Taught Postgrad Refresher Sessions


   

 

 

Home  Primo  E-books  Databases  Google  Managing References  Further Information

 

 

Taught Postgraduates - May 2021 Information Skills Refresher sessions

 

Library skills: recordings 

 

The materials listed in this section are aimed at taught postgraduate students working on dissertation research and are intended to supplement discipline specific workshops that were delivered at the start of the academic programme (Sept/Oct and Jan/Feb). 

Our six information skills recordings below, present techniques, tips and resources to help you find academic scholarly books and journal articles, as well as reliable support material. The issues of plagiarism and correct referencing are covered in part 5. Instruction on reference management software RefWorks is included in parts 3 & 5. To access the recordings, please log in with your University of Aberdeen username and password. To access the presentation PDFs, click on the relevant link, then on the next page click on the 'Download' tab. 

 

Please note: materials were created in May 2020 but the information still applies. 

 

 

Part 1: Introductory session - referencing, planning a search, document types and search tools 

 

Listen to the recording (running time 8:12) PDF of presentation                                                                                                                                                                                          

 

Support materials 
Search planning grid 

 

 

Part 2:  Using Primo to look for electronic books, and wider to individual e-book collections

 

Listen to the recording (running time 8:47)  PDF of presentation                                                                                                                                                                                             

 

Support materials 
Primo - quick guide  
Primo - how to do a simple search successfully  
Primo - how to do an advanced search successfully 
Primo - how do I find a book using Primo? 
Ebook Central - quick guide 
e-books- worksheet 

 

 

Part 3:  Using databases to access journal articles and conference papers

 

Listen to the recording (running time 12:30) PDF of presentation                                                                                                                          

 

Support materials 
Search planning grid 
OnePetro - quick guide
Scopus worksheet 
Web of Science worksheet 
ProQuest worksheet
Medline worksheet
Dissertations & theses resources 

 

 

Part 4:  Using Google - advanced search and evaluating results (RADAR)

 

Listen to the recording (running time 8:12)

PDF of presentation                                                                                                                   

 

Support materials 
Google worksheet 
Google - further information 

 

Part 5: Referencing, avoiding plagiarism, time management 

 

Listen to the recording (running time 13:37) 

PDF of presentation                                                                                                                        

 

 

Support materials 
Referencing guides 
Reference management software comparison

 

 

Part 6:  Finishing off - summary, contacts for help and support

  

Listen to the recording (running time 8:40)  PDF of presentation                                                                                                         

 

Help & support 
Information Consultant contact details 

 

***

 

Student Learning Service: recordings 

 

Support material on writing literature reviews and aspects of writing a dissertation is provided by colleagues in the Student Learning Service. 

 

Planning and writing a dissertation  

 

Listen to the recording (running time 21:05)   PDF of presentation                                                                                        

 

 

 

Writing a Literature Review  

 

 

Listen to the recording (running time 16:59)  PDF of presentation                                                                                      

 

Plagiarism  

 

Please watch our short video about plagiarism:  

 

 

 

 

***

 

IT Services: online courses (25 & 26 May)

 

IT services delivered the following online courses on the 25th and 26th of May to support PGT students writing and formatting their dissertation using Microsoft Word. The sessions were delivered via MS Teams. To access the recordings of the sessions you will need to use your University username and password. 

 

Focus on Word... Adding Style to your Dissertation 

 

Listen to the recording of the online session (25 May 2020) - running time 49:51 

 

 

Focus on Word... The Power of Section Breaks 

 

Listen to the recording of the online session (26 May 2020) - running time 47:55 

 

 

Support materials  
Workbooks & exercise files for Word: Working with long documents 

 

 

 

 

 

**********

 

 

 

Taught Postgraduates  (May 2019 session)

 Dissertation Refresher Workshops: Information, Document and Writing Skills

 

This workshop series is designed to support taught postgraduate students working on dissertation research and is intended to supplement discipline specific workshops that were delivered at the start of the academic programme (Sept/Oct and Jan/Feb). Three library (information skills) refresher workshops present techniques, tips and resources to help find academic and scholarly books and journal articles, as well as reliable support material. The issues of avoiding plagiarism and correct referencing are covered (Part 3). Instruction on RefWorks (a reference management package) is integrated through Parts 1, 2 and 3.

 

Workshops on writing literature reviews, and aspects of writing a dissertation are presented by colleagues in the Student Learning Service (SLS). A workshop on using Word for the creation of long documents is presented by colleagues in the Training & Documentation unit of IT Services. Using LaTeX for writing a dissertation (aimed at students in the School of Engineering) is provided by SLS. 

 

All the materials below are all as used in the workshop series presented in late May and early June 2019.

 

Part 1: Starting your dissertation research 

Workshop Materials  

 

Slides from Workshop 

 

 

Worksheet

  

 

Planning Chart

  

Library Guides  

 

Primo guide

 

 

RefWorks guide - Introduction

 

 

Ebook Central (formerly known as ebrary) guide

 

 

Accessing Electronic Information guide

 

 

 

Part 2: Going further with your dissertation research 

Workshop Materials 

 

Slides from Workshop

  

 

Worksheet - Refresher: Part 2

  

 

Worksheet - Managing References: RefWorks Part 1 

 

 

Import Methods for RefWorks

 

Library Guides 

 

RefWorks - attaching a file to a reference

 

Worksheets for individual databases 

 

EBSCO Worksheet

  

 

JSTOR Worksheet

  

 

ProQuest Worksheet

 

 

Medline Worksheet

 

 

Scopus Worksheet

 

 

Web of Science Worksheet

 

 

 

Part 3: Managing your dissertation research 

Workshop Materials 

 

Slides from Workshop

 

 

Worksheet - Managing References: RefWorks Part 2

 

Library Guides 

 

RefWorks guide - Introduction 

 

 

RefWorks guide - Using folders to organise your references 

 

 

RefWorks guide - Getting started with RefWorks Write-N-Cite 

 

 

RefWorks guide - Write-N-Cite advanced features 

 

 

 Additional Workshops 
Workshop Materials - May/June 2019

 

Word: working with long documents 

 

 

Writing your dissertation in LaTeX

 

Slides from workshop: presentation_LaTeX_may 2019.pdf  

 

Examples used in workshop: biblio.bibDissertation.pdfDissertation.texDissertation[1].pdfDissertation[1].texDissertation[2].pdfDissertation[2].texDissertation[3].pdfDissertation[3].texDissertation[4].pdfDissertation[4].texDissertation[5].pdfDissertation[5].texfigure1.pdffigure2.pdfMyFigure1.pdf ; UoA stacked logo - unable to load this - this can be sent on request, please contact s.mccourt@abdn.ac.uk 

 

See also materials provided in the Toolkit at https://www.abdn.ac.uk/toolkit/skills/latex/

 

 

Writing a literature review

 

 

Writing your dissertation/project

 

Academic writing - spelling, paragraph structure and constructing an argument

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://abdn.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=b3b14194-eab0-4d68-921e-abbf0100931c