Make headings under which you write your notes. This will help you to remain organised and save you time when you begin to write your actual presentation. For example, if your chosen topic is Wales, all notes on the geography of the country should be written in one place.
4. If you make your notes on a PC or laptop make sure you save your work regularly.
5. Your research should be an activity where you remain fully engaged and alert, not simply one where you endlessly make notes without thinking about what you write. Consider carefully what you read and only make notes on the facts that you think are important.
6. Make a note of where your information came from, such as the web address or book title, just in case you need to go back and check something at a later date.

Things not to do

1. Don’t simply print off huge amounts of information from the internet and convince yourself that you have completed lots of research. It is important to read the information on the internet carefully and only use the details that you think are relevant to your presentation.
2. Don’t just photocopy pages or copy facts down from a book. Make sure you highlight the passages that will help you with your research and create your own notes from this. You must have a clear idea of what you are looking for before you begin your research.
3. Be careful about which internet sites you use. Some are written by students as projects and they might not be completely accurate. Try to use trusted ones or ones hosted by a well-known provider.

These tips should help to ensure you are fully prepared as you go about completing your research. The most important thing to remember is to make plenty of useful notes but not to have too much information that you have simply copied out or printed from the internet. Information overload can be just as off-putting as having too few notes.