Tag Archive | "writing research papers"

What to Capitalize in a Title


As simplistic as this may sound, I think this is an amazing find at Admin Sercet . Inappropriate capitalization happens to be one of my pet peeves (that I sometimes commit when writing under distress). Here’s a great cheat sheet for what to put in caps when writing titles.

Print it. Use it.

K. Smith

 

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Use a Bibliography Builder


Often, creating the bibliography can be time-consuming and tedious. Here are a few sites that are in the business of making that process a lot easier for you.

EasyBib

Choose which style you need your work cited to be in and then fill in the blanks from there. EasyBib will put your sources into the correct format.

NoodleTools

NoodleTools is the oldest works cited generators. It is an excellent tool, but be careful to only use “NoodleBib Express.” The others may charge you a fee.  

Son of Citation Machine

Simply select the style you need (APA), pick the source type (i.e. book) and continue to fill in the blanks. Son of Citation Machine will generate a correctly formatted works-cited in a matter of seconds.

WorksCited4U

Select the style you want and follow the instructions. This site is very easy to use and extremely reliable.

 - Online Learning Tips Staff

 
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Using Wikipedia as a Source . . . the Right Way


Although Wikipedia contains a wealth of useful information, citing it as a direct source in any of your assignments, or research papers may not be the way to go. The site is a community effort and without knowing who wrote the article, it is more difficult to judge whether the author’s writing is verified and unbiased.

Here are four other ways to use Wikipedia to write better papers without needing to cite it at all.

1.For Background information: The Grapes of Wrath makes a lot more sense if you understand the dust bowl of the depression. The fighting in Iraq makes more sense if you understand that it wasn’t until after World War I that it became one country under the British. Knowing the context of your topic can help you understand that material better and write about it more clearly.

2.Links: At the bottom of every article is a list of external links. These sites are often articles or respected authorities that you can cite. For example, you could use a few lines from the Woody Guthrie song Tom Joad about his experience of seeing the film Grapes of Wrath in a paper on the topic. There are also good links in the Notes section (which are the references for factual statements made in the article).

3.Keywords: Sometimes coming up with the right keywords for a library or google search is the hardest part of a research project. The Wikipedia page can give you a ton of clues about what word combinations will get you the best results. For example “drought” gets a lot more irrelevant hits than “dust bowl”.

4.References: Also at the bottom of each article is a list of books and articles that were used to put this article together. Those are things you can read and later cite. A librarian can help you get a copy if you can’t find them yourself.

The goal here is not to take Wikipedia as gospel but to use it to focus your research (via links, keywords and references) and get a little context (via background information). Focusing cuts down the time you spend on the project while context will get you a better grade for your effort.

(Source: GearFire.com)


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Tip of the Day: Scrutinize Online Research


While completing your online degree or certificate, you’re most likely going to use the Internet for the majority of your research. Just about anybody can post to the Web, so it’s important that you’re critical of the sources you decide to use. Cross-check your information on several different sites in the webosphere before validating.

Also, if the information is taken from a Web site that has no clear professional or scholarly affiliation, check if the information is supported by hyperlinks to the original source or references for the writing. If so, you should click on these links and use those Web sites as a reference rather than the original site.

Source: Bright Hub

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