UK & Ireland Points of View Reference Centre: The Reference Shelf
In addition to the articles on current topics of debate, Points of View also includes other documents, some of which may be useful as they cover aspects of critical thinking, researching and academic writing. The Reference Shelf is a box on the right-hand side of the main Points of View page and consists of four links, of perhaps only the fourth is worth highlighting
- Curriculum Standards - describing for several countries (but not Ireland), the minimum or required standards of knowledge, understanding and skills pupils should develop at each stage of their progress through school.
- A research guide on debate strategies
- A research guide on starting a debate club
- A link to all other research guides
Research Guides
Each research guide is a short and simple guide to an aspect of choosing, researching and writing up a project or assignment. There are a couple of debate-related guides, but more relevant perhaps are guides on:
- Writing a research paper
- Giving an oral presentation
- Creating a bibliography
- Citing sources
- Writing a persuasive essay
- Writing a conclusion
- From notes to outline
- Taking good notes
- Writing a topic sentence
- Judging facts vs opinion
- Writing a thesis statement
- Choosing a research topic
- Evaluating a website
Each guide is available as a web page (HTML) or can be downloaded as a PDF
