Research Summary
This was my first real project in college that required me to locate and use resources that were not all online. I wanted to make sure that I used all of the types of research tools that were accessible to me for this project. As I started learning more about the library system and using their website, I became more knowledgeable about how to find different forms of sources. This research project allowed me to learn and adjust to the mistakes I made, which will be very helpful for the rest of my college career.
At first I was unsure of the specific areas that Britain controlled during the nineteenth century. After searching through some websites on the computer, I found that Canada, Africa, India, and Australia were all under British rule during Queen Victoria’s reign. This was a very large selection to choose from so I needed to do some research to see which areas provided the best sources. The first true research I performed was searching through the Georgia Tech library databases to find any relevant sources that were useful. One article I found discussed the difference between South Africa and a few other colonies of the British Empire. This article was very helpful with my research because it provided a different view from many of the other articles. There were more articles that had some interesting sections so I cited them and moved on. The majority of my research came from a few books I found on the third floor of the West building in the library. I found two very helpful books relating to Egypt and one that discussed European colonialism of Western Africa. After finding the article and books, I decided to focus my research on Africa and the regions that the British controlled. I wanted to look at the reasons behind the British invasion of Western Africa, Southern Africa, and Egypt, and what effect this had on the areas today.
Once I decided to narrow my topic to specific regions of Africa, I continued to look for relevant sources. There were not a lot of relevant books left that I felt would enhance my research beyond what I already had, so I decided to look through a few websites for any questions that I had not answered with my research. Finding helpful websites ended up being much more difficult than I had originally imagined because most of them did not have enough adequate information or were published by unreliable sources. However, one website did provide me with good information about push factors that caused the British to pursue foreign means of income. Other than one or two websites, I did not find the internet very helpful.
Since I had all of my sources, I was able to work on my annotated bibliography. This was the most time consuming part of the project because I had to make sure the MLA citations were correct. Citing the pictures and graphs that I used in the visual was a new experience for me because I had never cited an image or graph from a book before. Overall, my annotated bibliography is comprised of a good variance of types of sources.
When I was choosing the pieces for my visual presentation, I made sure to have a large variety of types of research. I chose to use a few pictures out of one book relating to Egypt because they were primary sources that showed Britain’s effect on Egypt. Another book had a graph and table referring to the British’s influence on the Suez Canal. I thought that this was another interesting source to add to the visual. I also added a Table of Contents of a book about Western Africa and selected a few articles to discuss in further detail. My visual presentation contains different elements that make it very interesting and visually pleasing to the reader.
During this research project I experienced a few issues that were unexpected. I found it rather difficult to find relevant websites that furthered my research beyond what I already had. I also found using Weebly a little challenging because of formatting issues and not being able to arrange pictures the way I would have liked. Although the website took a while to adjust to, it was the correct choice. Creating a website was much easier to see my entire project as a whole.
Another positive that I took from this project was getting experience in using many of the different library tools. I had never used the library’s website before, which became easier to navigate the longer I used it. I was also pleasantly surprised by the process for checking out books. The call number system seemed daunting when I was looking through the GT catalog, but when I actually went to the library I quickly found what I was looking for. Even though I used the library databases, I found that books were the most effective research method. They contained much more information and made it easier to find what I was looking for. When I have future research projects, the first thing I plan on doing is searching through the GT catalog and checking out a few books.
Overall, my research project went very well. Not only did I have a successful finished project, but I also gained valuable experience using many of the research tools that are offered here at Tech. This will be helpful when I have a class that requires me to actually write a paper. This project allowed me to make mistakes and learn from them, which is the most important thing that I wanted out of this project.
At first I was unsure of the specific areas that Britain controlled during the nineteenth century. After searching through some websites on the computer, I found that Canada, Africa, India, and Australia were all under British rule during Queen Victoria’s reign. This was a very large selection to choose from so I needed to do some research to see which areas provided the best sources. The first true research I performed was searching through the Georgia Tech library databases to find any relevant sources that were useful. One article I found discussed the difference between South Africa and a few other colonies of the British Empire. This article was very helpful with my research because it provided a different view from many of the other articles. There were more articles that had some interesting sections so I cited them and moved on. The majority of my research came from a few books I found on the third floor of the West building in the library. I found two very helpful books relating to Egypt and one that discussed European colonialism of Western Africa. After finding the article and books, I decided to focus my research on Africa and the regions that the British controlled. I wanted to look at the reasons behind the British invasion of Western Africa, Southern Africa, and Egypt, and what effect this had on the areas today.
Once I decided to narrow my topic to specific regions of Africa, I continued to look for relevant sources. There were not a lot of relevant books left that I felt would enhance my research beyond what I already had, so I decided to look through a few websites for any questions that I had not answered with my research. Finding helpful websites ended up being much more difficult than I had originally imagined because most of them did not have enough adequate information or were published by unreliable sources. However, one website did provide me with good information about push factors that caused the British to pursue foreign means of income. Other than one or two websites, I did not find the internet very helpful.
Since I had all of my sources, I was able to work on my annotated bibliography. This was the most time consuming part of the project because I had to make sure the MLA citations were correct. Citing the pictures and graphs that I used in the visual was a new experience for me because I had never cited an image or graph from a book before. Overall, my annotated bibliography is comprised of a good variance of types of sources.
When I was choosing the pieces for my visual presentation, I made sure to have a large variety of types of research. I chose to use a few pictures out of one book relating to Egypt because they were primary sources that showed Britain’s effect on Egypt. Another book had a graph and table referring to the British’s influence on the Suez Canal. I thought that this was another interesting source to add to the visual. I also added a Table of Contents of a book about Western Africa and selected a few articles to discuss in further detail. My visual presentation contains different elements that make it very interesting and visually pleasing to the reader.
During this research project I experienced a few issues that were unexpected. I found it rather difficult to find relevant websites that furthered my research beyond what I already had. I also found using Weebly a little challenging because of formatting issues and not being able to arrange pictures the way I would have liked. Although the website took a while to adjust to, it was the correct choice. Creating a website was much easier to see my entire project as a whole.
Another positive that I took from this project was getting experience in using many of the different library tools. I had never used the library’s website before, which became easier to navigate the longer I used it. I was also pleasantly surprised by the process for checking out books. The call number system seemed daunting when I was looking through the GT catalog, but when I actually went to the library I quickly found what I was looking for. Even though I used the library databases, I found that books were the most effective research method. They contained much more information and made it easier to find what I was looking for. When I have future research projects, the first thing I plan on doing is searching through the GT catalog and checking out a few books.
Overall, my research project went very well. Not only did I have a successful finished project, but I also gained valuable experience using many of the research tools that are offered here at Tech. This will be helpful when I have a class that requires me to actually write a paper. This project allowed me to make mistakes and learn from them, which is the most important thing that I wanted out of this project.