Distance Learning Support Kit: Welcome

In this situation you'll also need to first gain a general overview of your topic, which will involve skimming and scanning the material (see Reading to gain a general overview of a new topic). However, once that's done and you decide that a book, journal or internet site will be useful for your purpose, your reading will need to focus more clearly on the assignment topic itself. Reading for a specific assignment should therefore follow topic analysis. Looking for specific information may also mean that you concentrate more closely on information contained in the index compared to when you're reading merely to gain an overview of a new topic.

Tip

When you're using an index be imaginative. For example, if you're researching a topic on sustainable development in Australia, the term "sustainable development" would obviously be your first choice. Your topic analysis may have also turned up a variety of words, terms and phrases so you should use these as well. For example:

federal and state environmental policy
threatened species
ecology
Kyoto protocol

In other words, cast your net widely at the beginning and see what you come up with.

If you find that your mind is drifting or that you're getting off the topic, return again to the questions you initially asked yourself when you first examined your assignment topic. You need to be aware that your reading may result in your initial responses to a topic being quite radically overhauled. This is fine and simply indicates that you are thinking deeply and reading critically. It also means that you may need to return to your topic and further fine-tune your topic analysis (see Topic analysis).