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.

Karen Sonnenberg

Writer, editor and term paper guru. Also a really wonderful person that is available at any time to assist with research paper questions. Connect with me on Google+

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1. Cute Kittens or Dead Puppies? Grabbing attention in your research paper With a few simple tricks of rhetoric, you to can...

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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.

Karen Sonnenberg

Writer, editor and term paper guru. Also a really wonderful person that is available at any time to assist with research paper questions. Connect with me on Google+

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The Cloud is perfect for a college student's music.

College students have a particularly difficult time with keeping music organized, synced and accessible on all devices due to the large amount of music the typical college student has, the wide variety of devices to play music he or she owns and the transient nature of being a college student. I myself have an iPad, iPhone, MacBook and an old iPod (Sick, I know, but not uncommon at all) and I use them all depending upon where I am or where I’m going or what I want access to. To have all my music synced over all 4 devices is a fantasy I cannot get my head around. However, it looks as if it’s going to be a reality, thanks to cloud computing. Cloud music services are perfect for college students in many ways.

It’s an exciting time if you’re a geek and love music. Even if you just love music and want access to your 100 GB’s of carefully crafted playlists and recordings, it’s great to witness the new alternatives that are showing up on the internet. Amazon has stepped out and released the Amazon Cloud Player, a music player that stores your music on their servers and leaves them accessible through the internet, for virtually any internet enabled device to play. (iPad, iPod, iPhone owners must put up with streaming through safari until Amazon releases an apple friendly app.) Even better yet, the competition is heating up as Google has released a “music beta” version of a cloud player and Apple has iTunes cloud integration on the horizon. The emergence of the “cloud” battle has brought about great cheap ways to store and access music online.

Right now, the only real choice for college students is the Amazon Cloud Player. With 5 GB free and a fairly cheap monthly fee rate based on storage needs, the Amazon Cloud player has quite a bit to offer. Amazon offers music storage and playback, document storage, playlists, and nearly all of the features found in iTunes or a Windows music player. In the next year competition is going to bring some great new ways to access music, and quite cheaply too. For college students on a budget, with a wide variety of devices having music, this is great news!

Karen Sonnenberg

Writer, editor and term paper guru. Also a really wonderful person that is available at any time to assist with research paper questions. Connect with me on Google+

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Facebook and Google Face-off in Privacy War

Students beware! Google and Facebook are at each other’s throat with a war on privacy issues that is so ugly it wouldn’t surprise me if one of them accused the other of harboring weapons of mass destruction. Facebook was caught this week “leaking” e-mail correspondence critical of Google’s privacy practices. What Facebook did was hire a public relations firm to target Google’s privacy practices to amp up public perception and speculation on their privacy practices. Not a new tactic but, according to the Wall Street Journal, a highly unethical and sophomoric attempt at mudslinging.

The privacy war is very transparent for those that understand both companies are greedy for the public’s private information to enhance their advertising leverage and domination of search. Facebook as a search engine? Facebook is the 2nd most searched entity on the Internet. There are billions of dollars to be had and the stakes are high to make the public believe their information is safe. So who do you believe and what does this mean for college students?

In essence, no one. Privacy on the internet is as ludicrous as a war without victims. Both company’s possess the best and the brightest in technology today and how to use it for their benefit. Their resources are unlimited and they certainly understand and know the possibilities for data mining of our private information.

So why the warning? No government legislation or privacy policy is going to save your personal information on the internet. Every individual must be responsible for what he or she puts on the internet. College students need to be particularly wise to the trappings of companies like Google and Facebook. A harmless quiz, a cool app or a free offer needs to be looked at with caution. Free is no longer a word associated with monetary value; nothing is without a purpose in the land of Google and Facebook and “free” is just one more way to get valuable information from the victim.

Karen Sonnenberg

Writer, editor and term paper guru. Also a really wonderful person that is available at any time to assist with research paper questions. Connect with me on Google+

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Over and over, the college students we help with research papers at Paper Masters tell us how they don’t get how to cite MLA, APA or various other types of citation standards. Not surprising, since there are over 3000 different ways to cite research, with most of these being variations on the main three (MLA, APA and Turbian). Microsoft Word and various other word programs offer basic citation help within the program but it is often incorrect and not updated with newer standards. What is really needed is a way to organize research and in a push of the button, have it cited within the text of your research paper and then saved to be put in the bibliography. Finally, several great programs have been released that do just this – Papers 2 for the Mac OS and Mendeley for both Windows and Mac users.

The goal of both of these programs is to help you organize your research and then cite it properly within your document. The programs work with both Microsoft Word and Pages for Mac. They supply direct connections to various databases and document repositories and then store your research with an account created just for you. Hundreds of types of documents are supported along with various media types. Find a great video on the topic you are researching for a paper? Load the video’s location into the program and watch it later. This also addresses one of the problems with using various media types in a paper – how the heck do you cite a video from YouTube or off of the PBS website. Not a problem when you use these programs. With a push of the button both programs cite the video properly in the text of your paper and produce the properly formatted citation in the bibliography of your paper.

There is no longer any excuse for disorganization or fear of citation in today’s technologically savvy world. Have a program organize your research and citation for you, saving time and the trouble of dealing with complex citation formats.

Karen Sonnenberg

Writer, editor and term paper guru. Also a really wonderful person that is available at any time to assist with research paper questions. Connect with me on Google+

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There is a temptation to look at the news and be angry at what is happening in Japan with the nuclear reactors. I’m located on the coast of California and the gentle pacific breeze blows smog and factory filth from Japan every day. And now it looks like we will be adding a bit of radiation to the mix. How dare you Japan! But alas…in the future, when radiation level postings become part of the weather.com informational postings, just beside the smog alert and allergy levels, I’ll be slapping myself for my apathy. Nuclear energy is a glorious, short-sighted energy alternative, much like oil. Humans are parasitic, apathetic, instant gratification orientated and worst of all, capitalistic driven monsters. But we’re cute, sexy, smart and very persuasive. We can convince an entire globe that a nuclear reactor on an island, under a huge fault line is a good idea. How brilliant was that Oppenheimer!

Whether you’re a college student, home-maker or blithering idiot, rethink your own values and priorities. Get active and if it sounds like a bad idea, tell someone. Show some concern for the earth, for your health, for humankind and come out from under the shell of “what can little ‘ol me do” and get active. Particularly if you’re a college student. College students have a powerful network and voice in the world because they are the future businessmen and thinkers of tomorrow. And remember, if it sounds like a bad idea – Hey, don’t do it.

Karen Sonnenberg

Writer, editor and term paper guru. Also a really wonderful person that is available at any time to assist with research paper questions. Connect with me on Google+

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Perfect for College Students - Dodo Case

As we all know, the iPad is a must have for the serious college student. But as handy and convenient as it is, a case is as much of a must have as the iPad itself. And one particular case stands alone… the Dodo case.
The Dodo case binding looks like a journal and is crafted by hand in San Francisco. Inside, the iPad is snuggly encased and protected by bamboo.  The fabric on the inside cover comes in 7 different stylish color choices. There is even a mock library card inside with an individual number for your particular case. You can flip the cover around to slant the iPad as you use it on a flat surface, making the case as functional as it is attractive.
Using the Dodo case gives a student the feel of reading a real book with classic binding.  The cover is regal almost and the inside is classy.  It is so well made and the reviews are great. Check out this Youtube review and the video and how the case is hand made in the book binder shop at dodocase.com.
While the case may be a bit pricey it doesn’t seem to matter. Once you have seen the classy Dodo case, no other case compares.  The different colors offer the buyer the opportunity to individualize the inside of his case. He can choose from red, blue,  green, dark-blue, purple, yellow, white, orange, pink, grey and charcoal.  The beautiful bamboo just adds to the beauty and experience of the Dodo case for the iPad.  So if you’re writing research papers or researching or studying on your iPad.. you are going to want to case this in the Dodo case.

Karen Sonnenberg

Writer, editor and term paper guru. Also a really wonderful person that is available at any time to assist with research paper questions. Connect with me on Google+

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The Written Journal Critique is approached in a similar manor no matter what area of study or discipline a college student is from. The following is  basic but fool-proof formula (we all know I love formulaic writing!) for writing a journal article critique.

1. Select an article from a current academic journal (2000-2009) that deals with gender issues related to criminal justice (this may be interdisciplinary). An academic journal is not a magazine, a book, newspaper, etc. Examples of acceptable academic journals include: Criminology, Social Forces, Criminal Justice Education, Criminal Justice and Behavior, Crime and Delinquency, Journal of Black Psychology, etc. Topics of selected articles should focus on a theoretical explanation of criminal behavior. NOTE: Academic journal articles may be obtained from electronic journals found on the internet.
2. Provide a full copy of the article as an attachment when the critique is submitted for grading.
3. Each student should have her/his selected article approved by the instructor.
4. Read the article.
5. Write a critique of the article selected. The written critique should include the following:

An overview of the article.

Description of the research problem.

Research methods used to study the problem.

Conclusion and/or recommendations from the author(s).

Summary of the article (does it contribute to the current state of knowledge?).

Caution: Remember not to plagiarize the author’s work – this will result in an automatic failure.

The length of the written critique will vary according to the article and topic selected; however, a rough estimate would be 2 to 5 typed pages (double-spaced). The journal critique must be typed and the article must be included with your written paper. Length and Format of the Academic Peer-Reviewed Journal Critique: Written Journal Article Critiques  must follow the basic guidelines, format, and style of the American Psychological Association (APA), including a cover page (same as for research papers), in-text citations, and a reference page. The length of the written journal article critique will vary according to the topic selected.

Karen Sonnenberg

Writer, editor and term paper guru. Also a really wonderful person that is available at any time to assist with research paper questions. Connect with me on Google+

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TurnItIn.com begins Admissions Plagiarism Check

TurnItIn.com has been huge in preventing plagiarism at colleges and universities across the country. With a database of millions of research papers and access to all internet based sources, their ability to find plagiarism is virtually flawless. In an effort to expand their services, TurnItIn.com has begun collecting admissions essays. This database will be for college admissions departments to submit a perspective student’s admissions essay and check it for plagiarism. However, there are a few problems with this type of service…

The problems with detecting plagiarism in a student’s admissions essay are many. TurnItIn.com’s  plagiarism detection services are not flawless and it takes time to disseminate plagiarism from excessive quoting or common phraseology. Overworked admissions departments do not have the time to weed through the results, double-check the percentages and review the essay while comparing it to the feedback of the turnitin report. I’m afraid simply stamping “Denied” on the application would be much easier for them.

I would be surprised if TurnItIn.com’s new was implemented by many admissions department just because of the inherent difficulty of weeding through the results. The difference between it’s research paper services and this new admissions service is that professors, when a plagiarism report comes back positive, can use their knowledge of the student to decide on investigating the claim further. Little Billy may not be as skilled a writer as Suzy, so when little Billy produces a masterpiece but it fails TurnItIn.com, flags go up and not much further needs to be investigated. However, if Suzy fails TurnItIn.com, time may need to be taken to investigate the results because Suzy has proved herself in the past. Admissions departments don’t have that luxury of prior student knowledge. Each claim would need to be thoroughly investigated to be fair to all.

It remains to be seen whether universities will use the new plagiarism detection service for admissions essays. In order to avoid plagiarism in your admissions essay, order a custom admissions essay. The essay is then guaranteed to pass TurnItIn.com’s new service and be a quality, well written example of exactly what colleges and universities look for in an admissions essay.

Karen Sonnenberg

Writer, editor and term paper guru. Also a really wonderful person that is available at any time to assist with research paper questions. Connect with me on Google+

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College Students Working at Oil Spill

It goes with out saying that the majority of Americans are extremely upset about the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill. College students are being looked to as long-term resources for helping to clean up the ecological disaster from Florida to Louisiana. Especially during these summer months, when many are off until the end of August, many environmental groups are calling for students to help at a grass roots level all across the south. Just a few groups hoping the College Students will help out are:

1. The National Audubon Society needs help with protecting and nursing the many species of birds affected by the spill.
2. Tristate Bird Rescue and Research
3. Alabama Coastal Foundation
4. The National Wildlife Foundation

College students have been making a difference across the globe in natural disasters for decades. From building homes in Honduras to Teaching English as a Second Language in Korea, college students have volunteered their time and often been first in line for trying to make the world a better place time and again. This time, the need is urgent and the disaster is of epic proportions.

Officials are begging students not to simply drive to the Gulf Coast and expect to help or be put to work. Nothing can be done outside of the various organizations assigned to the massive clean-up project. It is suggested that if you wish to volunteer, do some research first. Find out who needs help, if you qualify to help and then contact that organization. They will direct you where and when to go, and undoubtedly be unabashedly thankful for your time and efforts.

Karen Sonnenberg

Writer, editor and term paper guru. Also a really wonderful person that is available at any time to assist with research paper questions. Connect with me on Google+

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