Get an overview before you begin

Many people are tempted just to use their existing knowledge in their essays and reports - so start planning their essays before they do any research.

But if you don`t really know a subject that well, how do you know what the main sections are going to be? What if the subject is fast changing (any form of technology usually is) - are you sure you really know the current situation?

You should aim to get a good overview of a subject before you begin planning.

An easy way to do this is to go to Wikipedia (Link) and visit the page of the subject your are looking at. Once you`ve read the page itself, then visit the pages of the different concepts that were mentioned (the words should be hyperlinked to their pages) many of which you will not have heard of/understood. Make sure you repeat this with every concept on the original page until you understand everything that is mentioned.