Ideas for an Issue
There are many sources to look for issues. Try some of the following for inspiration:
- Teacher / news / headlines / others
- Current environmental / social issues
- The Age: Education lift-out (in Monday's editions)
- Hot Topics
Issues
Where do I go first?
An issue is a point or matter of discussion, debate, or dispute
. There is no clear-cut right or wrong answer with an issue. When discussing an issue, both sides of the arguement should be presented. One way to discuss an issue is to take on a persona
of one of the parties involved.
Choose a Search Term
When researching the issues, many sorces of information can be missed because you did not look in the right places. Try thinking about the following before you go looking:
- What is the subject heading?
- What are related search terms?
- Use a thesaurus for similar words
- Brainstorm on a piece of paper all the words related to the issue
How to Find Articles
There are many sources of information to look at. Use at least two of the following (make sure you note the source, so you can quote it in your bibliography):
- Current environmental / social issues - in print
- The Age archive on the computer
- Databases on the computer
- Mediascan on the computer
- Newscan in print and on the computer
Different Types of Articles
Be aware that there are different types of articles written for newspapers. The following is a list of some of the major types and the codes that are refered to in Newscan and Mediascan:
- (E) - Editorial > An article written discussing various points in an issue
- (L) - Letter > A comment from a reader
- (C) - Cartoon > A graphic depiction of one point of view
- (Op) - Opinion > A remark on an issue, usually from one side only
What Do I Need
Now that you have identified your sources you must examine them. You must take some time and carefully go over your articles. The following points highlight how you can do this (do not forget to write the publisher's name and date of publication on the article):
- Borrow old issues of the newspapers (you will need a library card for this) and photocopy the relevant pages (you will need a photocopy card for this)
- Print out the web page