Writing Planning

The first task of this semester involved reading and preparing our research topic for the book that we will be writing as a class. After going through this task in detail I have split my approach into sections.

Section 1

This section involved evaluating my selected research topic.

I have chosen the chapter titled “Why Humans Play Games”, I chose this chapter because I was drawn to the title and I myself wanted to delve further and understand the scientific and psychological reasons  behind this.

 

I was then tasked with delving further into this chapter by narrowing down this broad topic, identifying an intersection and relationship in the topic that can be further discussed and then defining the section that I will be choosing to engage with the most.

The intersection I have found and will further develop is called the immersion component. This involves creating and customizing a character to play in the unique story of the game as well as wanting to create an escape from real-life. More about this component and other components can be read here

 

Section 2

This section involved creating a search strategy

When it comes to researching information, it is important to have multiple keywords and buzzwords to use when research. I’ve learnt that it is simply not enough to directly enter the research question into the search bar. Instead, it is advised to use synonyms and identify keywords in the question, using search strings can also provide useful.  Another useful tool I learnt is looking at the reference list of articles related to the chosen research topic because oftentimes they will provide more resources that can be used. An example of how I implemented this in my research is by rephrasing the chapter title. Instead of using the original phrase of “Why do humans play” I Rephrased this in two ways “ The psychology of games”  and “Reasons People Game” by doing this I was able to access a broader range of results that that I would have if  had just used the original chapter title.

 

Section 3

This section involved citation management

I had very little knowledge of citation managers prior to this week reading, I often stayed away from them because I often found the idea of using them daunting and complicated.

I have now learnt that there are many advantages to using them, some of these included time management and saving time as it will be quicker to cite sources, particularly in long documents, it can also allow for consistent referencing throughout the work.  I have started completing tutorials and improving my knowledge of the reworks citation manger.

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