College Research Paper Writing

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… Read more…

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… Read more…

 

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. Read more…

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. Read more…

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.

Writing a research paper outline is a fundamental part of composing a coherent and well thought out research paper. The outline guides the writer through the process of presenting each important point in a logical manner. Without a research paper outline, it is easy for a busy college student, whose mind is swamped with facts and information, to stray off the research paper topic and blur the direction or thesis of the paper. Therefore, I can show you how to write a research paper outline in just a matter of minutes. Read more…

I answer hundreds of calls a day from students confused about research paper writing. I know how they feel; I was there once many years ago, when professors had the knack of making writing a research paper sound like rocket science. Research papers on not rocket science and I can prove it with any term paper topic with any specifications. I can outline how to write a research paper in simple, easy to understand terms.

Let’s say we are writing a research paper on rocket science. The beauty of research papers is that they are simply an extended outline of well thought-out ideas in a flowing text. If you’re left brained by nature, make the outline your focus. If you’re right brained, make the flow of ideas your focus. Concentrate on your strengths and make them shine in the paper. While professors look for content and ideas expressed in class throughout the paper, presentation and flow can sway when a lack of solid left-brained research is absent. Likewise, if you’re left-brained and have the ideas but not the flow, a solid outline structure of the main ideas will go a long way towards influencing a professor that you know what you are talking about. Not everyone is gifted enough to write well and explain the concepts of a research paper; however, everyone can focus on their strengths and make the research paper shine in the area that they are best suited for.

Determining the approach of a research paper is nearly as important as developing the topic. The approach of a research paper is the way in which you plan to deliver your thesis. For example, you may take a satirical approach or an informative approach. The approach should match the tone of your topic and the tone of the goal of your topic. If your goal is to convince your reader that you are an expert on a topic and your research paper is meant to inform them, you may not want to use a satirical approach since satire is not connotative of a serious approach to a topic. Read more…

Since Paper Masters is all about making life easier for the college student, we get pretty excited when something new comes out that is destined to change the playing field for students. Yesterday, January 26th, Apple announced the launching of its latest stroke of genius, the iPad. The iPad is a step up from the iTouch but not quite a mac book. Apple touts it as an e-reader, an app platform, e-mail client, web browser and photo viewer. What we are so excited about is the e-reader and app platform on the iPad, destined to be perfect for many student related activities, such as note-taking, text-book access and organizing class information.

First and foremost, Apple is working with textbook companies such as McGraw-Hill to provide textbooks on the iPad through their iBook Store. This will be a substantial savings to students and convenience, as the iPad will have numerous capabilities of highlighting, inserting notes and copying important text to a notepad. Toss the backpack and have all your texts in one place! Read more…

Google has just made finding sources a ton easier for college students working on a research paper. Hopefully you are familiar with Google books, Google’s great feature that provides 1.5 million books for free online. Google has 5.5 million more books scanned, searchable and waiting for the go ahead from the Justice Department to implement selling books online. The cool part of Google’s goals in selling books online is search factor that will go along with every book they offer, free or otherwise. Google is making all its e-books .html capable, meaning that you can copy and paste from books, put snippets of books on a blog and search flawlessly through content without ocr restrictions.

Google books is a great service, offering hundreds of thousands of books online for free viewing. Keep an eye on their services as an invaluable tool for research results. As a student, your time is valuable and finding great resources for research papers from your computer at home instead of having to go to the library is invaluable.

Google books are also available via Barnes and Noble eReader called Nook. The Nook is a great way to access Google Books and many of them are free to download for the Nook. You have the ability to carry around any Google Book in your backpack, without an internet connection! Fabulous for students and great for having available for note taking.

Hats off to Google Books for making their educational materials so accessible for college students. While Google gets a bad rap for many of the information gathering and privacy issues that they overstep their bounds with, they are frequently ahead of the game on providing educational materials and print to the public with astounding altruism.