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| Category: Writing:Tools |
(requires Adobe Reader)
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| About the Book | |
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Whether you need to produce academic research papers at the secondary school or college level, this ebook will help you be efficient and successful. It covers the steps from selection of a topic area, to doing the research (both on the Net and in the library), through writing and editing the paper.
Many reference sources, both in the library and on the Net are provided, along with successful search strategies. The author strongly favors using the computer every step of the way and provides you with information on what you need to do to keep a “clean computer” (avoid viruses and other forms of malware) and how to protect yourself from losing research information. Search strategies are explained. Time-saving methods are provided. Warnings and cautions about where students may go astray are provided in the appropriate places. The “invisible Web” or “deep Web” is also included in the book so that even graduate students or business people who need to do research will benefit from the information in the ebook. More modern and logical approaches to structuring the paper are included rather than the old 3x5 card method. The importance of paraphrasing and summarizing are stressed, along with proper documentation techniques, so that students will not be guilty of inadvertent plagiarizing of material. What experienced instructors consider “cheating” (such as multiple submissions of the same paper) is also explained. Cautions about excessive quoting and why that’s a problem are included. A student who is prepared for the course which requires the writing of a research paper will find that this guide will greatly speed the process and save him hours of time. If he’s faithful to the instructions about saving research materials and multiple back-up copies of each stage of his work, even if he has a computer disaster or is the victim of theft (of backpack or car with his schoolwork), he will not lose the work he has done. The information on evaluating source quality, as well as explanations of the scientific method, an overview of statistics, and logic and argumentation will aid the student in writing a quality paper no matter what field he is working in. The information is not theoretical. It has been successfully used with more than a thousand students over the course of this instructor’s career. In fact, on occasion, some technical writing students had their projects published at their place of employment or elsewhere. Research papers are hard work, but when the process is streamlined and logical, the experience and final product can be excellent.
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| About the Author | |
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Laurie Michel taught college for more than 20 years, specializing in research-based courses. Her straightforward approach to producing academic research papers was successful with students young and old, native English speakers and ESL students, whether they'd been able to be successfully complete research-courses before or not. |