A recent article in the Chicago Tribune brought to light a growing American problem and put it’s finger on the cause – Many adults can’t research and write and overcrowded high-schools are to blame. According to the Tribune,

“Several Chicago-area high schools have dialed back the paper’s length requirements and instead emphasize the research process and weighing of sources, a critical skill in the digital era, teachers say. Others skip the extended assignment entirely in favor of shorter, intermittent papers, while some allow students to showcase their research with PowerPoint presentations and Web pages.”

The root of the problem rests in time and resources, not in relevancy. Teachers, particularly at the high school level, are overworked and have class sizes that are far to overwhelming to adequately grade and examine in-depth research papers. The Tribune article pointed out that while the 15 to 20 page senior high school research project use to be the norm, it is no longer bothered with in light of easier, less time-intense projects. The tragic result of this…

…students entering college without the skills or know-how to write a solid research paper. Furthermore, students are graduating without the writing skills, organizational aptitude or critical thinking tools to put together a cohesive report on a topic. The adult version of a research paper – the corporate newsletter or the company profile or the product investigation – is going to suffer and hence, so will the individual. Even before adult problems set in, college presents hardships students who did not receive proper instruction on research writing. According to Timothy Gilfoyle, chair of the history department at Loyola University, students enter college without the ability to write a paper over a few pages. Gilfoyle states points out that this taxes the college instructors too, as his history department professors have to spend their time and resources teaching students how to write and then they can write his required 15 page research paper to pass the class.

Results of 400 High School History Teachers Surveyed on the Importance of Research Papers

The argument has been made that the internet and interactive media may be making the traditional research paper antiquated. It is true that society is largely interactive and, especially for people under the age of 30, engagement in media and interactive reference material seems more relevant to them, according the Tribune article. Colleges and Universities are fighting a battle to hold the attention of students that are use to being entertained by interaction, even in the classroom setting. However, in a survey of 400 history professors by the Albert Shanker Institute regarding the relevancy of the research paper, 90% of them stated that they believe research papers to be a very important part of the educational experience in history classes. How many of those 400 actually assigned a paper over 12 pages? 6 out of 10 of them never assigned a research paper over 12 pages.

So is the research paper dead? Hardly. The future for the research paper is to combine interactive media and the traditional elements of research. Explicating will always be an important part of the learning process. What the study by the Skanker Institute illustrates, and the Chicago Tribune article backs up, is that high school teachers are over worked and do not have the time to engage students in the intricacies of research paper writing. Again, at the heart of the issue is funding for schools so that resources are not stretched and students are not the ones to suffer. The research paper is not dead; the educational system is sick and needing revival so that no one is left without the tools needed to advance in education or in their career.

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The Internet provides endless opportunities for the academic researcher to find quality sites and valuable information on virtually all areas of study. However, no source should be taken at face value, especially when discovered on the internet. Paper Masters gives you 20 question to ask of a source that you find on the internet in order to insure that it is reputable and should be used at the college level for referencing. Here is our list of questions…

15 Question to Ask of All internet Sources

1. Who is the author?
2. What are the author’s qualifications?
3. What else has the author written on the topic?
4. Who hosts the website that holds the information?
5. Does the site have an affiliation with a university, government organization or other reputable organization?
6. Does the information appear biased by either the author or the web publisher?
7. Who does this website produce information for?
8. Is the Information current?
9. Is there a published on date for the article or material you are citing?
10. If there are links, do they all lead to reputable information?
11. Is all information presented factual or does it contain opinion?
12. Does the author state where he/she retrieved the information from?
13. Are the arguments presented logically with evidence cited to back up claims?
14. Is the language used on the site emotional or biased?
15. Are there spelling errors or grammatical mistakes?

If all these questions can be answered in a positive manner, you more than like have a reputable internet source on your hands. If even just a few of these questions cannot be answered, you may want to rethink using the information you find on the site. These are all very basic elements that should be standard of all academic research.

Summary of the Important Verifying Elements of Internet Research

Broken down, an Internet resource should have an author that is authoritative and has the credentials to support the claims being made. The website must be affiliated with  an organization that is clearly identified as one that supplies quality information. And finally, the content must be relevant and up to date, free of bias and verifiable so that there is no question of the authenticity of the information.

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Sociology research is ever changing field due to the dynamic and evolutionary nature of the area of study. Society will never be stagnant and the study of social systems, cultures and their role in today’s world and the past presents challenges for research to stay relevant and up to date. When doing research for sociology, the best place to look for the most current thought on a sociology research paper topic is in a journal repository. Journal repositories such as EBSCOHost, ProQuest and the like are invaluable for the researcher to access past and recent articles from peer reviewed research. Paper Masters names the top 10 sociology journals for research papers in order to help direct students to the best that academia has to offer in sociological research. Here is our top 10 list.

1. AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW
2. ANNUAL REVIEW OF SOCIOLOGY
3. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
4. GENDER & SOCIETY
5. INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY
6. SOCIOLOGICAL METHODS & RESEARCH
7. JOURNAL OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
8.  SOCIOLOGY OF EDUCATION
9. HUMAN ECOLOGY
10. LANGUAGE IN SOCIETY

These journals represent the best in sociological research today. They are all well-respected and easily accessible for any college student. Here are a few things to remember about sociology journals and journals in general:

The Number 1 Sociology Journal for Research

Journals are compilations of scholarly works usually published under the auspices of a professional organization. Do not confuse other periodicals and/or magazines (regardless of their title) with journals.  On line journals are generally not acceptable unless they are retrieved from a college or university on line service. Remember that when doing your works cited page, in addition to the normal bibliographic information, each entry must include the library where you obtained the journal.

Using journal references and research in your sociology research paper illustrates that you have looked to the professionals for answers or support of your thesis. It also gives you the confidence to know that your research is valid, up to date and reliable.

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Use the cute kitten method of catching a reader's attention in research papers.

At the onset of YouTube, one of the most frequently downloaded videos was the “Mean Kitty” video by Cory Williams. Cory set off a wave of kitty videos that could make even the most ardent cat fan want to cough up a hairball. YouTube then got its share of “dead puppies” or at least dogs playing dead. When you think about it, neither of these phenomena in nature really warrant the plethora of video channels that exist for the tenderly touched voyeur but never the less, the general population loves them. The lesson to be learned for you and your research paper? Professors can also be lured into the cute kitty or dead puppy syndrome. With a few simple tricks of rhetoric, you to can produce the academic equivalent of cute kitties in any research paper you write.

To understand how to apply the equivalent of the “cute kitty” or “dog playing dead” for your research paper, you must first understand the psychology behind the “cute kitty”. The cute kitty has been used by nearly every blogger, YouTube video aficionado and marketing guru in the Western World because of the simple fact that it appeals to all of human kind. No one short of the pathological can deny that a kitten is just about the cutest thing on the planet. It’s a universal truth. Something that can’t be denied. Same with the puppy playing dead. The trick is to weave this psychological element into your research paper. It’s possible, in every paper, and every research paper topic.

Poverty in America

To use the cute kitten approach, first determine your universal truth. For example, say your topic is “poverty in America”. The universal truth in this topic is that no one wants to be poor. Now you have to take your universal truth and twist it like dirty rag and squeeze out some heart-wrenching take on your universal truth that will tug on your professor’s heart strings. Inciting emotion in your paper conveys to a professor that you have thought about the topic and applied it to what you know personally. Continuing with our example of “poverty in America”, you may want to begin your paper by painting a scenario in which the reader of the paper imagines himself or herself out of work, downtrodden and living in the fringes of society. Or perhaps you can use a well-known example of poverty in America, for instance the fact that 21 percent of all children in America live in poverty. That is 1 in 5 children at the playground. 1 in 5 children at McDonalds. 1 in 5 children disappointed at Christmas. Go ahead, pull out the punches and make the analogies pathetic and paint the scenarios filled with tears.

Now you may be thinking, “well anyone can turn a topic in sociology into a heart-wrenching, dead puppy fest”, but I assure you, it can be done with any topic. Take a look:

• Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War — Universal Truth: Abraham Lincoln Freed the Slaves  — Heart-wrenching fact: Abraham Lincoln thought blacks were inferior to whites and should be colonized in a different land. My research paper would include a cute illustration of former slaves weeping on a boat to a remote island off the coast of the US.
• Cognitive Development — Universal Truth: There are distinct stages in cognitive development. Heart-wrenching factor: Focus on infancy…everyone loves babies. Make sure your paper is narrow enough to explore only the early stages of development. Include pictures of babies, cute, fat, smiling babies.
• Business Ethics – Universal Truth: Enron sucks —  Heart-wrenching fact: Greed destroyed lives and pensions, retirement savings and 401k’s disappeared leaving average middle-class workers penniless. Enough said, no pictures needed.

You can see the trend and note the point. Every topic can be turned universally emotional. It takes a good understanding of a topic to attach yourself emotionally to it, therefore, while you may just be using the “cute kitten approach” as a formula, the professor is convinced you’ve really thought this one out and it has touched you deeply. The cute kitties on YouTube prove that that is what is truly affective in society today. It worked for Cory Williams and it can work for you in every research paper you write.

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College students have a unique problem when it comes to researching – there is never enough time to thoroughly research and write up a quality academic project. Between classes, work and daily living, college students have little time to weed through the plethora of research available on campuses today. However, the Internet presents several advantages for college students engaging in research. Current information, convenient access, diversity of sources and ease of use are the main benefits.

Current information is important when researching for college classes. A professor looks at the relevancy and date of source material very carefully to make certain students are applying class material and theory to today’s research. If source material is outdated, it is a red flag to a professor that the student not applying knowledge to current topics. It also may cause suspicion that the material was taken from another source, an older, out of date previously written paper.

Convenient access is a huge time saver for college students. Wi-fi and internet access is ubiquitous throughout any college town. Every McDonalds and Starbucks in America has free internet access and no one can complain that the Internet is illusive to them. Unlike having to hike to the library, the internet provides convenient access virtually anywhere. Research can be done in a dorm room, a coffee shop, a girlfriends house or even in a remote park.

Diversity of information is a benefit for any research paper that attempts to provide a complete overview of a topic. Diversity is important in source material in order to cover all aspects of a topic. For example, if one was researching Abraham Lincoln, only using one type of source, for example a history text book, one would only have a dry and factual account of the former president. However, by using the Internet, one can access primary source material like an original copy of the magazine The Atlantic, which often painted Lincoln as a very cunning and manipulative politician. Or a newspaper article from his hometown Springfield, IL could be used to reflect on his law practice and what type of lawyer he was. The internet provides diversity that is unparalleled to any other one source.

And finally, the ease of use of the Internet makes it a perfect tool for anyone to be able to write outstanding research and engage in fact finding that was once only available to scientists and scholars at the professional level.

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There are obvious benefits for using the internet for research – ease of access being the most pervasive. Outside of the obvious, there are many lesser thought of perks that deserve explication in relation to researching using the internet. The most advantageous of all the benefits is the learning value that internet incorporates through the psychological process of internet research.

Brain research indicates that memory is greatly improved when individuals are emotionally engaged in the research process. The timelessness of the internet and the relevancy of the search process typically engages an individual and encourages follow-through on topics that have direct meaning or application to him or her. When application and interest match, an emotional tie is created between the researcher and the research. A student is than actively engaged in the research process and invested in the outcome, ensuring a greater chance for quality in the final product.

Introducing research in the classroom has shown not be be effective in learning outcomes (Di Vesta & Smith, 1979). What is recommended is a type of learning called “learning by design”. Learning by design is the active engagement of a student in a project because he or she is required to design the research and the direction of the research. From thesis to hypothesis to illustrating the direct evidence proving the hypothesis, learning by design forces participation at every level of the learning process. The Internet is the perfect venue for utilizing the concepts of learning by design.

Di Vesta, F., and Smith, D. (1979). “The Pausing Principle: Increasing the Efficiency of Memory for Ongoing Events,” Contemporary Educational Psychology, Vol. 4.

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The internet has been one of the greatest tools for education since the invention of chalk. To allow any student to have a repository of knowledge at his or her fingertips supplements the classroom experience exponentially. This is particularly true of the college experience, as innumerable factors drive the gap of knowledge a student may possess. Closing the gap is the internet, with the ability to be a quick and endless resource that equalizes the playing field of depth and breadth of knowledge on any given topic. For example, when I was in high school, I had a World History teacher that was incredibly long winded. By the end of my senior year, we hadn’t even made it to World War I. I lacked a great deal of background knowledge in history when I entered college and found my Contemporary European History course daunting to say the least. This was just before the days of the world wide web and supplementing my knowledge meant many afternoons at the library sifting through history books until my eyes ached and head pounded. Those days can now be replaced with a couple of hours on the internet following links, checking out video and even downloading a podcast of a different university’s class. All I would have had to do if the internet had been around then was download a lecture on World History, post 1914, put it on my iPod and listened during my workout and I’d have been up to speed. The opportunities are endless.

However, for some, the internet, particularly in relation to research and finding academic information on a specific topic, is like being asked to weed through all the food in a grocery store, thrown on a pile, and find the ingredients for a souffle. And worse yet, you may not be sure how to make a souffle in the first place or know what you’re looking for. This is often the case for students that are attempting to find research on the internet for a research paper. They know their topic, but from there, the questions begin to pile up and turn into a mountain too daunting to even attempt the first step.

Paper Masters is beginning a 10 part series on “Using the Internet for Research”. We will be going over the benefits and drawbacks of internet research; how to find academic journals and valid peer reviewed sources; what constitutes an “academic” source; types of resources such as primary and secondary sources; and much more.  Watch for the series to begin later this week.

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Paterno with Sandusky

Joe Paterno is more revered in Pennsylvania than William Penn himself. Paper Masters is a Pennsylvania company and we work closely with many universities across the state and trust me, the reverberation from the recent Penn State sex scandal runs deep in the academic community. Shame is the first and foremost feeling by many. And rightly so. What a horrific occurrence. Someone needs to pay, and I imagine Penn State will be forking it over in large sums very shortly, but Joe? Should Joe Paterno pay with a marred reputation? Is this the way Joe Paterno should exit?
Absolutely! We all love Joe but…bad call Joe. And what is worse, Paterno’s comment to the media upon deciding to retire…”With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more.” Really Joe? You need hindsight to know that turning your back on molestation is wrong and you should do more? Taking responsibility when there is a crime, a heinous crime, that is not being properly addressed or prosecuted is the responsibility of every citizen. It seems clear that Penn State made every effort to keep their campus free of Sandusky but that is not enough. One must think of the community he is being released into. Predators do not stop when easy access is taken away, they usually become more creative. Yes, Joe needs to pay; everyone involved needs to recognize that the victims deserve a voice that is listened to and given proper retribution. Men like Paterno, men that have achieved great heights in their career and have influence in their community, need to be examples, especially when children are involved.

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Personal Theory Research Paper should reflect your current integration of a theory introduced in a college course, with emphasis on how your beliefs and values impact your theory and practice.  The paper should incorporate references to several of the theorists discussed in the course you have to write the research paper for, showing how you are influenced by their contributions and thinking.

Your writing style will affect the successful outcome of your personal theory research paper. Keep the following points in mind when constructing the project. Does the content clearly follow a structured outline with clarity and coherency?  Be sure to adequately addressed the elements of a comprehensive theory and the elements shaping personality and influencing its health. Use clear, insightful, rich interaction with the subject matter.  When formulating the conclusion, be sure to reveal thoughtful summarization and application.

Typically, there are nine elements when explicating personal theory within a research paper that focuses on one particular theory and its application:

1. A delineation of personality structure that drives the theory
2. What is affirmed regarding the structure of personality in the theory?
3. If structure is disregarded, how are we to think regarding personality?
4. Does your theory contain an explanation of motivation?
5. What pushes /drives the structure to produce behaviors?
6. What impact does the past, present, and future have on behaviors in light of the personal theory?
7. What role does the unconscious, preconscious, and conscious mind play in influencing the theory?
8. Be sure to incorporate the theory into the appropriate phase and description of human development.
9. Does personality change across the lifespan? If personality changes, in what way does it change, how does it change, and how does this impact an individual’s behavior in relation to your personal theory?

A personal theory paper is a deep reflection on your own world view from a theoretical perspective. Utilize the questions introduced here to create a project that encompasses all the elements of personal theory.

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Jamey Rodemeyer and his “It Gets Better” Video

Lady Gaga, as the top grossing woman in the entertainment industry, is using her influence to drive the campaign for making bullying in schools illegal. An idea that is long overdue, Gaga’s efforts were amped up by the recent suicide of Jamey Rodemeyer, a young gay boy involved in the “It Gets Better” movement aimed at making the plight of bullied youth known. Lady Gaga has the attention of President Obama and now it rests on his lap to take her pleas and the concerns of Little Monster’s throughout the nation to capital hill.

The matter of bullying in schools is close and personal to Lady Gaga, a victim herself of torment in high school that she states “still hurts today”. When bullying occurs, students live in a climate of fear, intimidation, self-loathing and anger. Jamey Rodemeyer had told his parents and peers that the bullying did not affect him like it used to and that the “it gets better” campaign had helped him. However, the deep seeded depression that resulted of the taunting and abuse he received because of his homosexuality did not leave him. While he left no note, all that knew him were certain his death can be directly attributed to the bullying at school.

Serious, violent crime is reported to take place in 17% of all urban schools, 8% of rural schools and 5% of town schools, according to a study by the National Center for Education Statistics. Making bullying a hate crime is the goal of Lady Gaga and many others that feel the violent crime statistics would sky-rocket in schools if bullying were added to the list. Because children have the shelter of an inattentive school administration and the support of peer groups is no reason to allow a hate crime to take place. Criminalizing bullying would power to the schools and to the parents who feel just as helpless as their children sent into the gladiator pit every day they enter their school.

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