Academic Writing Success - Simple Literary Research Strategies

There is an academic community, often forgotten in faculty circles, which I have great admiration for: librarians. Think about how their work has changed over the last 30 years. Their world has changed dramatically from the people who worked re-shelving books in the stacks, typing bibliographic card entries and maintaining order in the card catalog drawers. Even the name of their role has changed: they are now considered "library and information science specialists."

Their tools are no longer cards, paper slips and typewriters: instead they master online and computer based searching, ready to guide us into the riches they can retrieve.

There are tiers of what they can do for the academic in need: they can provide bibliographic trails for your projects, with notes- they can help provide lists of references you can use to help write articles, chapters, and books. As you delve deeper into their skills, they can do even more- for example, they can help you learn and operate online bibliographic databases, such as Refworks, EndNote, etc. There are so many different ways that these under-recognized experts can provide assistance: they are experts who deserve far more attention than they customarily receive.

Library and information science specialists also have a macro and micro perspective of resources, databases, archives, and serial publications of which we cannot dream. In one of my specialty fields alone, distance learning, the number of new journals which emerge annually is staggering. And yet such changes do not fluster these master resource tamers! It is because of them that we have such fabulous reference management tools available to us at any computer connected to the Web.

Scanning the websites of major universities and colleges across the USA, it is easy to see that many libraries have brought bibliographic format and tools to the forefront of their services. When one considers the nature of our work as faculty engaged in research and publication, it would serve us well to benefit from a perspective and skill upgrade in this area. Bibliographic support is an area in which faculty will experience a quick return on time invested.

Simple Research Organizational Strategies

Documenting Your Research Trail

One of the basic strategies I have developed over the years is to open an extra MSWord document when I am doing research and to copy and paste resources I view (articles, and books I find) along with brief notes about my reading in them or key points I recognize in them immediately.

This strategy basically provides a digital transcript of your search without retyping information and has many efficiency boosting benefits.

• When assembling references one does not have to spend another 30 minutes re-locating cited publications to access complete reference details.
• The written notes provide a permanent record which prevents small details from slipping through the cracks of our busy minds, and may help trends and patterns "bubble up" to the surface.
• Quickly scanning the pages of our research can help us quickly and accurately identify areas we have not yet investigated. Thus, we are able to develop a comprehensive final literature review more efficiently.
• Sometimes these research trails may be used to extract helpful bibliographic resources, course guides, or reference guides for our classes.

I have recently learned that many lawyers conduct their research in this same manner. If you do not already do something like what I describe here, I highly recommend you give it a try. This process has a high return on investment of our time and effort as it is a simple way to the research trail and notes with many immediate and long lasting benefits.

Online Reference Management Software

The next tool to add to your writing and research tool bag is the use of online reference management software, which really serves as your personalized bibliographic database! The first step is to check with your library or instructional technology department to determine if they have a site license for you to use, and for which program. This strategy provides you with a powerful and efficient tool for free (and as academics we love free resources). Once you determine if and what online tool you have available through your institution, check it out online and look at the tutorials. Also ask if your college/university has in person training sessions to guide you through setting up your database most efficiently.

The reason you want to use one of these online reference tools is that they provide the means to store, organize and retrieve your growing body of references for your many different writing projects.

What products are available at this time? Refworks and EndNote are by far the most robust and popular in higher education, but you need a subscription for full access. If your school does not have this yet, (1) voice your need to the library and academic dean, (2) consider an individual license or one of the free/inexpensive applications such as Wizfolio, Zoho, CiteUlike, NoodleTools, etc.

Choosing a Reference Management Software Package

When choosing a reference management software package, the first criteria may well be which is available through your institutions. Once you have begun to use some of the basic features of that or a free product, you might spread your wings and compare features among products to fine tune your choice. However, I strongly recommend if you have not used one of these products before, you dig in and get your fingers moving on the keyboard by using one to work on a paper/article you are drafting or conducting preliminary research for a future project. By test-driving the products in this manner you will be able to better and more realistically evaluate their respective benefits, efficiencies, and applications to your specific content area and databases.

Some of the features you will want to examine include the following characteristics. Your choices will depend on your needs. Each of us have different preferences; therefore, make your own choice based on your needs and at this time and be aware of options to move to a different product if you would like to in the future. These products continue to improve and evolve. So we should have even greater options in the future.

Questions to Ask About Reference Management Software

Does the software...

• Work over the web or have to be installed one each computer?
• Work even if you do not have online access?
• Allow password protection of your account?
• Affordable subscription options?
• Have to be installed on a central server, or is hosted by the vendor?
• Within the range of your technical expertise limits and desires?
• Provide good on-demand tutorials?
• Provide free access to technical support in the format you desire? (Phone, email, chat?)
• Allow the database of references it compiles by the software exportable to csv files?
• Allow you to import files from other packages or generic formats (csv)?
• Integrate with your work processor of choice?
• Include a citation tracker where it will create a reference list based on the citations you choose for a document?
• Export your reference list to the manual of style you use? (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.)
• Allow for online and local (on your own computer) backups?

With this list as a background, now you are well equipped to begin looking at some products. For a most complete and current list check the Wikipedia listing which is collectively updated at Wikipedia under "Comparison_of_reference_management_software"

Changing our work habits is never easy, but if you remember the time when you switched from yellow legal pads to keyboards for writing your manuscripts, you will recall the increase in productivity you experienced ultimately. In a similar manner, the benefits of reference and research management can catapult your efficiency and also give rise to new ideas as you organize your thinking and work with new tools.

Whether you begin developing an electronic Research Trail or advance your use of reference management software, consider how you can take your research and writing to the next level. New tools and improvements surround us daily; we need to take the risk of leaving old habits behind and exploring if new tools might be an improvement for us.

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The Value of Quality Academic Writing

Why pay a ghostwriter four hundred dollars or more to properly research and write a vitally important term paper? Some people assert that it's considerably better than failing a course for lack of writing skills. But what benefit does the student actually derive from the literary efforts expended by the ghostwriter? Well, not really much of anything except, perhaps, a good grade. If done properly, a ghostwritten thesis or dissertation can be produced by an acclaimed ghostwriter to reflect the approximate academic potential of the student. This is why the ghostwriter must be chosen carefully from the many self-proclaimed writers and pundits who advertise their academic skills.

When you consider that a quality university education currently costs fifty-thousand dollars or more, which just covers tuition, fees, books, and living expenses for four undergraduate years, the additional high cost of a ghostwriter might seem quite exorbitant. Yet, more than a few undergraduate and graduate students employ tutors, at forty-or-more dollars per hour, for studies which are beyond their level of proper preparation. A sad thing it is that most students, graduating from high school, are poorly prepared for college-level writing. Presumably, a college freshman who cannot write on a twelfth grade level after graduation from high school has actually done very little writing in his twelve years of free public education. So, if that person expects to graduate from a top-notch university, he or she has to do either one of two things. Either the student remediates and learns quickly what wasn't learned during the high school years, or finds someone who can do the work for him.

One way or the other, the student who is paying out the ear for a liberal college education she is not ready to receive must find a viable means of getting the required work done and of receiving better than merely passing grades. A good example of such a pragmatic approach to education was that of George W. Bush. Though his high school grades didn't reflect any scholarly ability, he was admitted into Yale University simply because his very prominent father was a Yale graduate. But while at Yale, George W. found more satisfaction in panty raids and fraternity antics than in achieving good grades. According to reliable sources, George W's father paid a tutor throughout the undergraduate years to insure that his son, at least, passed his courses.

George W. left Yale with a low "C" average without the ability to read, write, and do math on a college level. Then, somehow, he was admitted into an MBA program. According to other reliable sources, George actually achieved less than a 3.00 GPA in the business program he purportedly completed. So how did he manage to graduate? I suppose it was the same method he used to be subsequently discharged from the Texas Air National Guard without completing his required service time. He came out of Yale not knowing how to write and subsequently completed a graduate business program that supposedly stressed writing? Perhaps George employed a ghostwriter to complete all of his graduate writing assignments. It would stand to reason.

Norton R. Nowlin holds M.A. and B.A. degrees from the University of Texas at Tyler plus one year of law school at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, in San Diego, California. In addition to the foregoing, Mr. Nowlin's educational prowess extends 70 semester hours beyond a master's degree in sociology, history, and law. Mr. Nowlin is presently a free-lance paralegal.

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Writing Style - The Differences Between Academic and Casual Writing

Everyone knows that you should write your term papers differently from your Facebook posts, and your journal submissions should be written differently than newspaper columns. What exactly are the differences between casual and academic writing? Between formal and informal writing?

The biggest difference

The single most important difference between casual writing and academic writing is style. That is, casual writing does not require you to adhere to any published style guide. Academic writing, or any formal writing for that matter, requires that you adhere to a style guide. Some schools and teachers will go so far as to specify which style guide to use.

What is a style guide?

A style guide is a manual, or document, that specifies a set of rules and standards, followed by writers to facilitate clear communication. The guide for EzineArticles.com is a web page that indicates how to write articles to be included in the EzineArticles directory, for instance. Each school and corporation can have its own, personalized style guide.

Main style guides do exist, however.

1. The Chicago Manual of Style was one of the first style guides published in the United States. Currently (as of 2010) in its 16th edition, this style guide first came out in 1906. People often refer to "the Chicago style," but people also refer to it as CMS or CMOS.

2. The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association is in its sixth edition (as of 2010). This style guide was developed so professors and students could read papers more easily-and so comprehension was increased. APA Style calls for only two fonts in a paper, and the body of the paper must be written in Times New Roman 12 point. Underlining, bolding, and italics are permitted in some places.

3. The Elements of Style was written to help people write clearly. While the book has its critics, it is one of the shortest style guides.

4. The MLA Style Manual, 3rd edition, is the Modern Language Association's style guide. First published in 1985, this manual is used by many universities, colleges, and students.

5. Microsoft wrote The Manual of Style for Technical Publication, and this document is used for internal and external Microsoft documentation.

Common style guide conventions vs. informal writing

Contractions

Generally, it is okay to use contractions (like it's) in informal writing. Academic writing requires writing out both words.

Technical terms

If you are writing informally to a group of people in your same field, you might use technical terms frequently and never explain them. If you are writing to a group of people that have no relationship with your industry at all, you try to take the technical words out altogether. If you are writing academically, you must explain the term the first time you use it.

Active/Passive

This is not different between informal and academic writing. Most often, active sentences are better. Both the APA and the Chicago style guides concur with this.

Grammatical person

The grammatical person is the point of view, or you might have heard it phrased as first person, second person, third person, and fourth person. The first person perspective contains a lot of "I" or "we" statements like "I fed the dog." First person is the writer's perspective. The second person is you, the person the writer is writing to. The third person is associated with pronouns such as he, she, it, and they. The third person is not me (the writer) or you (the reader). Sometimes academics use fourth-person sentences like, "One should always behave when one is in public."

Informal and casual writing uses the first, second, and third person point of view, as appropriate. While academics often write in the fourth person, I have yet to find a basis for that style of writing in style guides. Style guides facilitate clear writing and fourth person, one-statements are anything but clear.

The grammatical person needed for a sentence often depends on if the sentence is active or passive.

Citations

Academic writing requires citations. If you are state "X is true," you need to cite either where you found that statement. If you created that statement, your words must clearly show that.

Sentence length

Casual writing tends to have short sentences. (Bad casual writing has run-on sentences.) Academic, formal writing uses longer sentences. Take heed though. The goal of any writing is to get a point across, and if your sentence is too long, you will defeat that purpose.

Colloquial expressions and cliches

While "awesome," "da bomb," "the bees knees," "kids," "nose to the grindstone," and "dude" permeate Facebook, these words and phrases are not used in academic writing.

Abbreviations

All your friends might know what LOL (and in the case of the ferret community, DOL), but whenever you use an abbreviation in an academic paper, you first need to write it out and connect it to the abbreviation so people know what you are talking about.

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10 Tips to Effectively Sell Your Online Professional Writing Services

The number of online professional writing services has grown tremendously in the past years. The niche is already a fast-growing business in the online industry. Because of that, competition between and among freelance writers and writing companies have become fierce. How a service provider can effectively sell its services can now be as tough as writing about a specific product within a very competitive market. Taking this into account, the following tips would no doubt help a professional writing services provider to effectively sell its services online:

• Be creative. The articles that one service provides should be interesting, not boring. Clients definitely want to have creative articles regarding their products to attract potential buyers. You should be able to create informative and persuasive articles that fit the client's standard.
• Be credible. Build a credibility of your own by showing to the customers that you have the skill to write compelling, persuasive articles. Samples of your best works should be shown to your potential clients. It is also better if you have testimonials from past clients posted in your website.
• Be flexible. Offer as many kinds of services as you can. Try to specialize in some areas and topics. This way, you can have an edge over the other online professional writing services.
• Be unique. Make sure that each article you make is unique, plagiarism-free and not copied from other works. In academic writing, most especially, articles should not have a slight similarity with other persons' works. Most professional writing services offer this kind of work, so make sure that your work are not copied from others.
• Be quick. Time efficiency is what most clients demand. They want to have an article quickly done. Any delay would also mean a delay on the potential income that they could generate. Professional writing services are experts on writing persuasive articles at a very quick turnaround time.
• Be particular on details. Optimize every point and support each detail with sufficient information or evidence.
• Be cheap. Most, if not all, clients want the most affordable price at the highest quality of work. This is not unusual as everybody wants everything to be as cheap as possible without compromising the quality of the product or the service.
• Be your own editor. You should edit your own work. Try to avoid annoying mistakes such as grammar and typo errors.
• Be a hard worker. Spend time with your work. Although you need to finish it at a short period, try to maximize this time by minimizing the errors.
• Be a lover of your work. No one will believe in you if you do not believe in your self and your work. You should be confident of your skill to write and learn from every article that you do.

It is important that you must show your distinction with other professional writing services. Features such as flexible pricing, large-scale discount package and 24/7 service should also be considered. Clients are looking for writers who can offer them convenient, affordable and best quality work.

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5 Tips On How To Choose Article Writing Services

With the advent of the Internet, content writing has become one of the most important tools for promoting your website. Writing articles about your products or services is one of the best ways to popularize your website. While you may write articles about your website, you may not find enough time to do everything yourself, especially when your website starts to get ranked in the search engines. In such a case it always good to find an article writing service that provides top quality content within your budget. Here are a few tips to help you find the right content writing service...

1. You should look for established article writing services that have marked their presence on the World Wide Web. To do so, you must look for companies who have been in this industry for a long time - their services are backed up by years of experience.
2. Take a look at their team of writers. Writers are the backbone of any article writing company. If the writers have great online presence and their samples match your criteria, you should choose that company. Sometimes when you visit a website, you may not be able to find their writers or their samples. This is not a good indication, as you don't know what you will get.
3. When ordering your articles, always look for that "Custom Order" link. It is not necessary to opt for their packages. Your requirements may be different from their ready-made packages and for that you should contact them by going to that link. Many things get clarified in this way and then you do get what you want.
4. Take a look at their services carefully. Check that they are capable of providing what you want and that it matches your criteria. For example, you are looking for SEO article writing or creating eBooks, but your search takes you to a website that offers academic writing. In a case like this try searching for other keywords such as SEO writing, eBook writing, creative article writing etc. These searches will bring you your desired results.
5. Last but not least, look for companies which have testimonials. Testimonials from clients are one way to gauge a company's reputation on the market.

The main thing is that you will probably need lots of articles. Depending on the budget you have and the types of services offered by content writing services, you need to choose the most reliable and quality article writing service provider.

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Editorial Services For Term Papers

Most college students, required to submit term papers, are willing to pay for editorial services, just to get high marks with their courses. Editorial services for such type of academic writing are lucrative, since academic writing needs great editing. If you would like to start freelance editorial services for term papers or thinking of adding this type of service to your existing editorial services, you should read on.

Editing term papers is varied according to its nature. If you would like to accept editorial services for science term papers, then you should have enough knowledge on scientific and technical terms. Otherwise, you will find it hard to edit the paper for sense and accuracy. Your job as the editor is to figure out what the student is trying to show and ensure that the data presented in the paper is clearly stated, without unnecessary arguments, misspellings, and grammatical errors. At times, term papers should be completely revised, so be honest with your client and offer your help by giving some tips on developing a good term paper.

In any editorial service focused on academic writing, you should use a spell checker. Most of your clients would use a word processor with complete installed grammar and spell checkers, but some of them would not bother especially if they have decided to hire an editor, to do it for them. Obvious spelling errors are basically the easiest to correct when you edit term papers, so edit them first.

Review the term of paper as if you are a professor, making notes of anything that would convince you to give your student a failing mark. That could be a grammatical error, poor argument, awkward writing, vogue claims and empty sentences. Determine what is doubtful about these parts and edit them, and make a few notes for your clients.

You should also take a look on run-on sentences. While these kinds of sentences are grammatically correct, they may sound awkward to the professor. If a line goes on for a large part of the paragraph, it will be boring. Academic writing, though serious in tone, should be interesting. Look for one or more parts of the paper where the sentence could be divided to form shorter ones.

Check any errors that you are not sure of in the preferred style guide. There are various guides you can choose depending on the type of term paper, however, the AP and the MLA style is very common in academic writing. Your client's professor will assign a particular style, so follow this preference. Style guides will explain the correct format and usage of all kinds of punctuation and grammatical methods.

You should edit the term papers, analyzing his arguments meticulously. After each argument pointed out, you should ask yourself what the main point is, whether it was expressed effectively, and whether it was based on hard facts and examples. Also, review the paper to ensure that each part connects rationally to the next and that the whole point of the term paper is well-organized and derived from data.

Also check for plagiarism. If you think the term paper has lifted quotes or parts that you think might be copied from a reference or a source, tell your client. All quotes and information should have citations.

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Best Practices for Teaching Academic Writing to ESL Students in the

When it comes to building academic writing skills for ESL college students in the mainstream, teachers will be doing their college students a huge service when teachers are able to build literary connections to the writing skills and concepts they wish their students to learn.

Teachers cannot assume that their ESL students understand abstract concepts as well as their native English speaking peers due to the gap in their background knowledge.

Provide Engaging Beginnings

Engaging beginnings activate students' prior knowledge. They make use of what students already know before any new knowledge is presented to them.

Many academic writing assignments are based on academic texts. The extent to which ESL students will succeed with mainstream academic writing assignments will depend on how well they are able to apply their understanding after reading an academic texts. Many academic texts assume students have the cultural, social and textual knowledge to understand the "gist" of the text. Teachers can facilitate this process for ESL students by first eliciting what students already know about a topic. This helps builds confidence A good way to engage students with the academic text is to provide brainstorming and prediction exercises, which is also a good thing for diverse classes.

Choose Texts And Writing Tasks With A Multi-Cultural Theme/Topic

In every mainstream class, there is plenty of room to explore topics of diversity and multiculturalism.

Not every writing assignment needs to fall under the "academic" style of writing. In fact, there are many academic multicultural and life-story theme topics, that are important for addressing issues of diversity, language and identity where teachers can explore different modes of writing such as a literary essay that is also based on personal experience.

Teach Strategic Writing

ESL students sometimes struggle with applying their knowledge of a thesis to academic writing. Using the "power of three," teachers have a better chance of helping students understand how to write a thesis. In my classes, I teach my students "the rule of three" for strategic essay writing. A good thesis statement includes three "P's." It is a three-Pronged, Parallel, Preview of your essay. (Thinking in Threes, Brian Backman, 2005)

Example of strategic writing in action: "Television has a positive effect because it helps you learn; it gives you information from all over the world and it allows you to relax."

The reason why many students hate academic writing is because they don't feel they have something worth saying and writing and ESL students are no different. It's not that they don't have background knowledge to cope with academic ideas and concepts, they just have it in another language! As teachers and instructors, we need to bring the assignment closer to home!

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