ABSTRACT
This chapter explains four of the basic skills that novice researchers have most likely already learned, specifically those skills that are applied in preparation for the actual writing of the thesis. It explains these skills through the lenses of argument, specifically: searching for sources; reading sources; summarising sources; and writing about them in novice researchers' own words. Keeping argumentation in mind at this early stage ensures that novice researchers will have something to say and that novice researchers’ research will already start to crystallise around clear arguments. The ideas novice researchers will highlight are those that are relevant to novice researchers' specific purpose. A good descriptive summary of an academic source would state, in novice researchers’ own words, its main message in one sentence. In fact, most students think that, in research, they are supposed to say what others are saying, with the only difference being that this should be relayed in their own words.
