Greetings folks,
I would like to announce the new series of fine articles on academic writing containing research writing tips and advise based on personal experience. There are 5 issues, some broken in to parts:
What You Really Should Know about Research Papers in 2 parts:
What You Really Should Know about Research Papers and
Know What You Write
Choose wrong research paper type and you'll likely never get a good grade! in 9 parts (!):
Research Paper Types
Template of an Argumentative or Persuasive Paper
Template of an Analytical Paper
Template of a Definition Paper
Template of a Compare and Contrast Paper
Template of a Cause and Effect Paper
Template of a Report
Template of an Interpretive Paper
Title Page Template
Organizing Your Writing Process: Invention, Research, Writing, Revising in 2 parts:
Organizing Your Writing Process: Invention & Research and
Organizing Your Writing Process: Writing and Revising
Understanding Your Assignment Is The Key To Your Success!
and finally
What Is Critical Thinking and How Can It Help You
Enjoy the articles and come back for more!
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Anti-Plagiarism Strategies for Research Papers
by Robert Harris
The availability of textual material in electronic format has made plagiarism easier than ever. Copying and pasting of paragraphs or even entire essays now can be performed with just a few mouse clicks. The strategies discussed here can be used to combat what some believe is an increasing amount of plagiarism on research papers. By employing these strategies, you can help encourage students to value the assignment and to do their own work.
Strategies of Awareness
1. Understand why students cheat. By understanding some of the reasons students are tempted to cheat on papers, you can take steps to prevent cheating by attacking the causes. Some of the major reasons include these:
* Students are natural economizers. Many students are interested in the shortest route possible through a course. That's why they ask questions such as, "Will this be on the test?" Copying a paper sometimes looks a the shortcut through an assignment, especially when the student feels overloaded with work already. To combat this cause, assign your paper to be due well before the end-of-term pressures. Remind students that the purpose of the course is to learn and develop skills and not just "get through." The more they learn and develop their skills, the more effective they will be in their future lives.
* Students are faced with too many choices, so they put off low priorities. With so many things to do (both of academic and recreational nature), many students put off assignments that do not interest them. A remedy here would be to customize the research topic to include something of real interest to the students or to offer topics with high intrinsic interest to them.
* Many students have poor time management and planning skills. Some students are just procrastinators, while others do not understand the hours required to develop a good research paper, and they run out of time as the due date looms. Thus, they are most tempted to copy a paper when time is short and they have not yet started the assignment. If you structure your research assignment so that intermediate parts of it (topic, early research, prospectus, outline, draft, bibliography, final draft) are due at regular intervals, students will be less likely to get in a time-pressure panic and look for an expedient shortcut.
* Some students fear that their writing ability is inadequate. Fear of a bad grade and inability to perform cause some students to look for a superior product. Sadly, these students are among those least able to judge a good paper and are often likely to turn in a very poor copied one. Some help for these students may come from demonstrating how poor many of the online papers are and by emphasizing the value of the learning process (more on this below). Reassuring students of the help available to them (your personal attention, a writing center, teaching assistants, online writing lab sites, etc.) may give them the courage to persevere.
* A few students like the thrill of rule breaking. The more angrily you condemn plagiarism, the more they can hardly wait to do it. An approach that may have some effect is to present the assignment and the proper citation of sources in a positive light (more below).
2. Educate yourself about plagiarism. Plagiarism on research papers takes many forms. Some of the most common include these:
* Downloading a free research paper. Many of these papers have been written and shared by other students. Since paper swappers are often not among the best students, free papers are often of poor quality, in both mechanics and content. Some of the papers are surprisingly old (with citations being no more recent than the seventies).
* Buying a paper from a commercial paper mill. These papers can be good--and sometimes they are too good. If you have given students an in-class writing assignment, you can compare the quality and be quite enlightened. Moreover, mills often sell both custom and stock papers, with custom papers becoming stock papers very quickly. If you visit some of the mill sites, you might just find the same paper available for sale by searching by title or subject.
* Copying an article from the Web or an online or electronic database. Only some of these articles will have the quantity and type of citations that academic research papers are expected to have. If you receive a well-written, highly informed essay without a single citation (or with just a few), it may have been copied wholesale from an electronic source.
* Copying a paper from a local source. Papers may be copied from students who have taken your course previously, from fraternity files, or from other paper-sharing sources near campus. If you keep copies of previous papers turned in to you, they can be a source of detection of this particular practice.
* Cutting and pasting to create a paper from several sources. These "assembly-kit" papers are often betrayed by wide variations in tone, diction, and citation style. The introduction and conclusion are often student-written and therefore noticeably different from and weaker than the often glowing middle.
* Quoting less than all the words copied. This practice includes premature end quotation marks or missing quotation marks. A common type of plagiarism occurs when a student quotes a sentence or two, places the end quotation mark and the citation, and then continues copying from the source. Or the student may copy from the source verbatim without any quotation marks at all, but adding a citation, implying that the information is the student's summary of the source. Checking the citation will expose this practice.
* Faking a citation. In lieu of real research, some students will make up quotations and supply fake citations. You can discover this practice by randomly checking citations. If you require several Web or other electronic sources for the paper, these can be checked quickly.
Visting some of the sites that give away or sell research papers can be an informative experience. If you have Web projection capability, you might do this visiting in class and show the students (1) that you know about these sites and (2) that the papers are often well below your expectations for quality, timeliness, and research. There is a list of many of these sites at Termpapers.com at http://www.termpapers.com and at "Internet Paper Mills" at http://www.coastal.edu/library/mills2.htm.
3. Educate your students about plagiarism. Do not assume that students know what plagiarism is, even if they nod their heads when you ask them. Provide an explicit definition for them. For example, "Plagiarism is using another person's words or ideas without giving credit to the other person. When you use someone else's words, you must put quotation marks around them and give the writer or speaker credit by revealing the source in a citation. Even if you revise or paraphrase the words of someone else or just use their ideas, you still must give the author credit in a note. Not giving due credit to the creator of an idea or writing is very much like lying."
In addition to a definition, though, you should discuss with your students the difference between appropriate, referenced use of ideas or quotations and inappropriate use. You might show them an example of a permissible paraphrase (with its citation) and an impermissible paraphrase (containing some paraphrasing and some copying), and discuss the difference. Discuss also quoting a passage and using quotation marks and a citation as opposed to quoting a passage with neither (in other words, merely copying without attribution). Such a discussion should educate those who truly do not understand citation issues ("But I put it in my own words, so I didn't think I had to cite it") and it will also warn the truly dishonest that you are watching.
Discussing with students why plagiarism is wrong may be helpful also. Clarifying for them that plagiarism is a combination of stealing (another's words) and lying (claiming implicitly that the words are the student's own) should be mentioned at some point, but should not be the whole emphasis or you risk setting up a challenge for the rebels (those who like to break the rules just for fun). Many statements on plagiarism also remind students that such cheating shows contempt for the professor, other students, and the entire academic enterprise. Plagiarizers by their actions declare that they are not at the university to gain an education, but only to pretend to do so, and that they therefore intend to gain by fraud the credentials (the degree) of an educated person.
Perhaps the most effective discussion will ask the students to think about who is really being cheated when someone plagiarizes. Copying papers or even parts of papers short circuits a number of learning experiences and opportunities for the development of skills: actually doing the work of the research paper rather than counterfeiting it gives the student not only knowledge of the subject and insights into the world of information and controversy, but improves research skills, thinking and analyzing, organizing, writing, planning and time management, and even meticulousness (those picky citation styles actually help improve one's attention to detail). All this is missed when the paper is faked, and it is these missed skills which will be of high value in the working world. A degree will help students get a first job, but performance--using the skills developed by doing just such assignments as research papers--will be required for promotion.
4. Discuss the benefits of citing sources. Many students do not seem to realize that whenever they cite a source, they are strengthening their writing. Citing a source, whether paraphrased or quoted, reveals that they have performed research work and synthesized the findings into their own argument. Using sources shows that the student in engaged in "the great conversation," the world of ideas, and that the student is aware of other thinkers' positions on the topic. By quoting (and citing) writers who support the student's position, the student adds strength to the position. By responding reasonably to those who oppose the position, the student shows that there are valid counter arguments. In a nutshell, citing helps make the essay stronger and sounder and will probably result in a better grade.
Appropriate quoting and citing also evidences the student's respect for the creators of ideas and arguments--honoring thinkers and their intellectual property. Most college graduates will become knowledge workers themselves, earning at least part of their living creating information products. They therefore have an interest in maintaining a respect for intellectual property and the proper attribution of ideas and words.
5. Make the penalties clear. If an institutional policy exists, quote it in your syllabus. If you have your own policy, specify the penalties involved. For example, "Cheating on a paper will result in an F on that paper with no possibility of a makeup. A second act of cheating will result in an F in the course regardless of the student's grade otherwise." If you teach at a university where the penalty for plagiarism is dismissal from the university or being reported to the Academic Dean or Dean of Students, you should make that clear as well. Even the penalties can be presented in a positive light. Penalties exist to reassure honest students that their efforts are respected and valued, so much so that those who would escape the work by fakery will be punished substantially.
Strategies of Prevention
The overall goal of these specific strategies is to make the assignment and requirements unique enough that an off-the-shelf paper or a paper written for another class or a friend's paper will not fulfill the requirements. Only a newly written paper will.
1. Make the assignment clear. Be specific about your expectations. Should the paper be an individual effort or is collaboration permitted? Must the paper be unique to your course, or do you allow it to be submitted to another course as well? (In scholarly publishing, such multiple publication is usually called self-plagiarism. If you require a unique paper, be sure to prohibit photocopied papers and insist on original typescripts or printouts.) What kind of research do you require? How should it be evidenced in the paper, by quotation or just summary? It has been claimed that a major source of poor student papers (not just plagiarizing) is the unclear assignment. You might ask another faculty member to read your paper assignment and discuss with you whether or not it is clear and detailed enough for students to fulfill in the way you intend.
2. Provide a list of specific topics and require students to choose one of them. Change topics from semester to semester whenever possible. Unusual topics or topics with a narrow twist are good because there will be fewer papers already written on them. If you provide a substantial enough list of topics (say two dozen), most students will find something that can interest them. You can also allow for a custom topic if the student comes to discuss it with you first.
3. Require specific components in the paper. For example, "The paper must make use of two Internet sources, two printed book sources, two printed journal sources, one personal interview, and one personally conducted survey." Or, "You must make use of Wells' article on 'Intelligent Design Principles,' and some material from either the Jones or Smith book." Or, "Include a graph which represents the data discussed in the first section." Requirements that will strongly inhibit the use of a copied paper include these:
* Use of one or more sources written within the past year. A requirement like this will quickly outdate most paper mill products.
* Use of one or more specific articles or books you name or provide. The articles could be available online (from the Web or one of your university's proprietary databases) to save the effort of photocopying and distribution.
* Incorporation of some information you provide (for example, a data set).
* A personal interview with an expert or authority. An interview creates both a current and a checkable source.
If a student begins with someone else's paper and has to work additional material such as the above into it, you'll probably be able to tell. (For example, the fit will be awkward where the new material has been stuffed in or the writing styles will differ.)
4. Require process steps for the paper. Set a series of due dates throughout the term for the various steps of the research paper process: topic or problem, preliminary bibliography, prospectus, research material (annotated photocopies of articles, for example), outline, rough draft, final annotated bibliography, final draft. Some of these parts can be reverse engineered by the determined cheater, but most students should realize that doing the assignment honestly is easier than the alternative.
The rough draft serves several functions. A quick glance will reveal whether whole sections are appearing without citations. At the draft stage, you have the opportunity to educate the student further and discuss how proper citation works. You can also mark places and ask for more research material to be incorporated. If you are suspicious of the paper at this point, ask for the incorporation of some specific material that you name, such as a particular book or article. Keep the drafts and let students know that you expect major revisions and improvements between drafts. (This is actually a great way to improve students' writing, quite apart from the other goal of preventing plagairism.)
5. Require oral reports of student papers. Ask students questions about their research and writing process. If students know at the beginning of the term that they will be giving a presentation on their research papers to the rest of the class, they will recognize the need to be very familiar with both the process and the content of the paper. Such knowledge should serve as a strong deterrent against simply copying a paper. Regardless of how many times a student reads over a copied paper, much of the knowledge of the research, the drafting, leaving out, and so on will still remain unknown. Alternative to an in-class presentation is a one-on-one office meeting, where you can quiz the student about several aspects of the paper as needed.
Many students have been caught by simple questions like, "What exactly do you mean here by 'dynamic equivalence'?" Few students use words they cannot pronounce, so having them read some of the paper aloud can be interesting as well (although you may be merely exposing the mindless use of a thesaurus). If you suspect a student has copied a whole paper, complete with citations, asking about the sources can be useful. "Where did you find the article by Edwards? It sounds fascinating. Can you bring me a copy at the next meeting?" Or, "This quotation seems slightly out of context. What was Follet's main point in the chapter?"
6. Have students include an annotated bibliography. The annotation should include a brief summary of the source, where it was located (including call number for books or complete Web URL), and an evaluation about the usefulness of the source. (Optionally, as a lesson in information quality, ask them to comment on why they thought the source credible.) The normal process of research makes completing this task easy, but it creates headaches for students who have copied a paper from someone else since few papers include annotated bibliographies like this. Another benefit of this assignment is that students must reflect on the reliability and quality of their sources.
7. Require most references to be up-to-date. Many of the free term papers online (and many of the ones for sale) are quite old, with correspondingly old references. If you require all research material to be, say, less than five years old, you will automatically eliminate thousands of online papers. Such a recent date restriction is not usually workable for some subjects, such as history or English literature, but you can always require a few sources of recent date.
8. Require a metalearning essay. On the day you collect the papers, have students write an in-class essay about what they learned from the assignment. What problems did they face and how did they overcome them? What research strategy did they follow? Where did they locate most of their sources? What is the most important thing they learned from investigating this subject? For most students, who actually did the research paper, this assignment will help them think about their own learning. It also provides you with information about the students' knowledge of their papers and it gives you a writing sample to compare with the papers. If a student's knowledge of the paper and its process seems modest or if the in-class essay quality diverges strikingly from the writing ability shown in the paper, further investigation is probably warranted.
Strategies of Detection
1. Look for the clues. As you read the papers, look for internal evidence that may indicate plagiarism. Among the clues are the following:
* Mixed citation styles. If some paragraphs are cited in MLA style, while other references are in APA, and perhaps one or two are in CBE or Chicago, you are probably looking at a paste-up.
* Lack of references or quotations. Lengthy, well written sections without documentation may have been taken from general knowledge sources, such as encyclopedias, popular magazines, or Web sites.
* Unusual formatting. Strange margins, skewed tables, lines broken in half, mixed subhead styles and other formatting anomalies may indicate a hasty copy and paste job.
* Off topic. If the paper does not develop one of the assigned topics or even the topic it announces, it may have been borrowed at the last minute or downloaded. Similarly, if parts of the paper do develop the subject, but other parts seem oddly off, the product may be a cut and paste.
* Signs of datedness. If there are no references after some well past date (e.g. 1985), or if a data table offers a company's sales from 1989 to 1994, either the student is using very old material or the paper itself is rather old.
* Anachronisms. If the paper refers to long-past events as current ("Only after the Gulf War is over will we see lower oil prices" or "Why isn't the Carter administration acting on this?"), you almost certainly have a recycled paper on your hands.
* Anomalies of diction. Many undergraduates do not understand the concept of levels of diction. They think all words are equally welcome in every paper. As a result, when those who plagiarize with the cut-and-paste method perform their deeds, they often mix paragraphs of varying levels together--the sophisticated scholar's paragraph precedes the breezy journalist's commentary, which may be followed by the student's own highly colloquial addition. Similarly, you may come upon some suspiciously elevated vocabulary usages. "Thesaurusitis" is one source of this, to be sure, but a common source of such vocabulary is another writer, who should have been quoted rather than simply copied. "What do you mean by 'ineffable'?" can sometimes provide you with inexpressible information. Lastly, if you find that the paper uses several archaic terms, or words no longer used in the way the paper uses them, you may be looking at some very old text.
* Anomalies of style. Is the prose style remarkable? Are there two-page paragraphs that remind you of a nineteenth-century encyclopedia? Is there ornate rhetorical structure? Does the introduction get in its own way and stumble around, only to give way to glowing, flowing discourse? Is there a mixture of British and American punctuation or spelling, with consistent usage within large sections?
* Smoking guns. This category might be called "blunders of the clueless," since it includes obvious indicators of copying. Reported in the past have been labels left at the end of papers ("Thank you for using TermPaperMania"), title pages stapled to Web printouts (complete with dates and URL in the corners), title pages claiming the paper is by Tom Jones when subsequent pages say "Smith, page 2," and papers with whiteout over the previous author's name.
Few of these clues will provide courtroom proof of plagiarism, of course, but their presence should alert you to investigate the paper. Even if you do not find the source of the paper, you may be able to use these clues profitably in a discussion with the student in your office.
2. Know where the the sources of papers are. Before you begin to search for the source or sources of a suspect paper, you should know where to look. Here are the major sources of text in electronic form:
* Free and for-sale term paper sites. As mentioned earlier, there is a list of many of these sites at Termpapers.com at http://www.termpapers.com and at "Internet Paper Mills" at http://www.coastal.edu/library/mills2.htm.
* The free, visible Web. This category includes all the publicly mounted Web pages, which are indexed by search engines.
* The free, invisible Web. This cateory includes the contents of sites that provide articles free to users, but that content may be accessible only by going directly to the site. That is, the articles are not indexed by search engines and therefore cannot be located by using a search engine. Some magazines, newspapers, reference works, encyclopedias, and subject-specific sites are in this category.
* Paid databases over the Web. This category includes commercial databases for consumers (such as Northern Light's Special Collection) and databases that libraries subscribe to, containing scholarly journals, newspapers, court cases and the like. Providers like Lexis-Nexis, UMI Proquest, Infotrac, JSTOR and others are in this group. To find information from this category, you must have access to the database (through password or an on-campus computer) and search on the database directly.
* CD-ROM resources. Encyclopedias and some databases are available on CD-ROM.
3. Search for the paper online. If you suspect the paper may have come from the Web, you might try these strategies to find it:
* If you find nothing with these tools, try several of the large-database, full-text search engines like Google, Northern Light, or Fast Search, and perform an exact phrase search on a four-to-six-word phrase from a suspect part of the paper (find a phrase that has two or three relatively unusual words in it). Remember that no search engine covers more than about a third of the visible Web, so you should try several engines before you give up.
* Next, locate some appropriate databases on the invisible Web, depending on the subject of the paper. You can find many of these databases by consulting the "World Wide Web Research Tools" page on this site. If indicated, visit some of the online encyclopedias as well. Here, you will have to use keyword searches rather than exact phrase searches, but using a string of appropriate keywords can be very powerful.
* Now go to your library's online database subscriptions and search on subject-appropriate databases using keyword searches.
4. Use a plagiarism detector. You might also try using software. See The Plagiarism Resource Center for more information. If you do not find the paper this way, you might want to turn to some commercial services that provide plagiarism detection. Here are some of the services:
* Plagiarism.com at http://www.plagiarism.com. Educational materials and a software screening program that creates a test of familiarity for a student to complete. The company says that no student has been falsely accused. CD ROM program.
* Plagiarism.org at http://www.plagiarism.org. Online service that checks submitted student papers against a large database and provides reports of results. Also monitors term paper mills.
* Plagiarism Finder at http://www.m4-software.com. Searches Internet sources.
* Eve at http://www.canexus.com/eve/. Inexpensive software agent that searches the Web to compare a suspect paper with Internet content. Shows site and degree of match.
It is sometimes said that the best plagiarism detector is the student who handed in the paper, because he or she already knows whether or not the paper is genuine, or what part is fraudulent. Therefore, you can sometimes enlist the student's help. You must be very careful about accusing a student of cheating unless you have clear proof, because a false accusation can be both cruel and reason for litigation. But if you ask the right questions in the right way, you will often be successful. Here are some example questions that may help reveal the truth:
* "I was quite surprised by your paper, so I did some investigation into it. Before I tell you what I found out, is there anything you want to tell me about it?" With the appropriately serious demeanor and tone, a well phrased question like this will often result in a confession. If the student is innocent or just hardened and replies, "No," you can always reveal some innocuous fact and go on.
* "I'm curious to know why your writing style is so good in some parts of the paper and so poor in others. And why have you not shown such great writing on the in-class essays?"
* "This long passage doesn't sound like your normal style. Is this a quotation where you accidentally forgot the quotation marks?"
The availability of textual material in electronic format has made plagiarism easier than ever. Copying and pasting of paragraphs or even entire essays now can be performed with just a few mouse clicks. The strategies discussed here can be used to combat what some believe is an increasing amount of plagiarism on research papers. By employing these strategies, you can help encourage students to value the assignment and to do their own work.
Strategies of Awareness
1. Understand why students cheat. By understanding some of the reasons students are tempted to cheat on papers, you can take steps to prevent cheating by attacking the causes. Some of the major reasons include these:
* Students are natural economizers. Many students are interested in the shortest route possible through a course. That's why they ask questions such as, "Will this be on the test?" Copying a paper sometimes looks a the shortcut through an assignment, especially when the student feels overloaded with work already. To combat this cause, assign your paper to be due well before the end-of-term pressures. Remind students that the purpose of the course is to learn and develop skills and not just "get through." The more they learn and develop their skills, the more effective they will be in their future lives.
* Students are faced with too many choices, so they put off low priorities. With so many things to do (both of academic and recreational nature), many students put off assignments that do not interest them. A remedy here would be to customize the research topic to include something of real interest to the students or to offer topics with high intrinsic interest to them.
* Many students have poor time management and planning skills. Some students are just procrastinators, while others do not understand the hours required to develop a good research paper, and they run out of time as the due date looms. Thus, they are most tempted to copy a paper when time is short and they have not yet started the assignment. If you structure your research assignment so that intermediate parts of it (topic, early research, prospectus, outline, draft, bibliography, final draft) are due at regular intervals, students will be less likely to get in a time-pressure panic and look for an expedient shortcut.
* Some students fear that their writing ability is inadequate. Fear of a bad grade and inability to perform cause some students to look for a superior product. Sadly, these students are among those least able to judge a good paper and are often likely to turn in a very poor copied one. Some help for these students may come from demonstrating how poor many of the online papers are and by emphasizing the value of the learning process (more on this below). Reassuring students of the help available to them (your personal attention, a writing center, teaching assistants, online writing lab sites, etc.) may give them the courage to persevere.
* A few students like the thrill of rule breaking. The more angrily you condemn plagiarism, the more they can hardly wait to do it. An approach that may have some effect is to present the assignment and the proper citation of sources in a positive light (more below).
2. Educate yourself about plagiarism. Plagiarism on research papers takes many forms. Some of the most common include these:
* Downloading a free research paper. Many of these papers have been written and shared by other students. Since paper swappers are often not among the best students, free papers are often of poor quality, in both mechanics and content. Some of the papers are surprisingly old (with citations being no more recent than the seventies).
* Buying a paper from a commercial paper mill. These papers can be good--and sometimes they are too good. If you have given students an in-class writing assignment, you can compare the quality and be quite enlightened. Moreover, mills often sell both custom and stock papers, with custom papers becoming stock papers very quickly. If you visit some of the mill sites, you might just find the same paper available for sale by searching by title or subject.
* Copying an article from the Web or an online or electronic database. Only some of these articles will have the quantity and type of citations that academic research papers are expected to have. If you receive a well-written, highly informed essay without a single citation (or with just a few), it may have been copied wholesale from an electronic source.
* Copying a paper from a local source. Papers may be copied from students who have taken your course previously, from fraternity files, or from other paper-sharing sources near campus. If you keep copies of previous papers turned in to you, they can be a source of detection of this particular practice.
* Cutting and pasting to create a paper from several sources. These "assembly-kit" papers are often betrayed by wide variations in tone, diction, and citation style. The introduction and conclusion are often student-written and therefore noticeably different from and weaker than the often glowing middle.
* Quoting less than all the words copied. This practice includes premature end quotation marks or missing quotation marks. A common type of plagiarism occurs when a student quotes a sentence or two, places the end quotation mark and the citation, and then continues copying from the source. Or the student may copy from the source verbatim without any quotation marks at all, but adding a citation, implying that the information is the student's summary of the source. Checking the citation will expose this practice.
* Faking a citation. In lieu of real research, some students will make up quotations and supply fake citations. You can discover this practice by randomly checking citations. If you require several Web or other electronic sources for the paper, these can be checked quickly.
Visting some of the sites that give away or sell research papers can be an informative experience. If you have Web projection capability, you might do this visiting in class and show the students (1) that you know about these sites and (2) that the papers are often well below your expectations for quality, timeliness, and research. There is a list of many of these sites at Termpapers.com at http://www.termpapers.com and at "Internet Paper Mills" at http://www.coastal.edu/library/mills2.htm.
3. Educate your students about plagiarism. Do not assume that students know what plagiarism is, even if they nod their heads when you ask them. Provide an explicit definition for them. For example, "Plagiarism is using another person's words or ideas without giving credit to the other person. When you use someone else's words, you must put quotation marks around them and give the writer or speaker credit by revealing the source in a citation. Even if you revise or paraphrase the words of someone else or just use their ideas, you still must give the author credit in a note. Not giving due credit to the creator of an idea or writing is very much like lying."
In addition to a definition, though, you should discuss with your students the difference between appropriate, referenced use of ideas or quotations and inappropriate use. You might show them an example of a permissible paraphrase (with its citation) and an impermissible paraphrase (containing some paraphrasing and some copying), and discuss the difference. Discuss also quoting a passage and using quotation marks and a citation as opposed to quoting a passage with neither (in other words, merely copying without attribution). Such a discussion should educate those who truly do not understand citation issues ("But I put it in my own words, so I didn't think I had to cite it") and it will also warn the truly dishonest that you are watching.
Discussing with students why plagiarism is wrong may be helpful also. Clarifying for them that plagiarism is a combination of stealing (another's words) and lying (claiming implicitly that the words are the student's own) should be mentioned at some point, but should not be the whole emphasis or you risk setting up a challenge for the rebels (those who like to break the rules just for fun). Many statements on plagiarism also remind students that such cheating shows contempt for the professor, other students, and the entire academic enterprise. Plagiarizers by their actions declare that they are not at the university to gain an education, but only to pretend to do so, and that they therefore intend to gain by fraud the credentials (the degree) of an educated person.
Perhaps the most effective discussion will ask the students to think about who is really being cheated when someone plagiarizes. Copying papers or even parts of papers short circuits a number of learning experiences and opportunities for the development of skills: actually doing the work of the research paper rather than counterfeiting it gives the student not only knowledge of the subject and insights into the world of information and controversy, but improves research skills, thinking and analyzing, organizing, writing, planning and time management, and even meticulousness (those picky citation styles actually help improve one's attention to detail). All this is missed when the paper is faked, and it is these missed skills which will be of high value in the working world. A degree will help students get a first job, but performance--using the skills developed by doing just such assignments as research papers--will be required for promotion.
4. Discuss the benefits of citing sources. Many students do not seem to realize that whenever they cite a source, they are strengthening their writing. Citing a source, whether paraphrased or quoted, reveals that they have performed research work and synthesized the findings into their own argument. Using sources shows that the student in engaged in "the great conversation," the world of ideas, and that the student is aware of other thinkers' positions on the topic. By quoting (and citing) writers who support the student's position, the student adds strength to the position. By responding reasonably to those who oppose the position, the student shows that there are valid counter arguments. In a nutshell, citing helps make the essay stronger and sounder and will probably result in a better grade.
Appropriate quoting and citing also evidences the student's respect for the creators of ideas and arguments--honoring thinkers and their intellectual property. Most college graduates will become knowledge workers themselves, earning at least part of their living creating information products. They therefore have an interest in maintaining a respect for intellectual property and the proper attribution of ideas and words.
5. Make the penalties clear. If an institutional policy exists, quote it in your syllabus. If you have your own policy, specify the penalties involved. For example, "Cheating on a paper will result in an F on that paper with no possibility of a makeup. A second act of cheating will result in an F in the course regardless of the student's grade otherwise." If you teach at a university where the penalty for plagiarism is dismissal from the university or being reported to the Academic Dean or Dean of Students, you should make that clear as well. Even the penalties can be presented in a positive light. Penalties exist to reassure honest students that their efforts are respected and valued, so much so that those who would escape the work by fakery will be punished substantially.
Strategies of Prevention
The overall goal of these specific strategies is to make the assignment and requirements unique enough that an off-the-shelf paper or a paper written for another class or a friend's paper will not fulfill the requirements. Only a newly written paper will.
1. Make the assignment clear. Be specific about your expectations. Should the paper be an individual effort or is collaboration permitted? Must the paper be unique to your course, or do you allow it to be submitted to another course as well? (In scholarly publishing, such multiple publication is usually called self-plagiarism. If you require a unique paper, be sure to prohibit photocopied papers and insist on original typescripts or printouts.) What kind of research do you require? How should it be evidenced in the paper, by quotation or just summary? It has been claimed that a major source of poor student papers (not just plagiarizing) is the unclear assignment. You might ask another faculty member to read your paper assignment and discuss with you whether or not it is clear and detailed enough for students to fulfill in the way you intend.
2. Provide a list of specific topics and require students to choose one of them. Change topics from semester to semester whenever possible. Unusual topics or topics with a narrow twist are good because there will be fewer papers already written on them. If you provide a substantial enough list of topics (say two dozen), most students will find something that can interest them. You can also allow for a custom topic if the student comes to discuss it with you first.
3. Require specific components in the paper. For example, "The paper must make use of two Internet sources, two printed book sources, two printed journal sources, one personal interview, and one personally conducted survey." Or, "You must make use of Wells' article on 'Intelligent Design Principles,' and some material from either the Jones or Smith book." Or, "Include a graph which represents the data discussed in the first section." Requirements that will strongly inhibit the use of a copied paper include these:
* Use of one or more sources written within the past year. A requirement like this will quickly outdate most paper mill products.
* Use of one or more specific articles or books you name or provide. The articles could be available online (from the Web or one of your university's proprietary databases) to save the effort of photocopying and distribution.
* Incorporation of some information you provide (for example, a data set).
* A personal interview with an expert or authority. An interview creates both a current and a checkable source.
If a student begins with someone else's paper and has to work additional material such as the above into it, you'll probably be able to tell. (For example, the fit will be awkward where the new material has been stuffed in or the writing styles will differ.)
4. Require process steps for the paper. Set a series of due dates throughout the term for the various steps of the research paper process: topic or problem, preliminary bibliography, prospectus, research material (annotated photocopies of articles, for example), outline, rough draft, final annotated bibliography, final draft. Some of these parts can be reverse engineered by the determined cheater, but most students should realize that doing the assignment honestly is easier than the alternative.
The rough draft serves several functions. A quick glance will reveal whether whole sections are appearing without citations. At the draft stage, you have the opportunity to educate the student further and discuss how proper citation works. You can also mark places and ask for more research material to be incorporated. If you are suspicious of the paper at this point, ask for the incorporation of some specific material that you name, such as a particular book or article. Keep the drafts and let students know that you expect major revisions and improvements between drafts. (This is actually a great way to improve students' writing, quite apart from the other goal of preventing plagairism.)
5. Require oral reports of student papers. Ask students questions about their research and writing process. If students know at the beginning of the term that they will be giving a presentation on their research papers to the rest of the class, they will recognize the need to be very familiar with both the process and the content of the paper. Such knowledge should serve as a strong deterrent against simply copying a paper. Regardless of how many times a student reads over a copied paper, much of the knowledge of the research, the drafting, leaving out, and so on will still remain unknown. Alternative to an in-class presentation is a one-on-one office meeting, where you can quiz the student about several aspects of the paper as needed.
Many students have been caught by simple questions like, "What exactly do you mean here by 'dynamic equivalence'?" Few students use words they cannot pronounce, so having them read some of the paper aloud can be interesting as well (although you may be merely exposing the mindless use of a thesaurus). If you suspect a student has copied a whole paper, complete with citations, asking about the sources can be useful. "Where did you find the article by Edwards? It sounds fascinating. Can you bring me a copy at the next meeting?" Or, "This quotation seems slightly out of context. What was Follet's main point in the chapter?"
6. Have students include an annotated bibliography. The annotation should include a brief summary of the source, where it was located (including call number for books or complete Web URL), and an evaluation about the usefulness of the source. (Optionally, as a lesson in information quality, ask them to comment on why they thought the source credible.) The normal process of research makes completing this task easy, but it creates headaches for students who have copied a paper from someone else since few papers include annotated bibliographies like this. Another benefit of this assignment is that students must reflect on the reliability and quality of their sources.
7. Require most references to be up-to-date. Many of the free term papers online (and many of the ones for sale) are quite old, with correspondingly old references. If you require all research material to be, say, less than five years old, you will automatically eliminate thousands of online papers. Such a recent date restriction is not usually workable for some subjects, such as history or English literature, but you can always require a few sources of recent date.
8. Require a metalearning essay. On the day you collect the papers, have students write an in-class essay about what they learned from the assignment. What problems did they face and how did they overcome them? What research strategy did they follow? Where did they locate most of their sources? What is the most important thing they learned from investigating this subject? For most students, who actually did the research paper, this assignment will help them think about their own learning. It also provides you with information about the students' knowledge of their papers and it gives you a writing sample to compare with the papers. If a student's knowledge of the paper and its process seems modest or if the in-class essay quality diverges strikingly from the writing ability shown in the paper, further investigation is probably warranted.
Strategies of Detection
1. Look for the clues. As you read the papers, look for internal evidence that may indicate plagiarism. Among the clues are the following:
* Mixed citation styles. If some paragraphs are cited in MLA style, while other references are in APA, and perhaps one or two are in CBE or Chicago, you are probably looking at a paste-up.
* Lack of references or quotations. Lengthy, well written sections without documentation may have been taken from general knowledge sources, such as encyclopedias, popular magazines, or Web sites.
* Unusual formatting. Strange margins, skewed tables, lines broken in half, mixed subhead styles and other formatting anomalies may indicate a hasty copy and paste job.
* Off topic. If the paper does not develop one of the assigned topics or even the topic it announces, it may have been borrowed at the last minute or downloaded. Similarly, if parts of the paper do develop the subject, but other parts seem oddly off, the product may be a cut and paste.
* Signs of datedness. If there are no references after some well past date (e.g. 1985), or if a data table offers a company's sales from 1989 to 1994, either the student is using very old material or the paper itself is rather old.
* Anachronisms. If the paper refers to long-past events as current ("Only after the Gulf War is over will we see lower oil prices" or "Why isn't the Carter administration acting on this?"), you almost certainly have a recycled paper on your hands.
* Anomalies of diction. Many undergraduates do not understand the concept of levels of diction. They think all words are equally welcome in every paper. As a result, when those who plagiarize with the cut-and-paste method perform their deeds, they often mix paragraphs of varying levels together--the sophisticated scholar's paragraph precedes the breezy journalist's commentary, which may be followed by the student's own highly colloquial addition. Similarly, you may come upon some suspiciously elevated vocabulary usages. "Thesaurusitis" is one source of this, to be sure, but a common source of such vocabulary is another writer, who should have been quoted rather than simply copied. "What do you mean by 'ineffable'?" can sometimes provide you with inexpressible information. Lastly, if you find that the paper uses several archaic terms, or words no longer used in the way the paper uses them, you may be looking at some very old text.
* Anomalies of style. Is the prose style remarkable? Are there two-page paragraphs that remind you of a nineteenth-century encyclopedia? Is there ornate rhetorical structure? Does the introduction get in its own way and stumble around, only to give way to glowing, flowing discourse? Is there a mixture of British and American punctuation or spelling, with consistent usage within large sections?
* Smoking guns. This category might be called "blunders of the clueless," since it includes obvious indicators of copying. Reported in the past have been labels left at the end of papers ("Thank you for using TermPaperMania"), title pages stapled to Web printouts (complete with dates and URL in the corners), title pages claiming the paper is by Tom Jones when subsequent pages say "Smith, page 2," and papers with whiteout over the previous author's name.
Few of these clues will provide courtroom proof of plagiarism, of course, but their presence should alert you to investigate the paper. Even if you do not find the source of the paper, you may be able to use these clues profitably in a discussion with the student in your office.
2. Know where the the sources of papers are. Before you begin to search for the source or sources of a suspect paper, you should know where to look. Here are the major sources of text in electronic form:
* Free and for-sale term paper sites. As mentioned earlier, there is a list of many of these sites at Termpapers.com at http://www.termpapers.com and at "Internet Paper Mills" at http://www.coastal.edu/library/mills2.htm.
* The free, visible Web. This category includes all the publicly mounted Web pages, which are indexed by search engines.
* The free, invisible Web. This cateory includes the contents of sites that provide articles free to users, but that content may be accessible only by going directly to the site. That is, the articles are not indexed by search engines and therefore cannot be located by using a search engine. Some magazines, newspapers, reference works, encyclopedias, and subject-specific sites are in this category.
* Paid databases over the Web. This category includes commercial databases for consumers (such as Northern Light's Special Collection) and databases that libraries subscribe to, containing scholarly journals, newspapers, court cases and the like. Providers like Lexis-Nexis, UMI Proquest, Infotrac, JSTOR and others are in this group. To find information from this category, you must have access to the database (through password or an on-campus computer) and search on the database directly.
* CD-ROM resources. Encyclopedias and some databases are available on CD-ROM.
3. Search for the paper online. If you suspect the paper may have come from the Web, you might try these strategies to find it:
* If you find nothing with these tools, try several of the large-database, full-text search engines like Google, Northern Light, or Fast Search, and perform an exact phrase search on a four-to-six-word phrase from a suspect part of the paper (find a phrase that has two or three relatively unusual words in it). Remember that no search engine covers more than about a third of the visible Web, so you should try several engines before you give up.
* Next, locate some appropriate databases on the invisible Web, depending on the subject of the paper. You can find many of these databases by consulting the "World Wide Web Research Tools" page on this site. If indicated, visit some of the online encyclopedias as well. Here, you will have to use keyword searches rather than exact phrase searches, but using a string of appropriate keywords can be very powerful.
* Now go to your library's online database subscriptions and search on subject-appropriate databases using keyword searches.
4. Use a plagiarism detector. You might also try using software. See The Plagiarism Resource Center for more information. If you do not find the paper this way, you might want to turn to some commercial services that provide plagiarism detection. Here are some of the services:
* Plagiarism.com at http://www.plagiarism.com. Educational materials and a software screening program that creates a test of familiarity for a student to complete. The company says that no student has been falsely accused. CD ROM program.
* Plagiarism.org at http://www.plagiarism.org. Online service that checks submitted student papers against a large database and provides reports of results. Also monitors term paper mills.
* Plagiarism Finder at http://www.m4-software.com. Searches Internet sources.
* Eve at http://www.canexus.com/eve/. Inexpensive software agent that searches the Web to compare a suspect paper with Internet content. Shows site and degree of match.
It is sometimes said that the best plagiarism detector is the student who handed in the paper, because he or she already knows whether or not the paper is genuine, or what part is fraudulent. Therefore, you can sometimes enlist the student's help. You must be very careful about accusing a student of cheating unless you have clear proof, because a false accusation can be both cruel and reason for litigation. But if you ask the right questions in the right way, you will often be successful. Here are some example questions that may help reveal the truth:
* "I was quite surprised by your paper, so I did some investigation into it. Before I tell you what I found out, is there anything you want to tell me about it?" With the appropriately serious demeanor and tone, a well phrased question like this will often result in a confession. If the student is innocent or just hardened and replies, "No," you can always reveal some innocuous fact and go on.
* "I'm curious to know why your writing style is so good in some parts of the paper and so poor in others. And why have you not shown such great writing on the in-class essays?"
* "This long passage doesn't sound like your normal style. Is this a quotation where you accidentally forgot the quotation marks?"
Thursday, June 08, 2006
How to Research Absolutely Anything
by Stephanie Cage
Have you ever thought about writing non-fiction but been put off by the amount of research involved? Writing about what you know helps, as you’re likely to have the information you need at your fingertips, or at least know where to find it, but if you’re anything like me, you will still need to check up on a detail every so often.
The truth is, research is hard to avoid. Even as a fiction writer, you will still need to check facts once in a while. It might be a historical detail (would your hero have been wearing a top hat or bowler?), a fact about a place or person, or even the lyrics of your heroine’s favourite song.
Sometimes you can avoid the problem by being vague. Instead of naming the song, say, ‘He was humming that annoying tune again.’ If you don’t know exactly how big the boat was, say, ‘It was about the length of a swimming pool’. However, do this too often, and you lose the sense of reality, of a scene coming alive, that comes from a precisely imagined and described story world.
So how do you go about finding the information you need to fill the gaps in your story or article? As a researcher, there are five main sources of information I turn to, roughly in this order:
1 – Home reference books
Looking things up at home is quick and convenient, and a good encyclopaedia can fill in background information on a huge range of topics. However, it may not contain the specific information you’re looking for, and sometimes even if it contains the answer, it may be hard to find. For example, if you know want to find out more about Ellen MacArthur, it’s great, but it’s not much help if you can’t remember the surname of ‘that woman who sailed around the world – Ellen someone.’
2 – The Internet
The Internet is a great starting point if you can’t remember the exact details of what you’re looking for. Type ‘Ellen’ and ‘around the world sailing’ into Google and the odds are that sooner or later the name ‘MacArthur’ will crop up. It can be useful for tracking down poetry and song lyrics too, because it doesn’t matter if you can’t remember the title or first line – if it’s on the Internet, then typing any line into a search engine will help you track it down.
3 - Libraries
If you can’t find what you need at home, in most cases the next stop will be your local library. They will have a wider range of reference books, as well as other subject-related books. For example, if you need to add colour to your novel about a woman sailor, you could look out for interesting details in a biography of Ellen MacArthur.
If you’re really new to a subject, start from scratch with a child’s reference book. They’re often surprisingly informative as well as having lots of helpful illustrations.
If your local library fails, you may have to resort to a larger library further afield – main copyright libraries have every book you could wish for, although it’s worth calling in advance to check that the book you’re looking for is immediately available.
4 - Tourist information
Sometimes libraries aren’t much help because the information you’re looking for changes frequently. This is particularly true in travel writing, where you can end up looking foolish if a hotel or restaurant has closed down since your visit, or a museum or gallery has changed its opening hours. That’s when the area’s tourist information is invaluable.
5 - People
If you haven’t found what you’re looking for using any of these methods, or if you want more details than the average reference book provides, you’ll need to look for someone in the know who can help you out. For general information, museum curators, gallery owners and librarians are often very helpful, but sometimes you’ll need something more specific.
In that case, the best tactic can be to find an association related to the topic. If you want to find out about details of the Civil War for your battle scene, is there a re-enactment society near you? There’s bound to be someone who can answer your questions, and you might even get a chance to see the atmosphere of a Civil War battle for yourself and pick up some details you’d never have thought to ask about.
Finally, if that fails, fall back on the theory that everyone on the planet is connected by just six links and ask everyone you know (work colleagues, fellow writers group members, friends and relatives) whether they know anyone who might be able to help you. Tell them it’s for a book (or magazine article, or whatever) and most people are glad to help – that’s the beauty of being a writer.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephanie Cage is a writer and researcher based in Berkshire, UK. She writes regularly for The Agony Column and newbooksmag and has also been published in e-Quip (the e-zine of the British Society of Comedy Writers) and Link (the magazine of the National Association of Writers’ Groups), where this article first appeared. Visit her at www.stephaniecage.co.uk
Have you ever thought about writing non-fiction but been put off by the amount of research involved? Writing about what you know helps, as you’re likely to have the information you need at your fingertips, or at least know where to find it, but if you’re anything like me, you will still need to check up on a detail every so often.
The truth is, research is hard to avoid. Even as a fiction writer, you will still need to check facts once in a while. It might be a historical detail (would your hero have been wearing a top hat or bowler?), a fact about a place or person, or even the lyrics of your heroine’s favourite song.
Sometimes you can avoid the problem by being vague. Instead of naming the song, say, ‘He was humming that annoying tune again.’ If you don’t know exactly how big the boat was, say, ‘It was about the length of a swimming pool’. However, do this too often, and you lose the sense of reality, of a scene coming alive, that comes from a precisely imagined and described story world.
So how do you go about finding the information you need to fill the gaps in your story or article? As a researcher, there are five main sources of information I turn to, roughly in this order:
1 – Home reference books
Looking things up at home is quick and convenient, and a good encyclopaedia can fill in background information on a huge range of topics. However, it may not contain the specific information you’re looking for, and sometimes even if it contains the answer, it may be hard to find. For example, if you know want to find out more about Ellen MacArthur, it’s great, but it’s not much help if you can’t remember the surname of ‘that woman who sailed around the world – Ellen someone.’
2 – The Internet
The Internet is a great starting point if you can’t remember the exact details of what you’re looking for. Type ‘Ellen’ and ‘around the world sailing’ into Google and the odds are that sooner or later the name ‘MacArthur’ will crop up. It can be useful for tracking down poetry and song lyrics too, because it doesn’t matter if you can’t remember the title or first line – if it’s on the Internet, then typing any line into a search engine will help you track it down.
3 - Libraries
If you can’t find what you need at home, in most cases the next stop will be your local library. They will have a wider range of reference books, as well as other subject-related books. For example, if you need to add colour to your novel about a woman sailor, you could look out for interesting details in a biography of Ellen MacArthur.
If you’re really new to a subject, start from scratch with a child’s reference book. They’re often surprisingly informative as well as having lots of helpful illustrations.
If your local library fails, you may have to resort to a larger library further afield – main copyright libraries have every book you could wish for, although it’s worth calling in advance to check that the book you’re looking for is immediately available.
4 - Tourist information
Sometimes libraries aren’t much help because the information you’re looking for changes frequently. This is particularly true in travel writing, where you can end up looking foolish if a hotel or restaurant has closed down since your visit, or a museum or gallery has changed its opening hours. That’s when the area’s tourist information is invaluable.
5 - People
If you haven’t found what you’re looking for using any of these methods, or if you want more details than the average reference book provides, you’ll need to look for someone in the know who can help you out. For general information, museum curators, gallery owners and librarians are often very helpful, but sometimes you’ll need something more specific.
In that case, the best tactic can be to find an association related to the topic. If you want to find out about details of the Civil War for your battle scene, is there a re-enactment society near you? There’s bound to be someone who can answer your questions, and you might even get a chance to see the atmosphere of a Civil War battle for yourself and pick up some details you’d never have thought to ask about.
Finally, if that fails, fall back on the theory that everyone on the planet is connected by just six links and ask everyone you know (work colleagues, fellow writers group members, friends and relatives) whether they know anyone who might be able to help you. Tell them it’s for a book (or magazine article, or whatever) and most people are glad to help – that’s the beauty of being a writer.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephanie Cage is a writer and researcher based in Berkshire, UK. She writes regularly for The Agony Column and newbooksmag and has also been published in e-Quip (the e-zine of the British Society of Comedy Writers) and Link (the magazine of the National Association of Writers’ Groups), where this article first appeared. Visit her at www.stephaniecage.co.uk
Extreme Research: 10 Snappy Rules for Success
by Christopher Brown
So you want to learn to research well, and not waste any time. Let's do it. Here are a few NECESSARY preliminary points.
1. First, adopt an aggressive I-am-taking-over-this-place mindset.
2. Develop a system for executing the research process. By creating your own rules to follow systematically, you really speed things up. Don't have one? No worries. You can use mine. I happen to have "research animal" stamped on my forehead.
3. Follow the rules. You can tweek them to suit your own style after a couple of runs with this method. But these make for great training wheels.
4. Before going into battle, always ready your weapons.
Do not go near a library or desk to start research unless and until everything you will need sits neatly arranged all about you for quick access. This one is your call. I use 2 or 3 pens and a pad of paper to scratch out notes and thoughts, and a pack of index cards for especially important notes. Then come the highlighters. In college, I used to work the highlighters until they overheated.
Some people like sticky notes (post-its). You can stick 'em all around you as you work. You will want a rolodex and a phone nearby in case you have to call someone you know to ask questions. For instance, if you have a specially-gifted techie friend in your inner circle, or know a professor, you may want to put him on speed dial. Think a bit about anything else you might need. Some folks study and research well to music, so get your headphones if you need them. Okay, here we have the system lined up for you.
PART #1: Begin Reconnaissance. You're going in.
A. Get an overview and "contextualize" your topic. Learn its timeline of events and the major historical factors associated with it. When did it happen? What did it do? Why do people care about it at all? Find a short article that outlines the history of, or at least offers a timeline for, your topic. Everything has a history, and gaining a quick overview of your topic's chronology will give you the context into which all your other sources will fit.
B. Next, ride the wave. This is the surfing and browsing stage. Start with what you know. Pick out words associated with your topic or subject and Google them. When you land a starting topic (you can change this as you go, no worries. Just start somewhere.), use online encyclopedias and other resources to get a "quick snapshot" of the general views on the subject that exist out there already. Try to see your subject from as many angles as possible, as it were, "walking all the way round it," inspecting as you go. Ask questions in your head, or even out loud like I do (caution: this may scare people), and put them down on paper in a special spot. Slap a sticky note on it that reads "QUESTIONS I HAVE."
To aid and abet developing a "snapshot overview," start looking up books on the topic. Find 10 of them. Note the titles on maybe 50 books -- if you can find that many -- about your subject or topic. Note the overlap in words used in the titles about your topic. This will give you a quick idea about who or what this topic means to others who have already studied it.
Next, read the bibliographies of books. One good book can give you 5-10 great leads you might never have found otherwise. Note the titles that show up repeatedly in different bibliographies. In research geekspeak this is "bibbo," bibliographic overlap. Bibbo identifies your IRT's -- Initial Research Targets. Photocopy or print out from your IRT's: the table of contents; the first chapter; a middle chapter that looks interesting or helpful; and the final chapter. Then read these and highlight the Dickens out of them. This gives you a snapshot, and a working knowledge, of the entire book extremely fast. It works too. Use your scribbled out question set as a filter for "what to look for" -- and highlight or take notes on -- when reading your IRT's. Write down any further questions that develop. These can be as simple as "Who is that guy?" Let your curiosity guide you, and let the sticky notes FLY!!
Next, read journal and magazine articles. How do you find these? Try checking your Bibbo. Or just follow any that you think might land you somewhere interesting. Play the detective. Follow your nose if you smell a good lead.
PART #2: Compile and organize your sources.
Use the old-fashioned vanilla file folders and mark them up, so you know which is what. Then get a file box to keep them handy.
PART#3: Determine which are the most relevant features of your topic from its effects or imlplications in 3 different areas of study. For instance, if your topic reads, "Interesting stuff about World War II," then you will need to ask and study questions like, "Who did it cost, and how much did it cost them, to have this war?" Follow the money (economics). Then, you might ask "How did this war change the mindset or values of American society" (sociology or philosophy). Finally, ask maybe, "What inventions did Europeans develop to fight this war?" (technology).
By looking at your topic from at least three disciplinary viewpoints, you will gain a broad understanding of it, and find yourself -- somewhat suddenly -- asking GREAT questions about it.
PART#4: Find and choose a controversial feature of topic, and choose a side of the issue.
Write down your viewpoint in one sentence. This we call your "thesis." Arguing this point well now constitutes your "objective." Ask the question of your thesis, "How do you know this is the case?" Ask this three times. Each time you ask it, give a brief answer in writing from one of your three areas you chose. Each answer must reflect views formed from a different area.
PART#5: Next, Re-read or skim your sources to develop an outline (in order to support your three points offered in defense of your thesis). Now pull out the photocopied (or printed out) chapters from your IRT's and highlight and scribble all over them -- but keep it legible. Argue your case vigorously with your imaginary critic who knows what you know. Take his side and argue against your thesis the best you can. Shoot it down, developing three criticisms. Some of these will already have circulated in print in your sources. Line them up. Then answer the critic. Refute his three points. Your outline is nearly finished.
PART #6: Organize your notes into subgroups listed under the branches of your outline. Draw a picture of the flow of your argument and objections as though it were a tree, and label the parts. Modify the outline as needed. Add relevant subheadings (you will come across new info in your scribbling) under the branches of the outline. Fill out relevant details from your notes to form the arguments for each section and subsection. Your rough draft is now complete.
PART#7: Rewrite your rough draft 5 times using our rules of good writing.
PART:#8 Study the cleaned-up draft for logical errors in arguments. See our "Blogic For Writers" website for this; modify and strenghten your case. Use T Edward Damer's "Attacking Faulty Reasoning" for this too.
PART#9 -- Write your conclusion. This final paragraph spells out "what important point or points you have learned from doing all this hard work (e-search). Here, you make the case for why your research has value. Also, here either write or rewrite your introductory paragraph to "hint at" (anticipate) the concluding paragraph. Most of the time it actually makes the best sense to write your introduction LAST, since this way you write with a view of the WHOLE work, which you did not have at the beginning.
In the introduction, hint at your conclusion, but don't give away the whole story. This makes for a smooth and logical flow from start to finish, giving your work a stylish symmetry, where the first part foresees the end, and the end reflects on the beginning. All good stories have this symmetry.
PART #10. Do the footnoting (or endnoting) and contstruct an extensive bibliography. Add title page and Table of Contents. See Kate Turabian's or an MLA manual online for this, and for grammar and style. You can also use the resources we list in our sidebar.
You are DONE. Your paper or article "so totally rocks," and you get an "A." Your readers love you, and you then become wealthy and famous. Your actual mileage may vary, batteries not included, offer void where prohibited.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christopher Brown has taught English and philosophy for two colleges, attended the California State University, and went to seminary in Orlando, FL. In 2004, he and two friends incorporated a business (Ophir Gold Corporation) that offers free services that help people. You may find them at: http://scriberight.blogspot.com (Writing With Power) and http://ophirgoldcorp.blogspot.com (OGC's Free Web Traffic).
So you want to learn to research well, and not waste any time. Let's do it. Here are a few NECESSARY preliminary points.
1. First, adopt an aggressive I-am-taking-over-this-place mindset.
2. Develop a system for executing the research process. By creating your own rules to follow systematically, you really speed things up. Don't have one? No worries. You can use mine. I happen to have "research animal" stamped on my forehead.
3. Follow the rules. You can tweek them to suit your own style after a couple of runs with this method. But these make for great training wheels.
4. Before going into battle, always ready your weapons.
Do not go near a library or desk to start research unless and until everything you will need sits neatly arranged all about you for quick access. This one is your call. I use 2 or 3 pens and a pad of paper to scratch out notes and thoughts, and a pack of index cards for especially important notes. Then come the highlighters. In college, I used to work the highlighters until they overheated.
Some people like sticky notes (post-its). You can stick 'em all around you as you work. You will want a rolodex and a phone nearby in case you have to call someone you know to ask questions. For instance, if you have a specially-gifted techie friend in your inner circle, or know a professor, you may want to put him on speed dial. Think a bit about anything else you might need. Some folks study and research well to music, so get your headphones if you need them. Okay, here we have the system lined up for you.
PART #1: Begin Reconnaissance. You're going in.
A. Get an overview and "contextualize" your topic. Learn its timeline of events and the major historical factors associated with it. When did it happen? What did it do? Why do people care about it at all? Find a short article that outlines the history of, or at least offers a timeline for, your topic. Everything has a history, and gaining a quick overview of your topic's chronology will give you the context into which all your other sources will fit.
B. Next, ride the wave. This is the surfing and browsing stage. Start with what you know. Pick out words associated with your topic or subject and Google them. When you land a starting topic (you can change this as you go, no worries. Just start somewhere.), use online encyclopedias and other resources to get a "quick snapshot" of the general views on the subject that exist out there already. Try to see your subject from as many angles as possible, as it were, "walking all the way round it," inspecting as you go. Ask questions in your head, or even out loud like I do (caution: this may scare people), and put them down on paper in a special spot. Slap a sticky note on it that reads "QUESTIONS I HAVE."
To aid and abet developing a "snapshot overview," start looking up books on the topic. Find 10 of them. Note the titles on maybe 50 books -- if you can find that many -- about your subject or topic. Note the overlap in words used in the titles about your topic. This will give you a quick idea about who or what this topic means to others who have already studied it.
Next, read the bibliographies of books. One good book can give you 5-10 great leads you might never have found otherwise. Note the titles that show up repeatedly in different bibliographies. In research geekspeak this is "bibbo," bibliographic overlap. Bibbo identifies your IRT's -- Initial Research Targets. Photocopy or print out from your IRT's: the table of contents; the first chapter; a middle chapter that looks interesting or helpful; and the final chapter. Then read these and highlight the Dickens out of them. This gives you a snapshot, and a working knowledge, of the entire book extremely fast. It works too. Use your scribbled out question set as a filter for "what to look for" -- and highlight or take notes on -- when reading your IRT's. Write down any further questions that develop. These can be as simple as "Who is that guy?" Let your curiosity guide you, and let the sticky notes FLY!!
Next, read journal and magazine articles. How do you find these? Try checking your Bibbo. Or just follow any that you think might land you somewhere interesting. Play the detective. Follow your nose if you smell a good lead.
PART #2: Compile and organize your sources.
Use the old-fashioned vanilla file folders and mark them up, so you know which is what. Then get a file box to keep them handy.
PART#3: Determine which are the most relevant features of your topic from its effects or imlplications in 3 different areas of study. For instance, if your topic reads, "Interesting stuff about World War II," then you will need to ask and study questions like, "Who did it cost, and how much did it cost them, to have this war?" Follow the money (economics). Then, you might ask "How did this war change the mindset or values of American society" (sociology or philosophy). Finally, ask maybe, "What inventions did Europeans develop to fight this war?" (technology).
By looking at your topic from at least three disciplinary viewpoints, you will gain a broad understanding of it, and find yourself -- somewhat suddenly -- asking GREAT questions about it.
PART#4: Find and choose a controversial feature of topic, and choose a side of the issue.
Write down your viewpoint in one sentence. This we call your "thesis." Arguing this point well now constitutes your "objective." Ask the question of your thesis, "How do you know this is the case?" Ask this three times. Each time you ask it, give a brief answer in writing from one of your three areas you chose. Each answer must reflect views formed from a different area.
PART#5: Next, Re-read or skim your sources to develop an outline (in order to support your three points offered in defense of your thesis). Now pull out the photocopied (or printed out) chapters from your IRT's and highlight and scribble all over them -- but keep it legible. Argue your case vigorously with your imaginary critic who knows what you know. Take his side and argue against your thesis the best you can. Shoot it down, developing three criticisms. Some of these will already have circulated in print in your sources. Line them up. Then answer the critic. Refute his three points. Your outline is nearly finished.
PART #6: Organize your notes into subgroups listed under the branches of your outline. Draw a picture of the flow of your argument and objections as though it were a tree, and label the parts. Modify the outline as needed. Add relevant subheadings (you will come across new info in your scribbling) under the branches of the outline. Fill out relevant details from your notes to form the arguments for each section and subsection. Your rough draft is now complete.
PART#7: Rewrite your rough draft 5 times using our rules of good writing.
PART:#8 Study the cleaned-up draft for logical errors in arguments. See our "Blogic For Writers" website for this; modify and strenghten your case. Use T Edward Damer's "Attacking Faulty Reasoning" for this too.
PART#9 -- Write your conclusion. This final paragraph spells out "what important point or points you have learned from doing all this hard work (e-search). Here, you make the case for why your research has value. Also, here either write or rewrite your introductory paragraph to "hint at" (anticipate) the concluding paragraph. Most of the time it actually makes the best sense to write your introduction LAST, since this way you write with a view of the WHOLE work, which you did not have at the beginning.
In the introduction, hint at your conclusion, but don't give away the whole story. This makes for a smooth and logical flow from start to finish, giving your work a stylish symmetry, where the first part foresees the end, and the end reflects on the beginning. All good stories have this symmetry.
PART #10. Do the footnoting (or endnoting) and contstruct an extensive bibliography. Add title page and Table of Contents. See Kate Turabian's or an MLA manual online for this, and for grammar and style. You can also use the resources we list in our sidebar.
You are DONE. Your paper or article "so totally rocks," and you get an "A." Your readers love you, and you then become wealthy and famous. Your actual mileage may vary, batteries not included, offer void where prohibited.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Christopher Brown has taught English and philosophy for two colleges, attended the California State University, and went to seminary in Orlando, FL. In 2004, he and two friends incorporated a business (Ophir Gold Corporation) that offers free services that help people. You may find them at: http://scriberight.blogspot.com (Writing With Power) and http://ophirgoldcorp.blogspot.com (OGC's Free Web Traffic).
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Adventures in Cheating: A guide to buying term papers online
I found this article at Slate.com and could not refrain from publishing it. The article is really interesting yet informative; it is written by Seth Stevenson, one of the contributors to Slate.Students, your semester is almost over. This fall, did you find yourself pulling many bong hits but few all-nighters? Absorbing much Schlitz but little Nietzsche? Attending Arizona State University? If the answer is yes to any or (especially) all these questions, you will no doubt be plagiarizing your term papers.
Good for you—we're all short on time these days. Yes, it's ethically blah blah blah to cheat on a term paper blah. The question is: How do you do it right? For example, the chump move is to find some library book and copy big hunks out of it. No good: You still have to walk to the library, find a decent book, and link the hunks together with your own awful prose. Instead, why not just click on a term paper web site and buy the whole damn paper already written by some smart dude? Que bella! Ah, but which site?
I shopped at several online term paper stores to determine where best to spend your cheating dollar. After selecting papers on topics in history, psychology, and biology, I had each paper graded by one of my judges. These were: Slate writer David Greenberg, who teaches history at Columbia; my dad, who teaches psychology at the University of Rhode Island (sometimes smeared as the ASU of the East); and my girlfriend, who was a teaching assistant in biology at Duke (where she says cheating was quite common). So, which site wins for the best combination of price and paper quality? I compared free sites, sites that sell "pre-written papers," and a site that writes custom papers to your specifications.
Free Sites
A quick Web search turns up dozens of sites filled with free term papers. Some ask you to donate one of your own papers in exchange, but most don't. I chose one from each of our fields for comparison and soon found that when it comes to free papers, you get just about what you pay for.
EssaysFree.com: From this site I chose a history paper titled "The Infamous Watergate Scandal." Bad choice. This paper had no thesis, no argument, random capitalization, and bizarre spell-checking errors—including "taking the whiteness stand" (witness) and "the registration of Nixon" (resignation). My judge said if they gave F's at Columbia, well … Instead, it gots a good old "Please come see me."BigNerds.com: Of the free bio paper I chose from this site, my judge said, "Disturbing. I am still disturbed." It indeed read less like a term paper than a deranged manifesto. Rambling for 11 single-spaced pages and ostensibly on evolutionary theory, it somehow made reference to Lamarck, Sol Invictus, and "the blanket of a superficial American Dream." Meanwhile, it garbled its basic explanation of population genetics. Grade: "I would not give this a grade so much as suggest tutoring, a change in majors, some sort of counseling."
OPPapers.com: This site fared much better. A paper titled "Critically Evaluate Erikson's Psychosocial Theory" spelled Erikson's name wrong in the first sentence, yet still won a C+/B- from my dad. It hit most of the important points—the problem was no analysis. And the citations all came from textbooks, not real sources. Oddly, this paper also used British spellings ("behaviour") for no apparent reason. But all in all not terrible, considering it was free.
OPPapers.com, purely on style points, was my favorite site. The name comes from an old hip-hop song ("You down with O-P-P?" meaning other people's ... genitalia), the site has pictures of coed babes, and one paper in the psych section was simply the phrase "I wanna bang Angelina Jolie" typed over and over again for several pages. Hey, whaddaya want for free?
Sites Selling Pre-Written Papers
There are dozens of these—I narrowed it down to three sites that seemed fairly reputable and were stocked with a wide selection. (In general, the selection offered on pay sites was 10 times bigger than at the free ones.) Each pay site posted clear disclaimers that you're not to pass off these papers as your own work. Sure you're not.
AcademicTermPapers.com: This site charged $7 per page, and I ordered "The Paranoia Behind Watergate" for $35. Well worth it. My history judge gave it the highest grade of all the papers he saw—a B or maybe even a B+. Why? It boasted an actual argument. A few passages, however, might set off his plagiarism radar (or "pladar"). They show almost too thorough a command of the literature.
My other purchase here was a $49 bio paper titled "The Species Concept." Despite appearing in the bio section of the site, this paper seemed to be for a philosophy class. Of course, no way to know that until after you've bought it (the pay sites give you just the title and a very brief synopsis of each paper). My judge would grade this a C- in an intro bio class, as its conclusion was "utterly meaningless," and it tossed around "airy" philosophies without actually understanding the species concept at all.
PaperStore.net: For about $10 per page, I ordered two papers from the Paper Store, which is also BuyPapers.com and AllPapers.com. For $50.23, I bought "Personality Theory: Freud and Erikson," by one Dr. P. McCabe (the only credited author on any of these papers. As best I can tell, the global stock of papers for sale is mostly actual undergrad stuff with a few items by hired guns thrown in). The writing style here was oddly mixed, with bad paraphrasing of textbooks—which is normal for a freshman—side by side with surprisingly clever and polished observations. Grade: a solid B.
My other Paper Store paper was "Typical Assumptions of Kin Selection," bought for $40.38. Again, a pretty good buy. It was well-written, accurate, and occasionally even thoughtful. My bio judge would give it a B in a freshman class. Possible pladar ping: The writer seemed to imply that some of his ideas stemmed from a personal chat with a noted biologist. But overall, the Paper Store earned its pay.
A1Termpaper.com (aka 1-800-Termpaper.com): In some ways this is the strangest site, as most of the papers for sale were written between 1978 and '83. I would guess this is an old term paper source, which has recently made the jump to the Web. From its history section, I bought a book report on Garry Wills' Nixon Agonistes for $44.75, plus a $7.45 fee for scanning all the pages—the paper was written in 1981, no doubt on a typewriter. Quality? It understood the book but made no critique—a high-school paper. My judge would give it a D.
I next bought "Personality as Seen by Erikson, Mead, and Freud" from A1 Termpaper for $62.65 plus a $10.43 scanning fee. Also written in 1981, this one had the most stylish prose of any psych paper and the most sophisticated thesis, but it was riddled with factual errors. For instance, it got Freud's psychosexual stages completely mixed up and even added some that don't exist (the correct progression is oral-anal-phallic-latency-genital, as if you didn't know). Showing its age, it cited a textbook from 1968 and nothing from after '69 (and no, that's not another Freudian stage, gutter-mind). Grade: Dad gave it a C+. In the end, A1 Termpaper.com was pricey, outdated, and not a good buy.
With all these pre-written papers, though, it occurred to me that a smart but horribly lazy student could choose to put his effort into editing instead of researching and writing: Buy a mediocre paper that's done the legwork, then whip it into shape by improving the writing and adding some carefully chosen details. Not a bad strategy.
Papers Made To Order
PaperMasters.com: My final buy was a custom-made paper written to my specifications. Lots of sites do this, for between $17 and $20 per page. PaperMasters.com claims all its writers have "at least one Master's Degree" and charges $17.95 per page. I typed this request (posing as a professor's assignment, copied verbatim) into its Web order form: "A 4-page term paper on David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. Investigate the semiotics of the 'addicted gaze' as represented by the mysterious film of the book's title. Possible topics to address include nihilism, figurative transgendering, the culture of entertainment, and the concept of 'infinite gestation.' "
This assignment was total hooey. It made no sense whatsoever. Yet it differed little from papers I was assigned as an undergrad English major at Brown.
After a few tries (one woman at the 800 number told me they were extremely busy), my assignment was accepted by Paper Masters, with a deadline for one week later. Keep in mind, Infinite Jest is an 1,100-page novel (including byzantine footnotes), and it took me almost a month to read even though I was completely engrossed by it. In short, there's no way anyone could 1) finish the book in time; and 2) write anything coherent that addressed the assignment.
I began to feel guilty. Some poor writer somewhere was plowing through this tome, then concocting a meaningless mishmash of words simply to fill four pages and satisfy the bizarre whims of a solitary, heartless taskmaster (me). But then I realized this is exactly what I did for all four years of college—and I paid them for the privilege!
When the custom paper came back, it was all I'd dreamed. Representative sentence: "The novel's diverse characters demonstrate both individually and collectively the fixations and obsessions that bind humanity to the pitfalls of reality and provide a fertile groundwork for the semiotic explanation of addictive behavior." Tripe. The paper had no thesis and in fact had no body—not one sentence actually advanced a cogent idea. I'm guessing it would have gotten a C+ at Brown—maybe even a B-. If I were a just slightly lesser person, I might be tempted by this service. One custom paper off the Web: $71.80. Not having to dredge up pointless poppycock for some po-mo obsessed, overrated lit-crit professor: priceless.
Adventures in Cheating: A guide to buying term papers online
I found this article in blog and could not refrain from publishing it. The article is really interesting yet informative; it is written by Seth Stevenson, one of the contributors to Slate.Students, your semester is almost over. This fall, did you find yourself pulling many bong hits but few all-nighters? Absorbing much Schlitz but little Nietzsche? Attending Arizona State University? If the answer is yes to any or (especially) all these questions, you will no doubt be plagiarizing your term papers.
Good for you—we're all short on time these days. Yes, it's ethically blah blah blah to cheat on a term paper blah. The question is: How do you do it right? For example, the chump move is to find some library book and copy big hunks out of it. No good: You still have to walk to the library, find a decent book, and link the hunks together with your own awful prose. Instead, why not just click on a term paper web site and buy the whole damn paper already written by some smart dude? Que bella! Ah, but which site?
I shopped at several online term paper stores to determine where best to spend your cheating dollar. After selecting papers on topics in history, psychology, and biology, I had each paper graded by one of my judges. These were: Slate writer David Greenberg, who teaches history at Columbia; my dad, who teaches psychology at the University of Rhode Island (sometimes smeared as the ASU of the East); and my girlfriend, who was a teaching assistant in biology at Duke (where she says cheating was quite common). So, which site wins for the best combination of price and paper quality? I compared free sites, sites that sell "pre-written papers," and a site that writes custom papers to your specifications.
Free Sites
A quick Web search turns up dozens of sites filled with free term papers. Some ask you to donate one of your own papers in exchange, but most don't. I chose one from each of our fields for comparison and soon found that when it comes to free papers, you get just about what you pay for.
EssaysFree.com: From this site I chose a history paper titled "The Infamous Watergate Scandal." Bad choice. This paper had no thesis, no argument, random capitalization, and bizarre spell-checking errors—including "taking the whiteness stand" (witness) and "the registration of Nixon" (resignation). My judge said if they gave F's at Columbia, well … Instead, it gots a good old "Please come see me."BigNerds.com: Of the free bio paper I chose from this site, my judge said, "Disturbing. I am still disturbed." It indeed read less like a term paper than a deranged manifesto. Rambling for 11 single-spaced pages and ostensibly on evolutionary theory, it somehow made reference to Lamarck, Sol Invictus, and "the blanket of a superficial American Dream." Meanwhile, it garbled its basic explanation of population genetics. Grade: "I would not give this a grade so much as suggest tutoring, a change in majors, some sort of counseling."
OPPapers.com: This site fared much better. A paper titled "Critically Evaluate Erikson's Psychosocial Theory" spelled Erikson's name wrong in the first sentence, yet still won a C+/B- from my dad. It hit most of the important points—the problem was no analysis. And the citations all came from textbooks, not real sources. Oddly, this paper also used British spellings ("behaviour") for no apparent reason. But all in all not terrible, considering it was free.
OPPapers.com, purely on style points, was my favorite site. The name comes from an old hip-hop song ("You down with O-P-P?" meaning other people's ... genitalia), the site has pictures of coed babes, and one paper in the psych section was simply the phrase "I wanna bang Angelina Jolie" typed over and over again for several pages. Hey, whaddaya want for free?
Sites Selling Pre-Written Papers
There are dozens of these—I narrowed it down to three sites that seemed fairly reputable and were stocked with a wide selection. (In general, the selection offered on pay sites was 10 times bigger than at the free ones.) Each pay site posted clear disclaimers that you're not to pass off these papers as your own work. Sure you're not.
AcademicTermPapers.com: This site charged $7 per page, and I ordered "The Paranoia Behind Watergate" for $35. Well worth it. My history judge gave it the highest grade of all the papers he saw—a B or maybe even a B+. Why? It boasted an actual argument. A few passages, however, might set off his plagiarism radar (or "pladar"). They show almost too thorough a command of the literature.
My other purchase here was a $49 bio paper titled "The Species Concept." Despite appearing in the bio section of the site, this paper seemed to be for a philosophy class. Of course, no way to know that until after you've bought it (the pay sites give you just the title and a very brief synopsis of each paper). My judge would grade this a C- in an intro bio class, as its conclusion was "utterly meaningless," and it tossed around "airy" philosophies without actually understanding the species concept at all.
PaperStore.net: For about $10 per page, I ordered two papers from the Paper Store, which is also BuyPapers.com and AllPapers.com. For $50.23, I bought "Personality Theory: Freud and Erikson," by one Dr. P. McCabe (the only credited author on any of these papers. As best I can tell, the global stock of papers for sale is mostly actual undergrad stuff with a few items by hired guns thrown in). The writing style here was oddly mixed, with bad paraphrasing of textbooks—which is normal for a freshman—side by side with surprisingly clever and polished observations. Grade: a solid B.
My other Paper Store paper was "Typical Assumptions of Kin Selection," bought for $40.38. Again, a pretty good buy. It was well-written, accurate, and occasionally even thoughtful. My bio judge would give it a B in a freshman class. Possible pladar ping: The writer seemed to imply that some of his ideas stemmed from a personal chat with a noted biologist. But overall, the Paper Store earned its pay.
A1Termpaper.com (aka 1-800-Termpaper.com): In some ways this is the strangest site, as most of the papers for sale were written between 1978 and '83. I would guess this is an old term paper source, which has recently made the jump to the Web. From its history section, I bought a book report on Garry Wills' Nixon Agonistes for $44.75, plus a $7.45 fee for scanning all the pages—the paper was written in 1981, no doubt on a typewriter. Quality? It understood the book but made no critique—a high-school paper. My judge would give it a D.
I next bought "Personality as Seen by Erikson, Mead, and Freud" from A1 Termpaper for $62.65 plus a $10.43 scanning fee. Also written in 1981, this one had the most stylish prose of any psych paper and the most sophisticated thesis, but it was riddled with factual errors. For instance, it got Freud's psychosexual stages completely mixed up and even added some that don't exist (the correct progression is oral-anal-phallic-latency-genital, as if you didn't know). Showing its age, it cited a textbook from 1968 and nothing from after '69 (and no, that's not another Freudian stage, gutter-mind). Grade: Dad gave it a C+. In the end, A1 Termpaper.com was pricey, outdated, and not a good buy.
With all these pre-written papers, though, it occurred to me that a smart but horribly lazy student could choose to put his effort into editing instead of researching and writing: Buy a mediocre paper that's done the legwork, then whip it into shape by improving the writing and adding some carefully chosen details. Not a bad strategy.
Papers Made To Order
PaperMasters.com: My final buy was a custom-made paper written to my specifications. Lots of sites do this, for between $17 and $20 per page. PaperMasters.com claims all its writers have "at least one Master's Degree" and charges $17.95 per page. I typed this request (posing as a professor's assignment, copied verbatim) into its Web order form: "A 4-page term paper on David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. Investigate the semiotics of the 'addicted gaze' as represented by the mysterious film of the book's title. Possible topics to address include nihilism, figurative transgendering, the culture of entertainment, and the concept of 'infinite gestation.' "
This assignment was total hooey. It made no sense whatsoever. Yet it differed little from papers I was assigned as an undergrad English major at Brown.
After a few tries (one woman at the 800 number told me they were extremely busy), my assignment was accepted by Paper Masters, with a deadline for one week later. Keep in mind, Infinite Jest is an 1,100-page novel (including byzantine footnotes), and it took me almost a month to read even though I was completely engrossed by it. In short, there's no way anyone could 1) finish the book in time; and 2) write anything coherent that addressed the assignment.
I began to feel guilty. Some poor writer somewhere was plowing through this tome, then concocting a meaningless mishmash of words simply to fill four pages and satisfy the bizarre whims of a solitary, heartless taskmaster (me). But then I realized this is exactly what I did for all four years of college—and I paid them for the privilege!
When the custom paper came back, it was all I'd dreamed. Representative sentence: "The novel's diverse characters demonstrate both individually and collectively the fixations and obsessions that bind humanity to the pitfalls of reality and provide a fertile groundwork for the semiotic explanation of addictive behavior." Tripe. The paper had no thesis and in fact had no body—not one sentence actually advanced a cogent idea. I'm guessing it would have gotten a C+ at Brown—maybe even a B-. If I were a just slightly lesser person, I might be tempted by this service. One custom paper off the Web: $71.80. Not having to dredge up pointless poppycock for some po-mo obsessed, overrated lit-crit professor: priceless.
Making Money from Freelance Writing
by Amber McNaught
It’s the question that every aspiring freelancer eventually finds themselves asking: is it really possible to make money from this? The kind of money that lets you keep a roof over your head and feed your kids occasionally, that is?
Well, yes, it is. But let’s be honest: it’s not easy. In fact, you probably just picked one of the most difficult career paths in the world. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that with the right approach and the right attitude, you can earn a respectable wage from freelance writing. Here are a few tips on how to do it:
Love your writing career
If you’re anything like the thousands of other freelance writers out there, you’re probably not in this for the money. If money was your main objective, you’d probably be working your way up the corporate ladder right now in a nice, safe office job, washing the car on Sundays and forgetting all about writing.
If that kind of lifestyle is anathema to you, then congratulations – freelance writing could be the right career choice after all.
At the bottom line, most freelance writers do it because they love to write, and because they want to be able to make a living doing something they enjoy. And that’s a good start. If you really want to make a success of your freelance writing career, you’re going to have to love what you’re doing, and really want to make a success of it.
This is a rule that doesn’t really apply to conventional working. You don’t have to love Big Macs to work in McDonalds, or love filing to work in an office. You just have to turn up on time, do what’s required from you and then walk away. If your career is freelance writing, you never get to walk away. The truth is that at first (and often for a long time afterwards) you’ll spend much more time looking for work than you’ll spend actually writing. Looking for work will become all-consuming. When you’re not writing, you’ll be either thinking about writing, or looking for writing you can do to make money. If you don’t love what you’re doing, and if you’re not absolutely determined to keep on doing it, you’ll find it very hard to keep that up.
But enjoying what you’re doing isn’t going to be enough: if you really want to make a living out of your writing, you’re going to have to treat it like a business.
Treat freelance writing as a business
As we’ve said, the chances are that you write because you love to write. Or because you want a job you can work around your kids, your hobbies or your other commitments in life. Whatever you do, though, never lose sight of the fact that your writing is, first and foremost, a business. And as with any business, you need to work at marketing it and growing it.
This may not come easy at first. You’re a writer, after all, not a marketer! If you wanted to sell things, you’d have found a job in sales, right?
Wrong. You DID find a job in sales. Freelance writing is as much about selling as it is about writing. You picked a competitive industry to work in. No matter how good you are at writing, there’s someone out there who’s as good or better. There are even people out there who aren’t nearly as good at writing as you are, and yet they’re getting more jobs. Why is that?
The difference is in the selling. The mediocre writer who does a good job of getting out there and selling their services (and themselves) will ultimately be more successful than the excellent writer who sits at home and waits for the work to come and find them. The truth is that the work will never come. You need to go and find it – and when you find it, you need to make sure you pitch yourself well enough to secure it. If you don’t know anything about marketing, it’s time to learn.
Remember the golden rule of writing
Of course, there are ways to make things easier on yourself. There are a whole host of websites out there which allow you to “bid” for writing jobs. Great idea, no? Well, it depends. Remember the golden rule: money flows towards the writer. If you’re thinking of signing up with an agency that requires you to pay money to join, you’re already breaking the number one rule.
Be wary of bidding sites, too. Often the competition is so fierce that you have to be willing to practically work for free in order to secure the job. And working for free isn’t paying your mortgage or feeding your kids.
Love your work, market yourself, and remember the golden rule. Welcome to the wonderful world of freelance writing!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amber McNaught runs www.WritingWorld.org, an online agency for writers, editors, proofreaders and translators. Chat about all aspects of writing and the writing life at the WritingWorld.org forum! Amber is also a director of Hot Igloo Productions Ltd., the website design and small business specialists.
It’s the question that every aspiring freelancer eventually finds themselves asking: is it really possible to make money from this? The kind of money that lets you keep a roof over your head and feed your kids occasionally, that is?
Well, yes, it is. But let’s be honest: it’s not easy. In fact, you probably just picked one of the most difficult career paths in the world. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that with the right approach and the right attitude, you can earn a respectable wage from freelance writing. Here are a few tips on how to do it:
Love your writing career
If you’re anything like the thousands of other freelance writers out there, you’re probably not in this for the money. If money was your main objective, you’d probably be working your way up the corporate ladder right now in a nice, safe office job, washing the car on Sundays and forgetting all about writing.
If that kind of lifestyle is anathema to you, then congratulations – freelance writing could be the right career choice after all.
At the bottom line, most freelance writers do it because they love to write, and because they want to be able to make a living doing something they enjoy. And that’s a good start. If you really want to make a success of your freelance writing career, you’re going to have to love what you’re doing, and really want to make a success of it.
This is a rule that doesn’t really apply to conventional working. You don’t have to love Big Macs to work in McDonalds, or love filing to work in an office. You just have to turn up on time, do what’s required from you and then walk away. If your career is freelance writing, you never get to walk away. The truth is that at first (and often for a long time afterwards) you’ll spend much more time looking for work than you’ll spend actually writing. Looking for work will become all-consuming. When you’re not writing, you’ll be either thinking about writing, or looking for writing you can do to make money. If you don’t love what you’re doing, and if you’re not absolutely determined to keep on doing it, you’ll find it very hard to keep that up.
But enjoying what you’re doing isn’t going to be enough: if you really want to make a living out of your writing, you’re going to have to treat it like a business.
Treat freelance writing as a business
As we’ve said, the chances are that you write because you love to write. Or because you want a job you can work around your kids, your hobbies or your other commitments in life. Whatever you do, though, never lose sight of the fact that your writing is, first and foremost, a business. And as with any business, you need to work at marketing it and growing it.
This may not come easy at first. You’re a writer, after all, not a marketer! If you wanted to sell things, you’d have found a job in sales, right?
Wrong. You DID find a job in sales. Freelance writing is as much about selling as it is about writing. You picked a competitive industry to work in. No matter how good you are at writing, there’s someone out there who’s as good or better. There are even people out there who aren’t nearly as good at writing as you are, and yet they’re getting more jobs. Why is that?
The difference is in the selling. The mediocre writer who does a good job of getting out there and selling their services (and themselves) will ultimately be more successful than the excellent writer who sits at home and waits for the work to come and find them. The truth is that the work will never come. You need to go and find it – and when you find it, you need to make sure you pitch yourself well enough to secure it. If you don’t know anything about marketing, it’s time to learn.
Remember the golden rule of writing
Of course, there are ways to make things easier on yourself. There are a whole host of websites out there which allow you to “bid” for writing jobs. Great idea, no? Well, it depends. Remember the golden rule: money flows towards the writer. If you’re thinking of signing up with an agency that requires you to pay money to join, you’re already breaking the number one rule.
Be wary of bidding sites, too. Often the competition is so fierce that you have to be willing to practically work for free in order to secure the job. And working for free isn’t paying your mortgage or feeding your kids.
Love your work, market yourself, and remember the golden rule. Welcome to the wonderful world of freelance writing!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amber McNaught runs www.WritingWorld.org, an online agency for writers, editors, proofreaders and translators. Chat about all aspects of writing and the writing life at the WritingWorld.org forum! Amber is also a director of Hot Igloo Productions Ltd., the website design and small business specialists.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Write Right
The rich and colorful descriptors flowing from your deft digits on a seasoned keyboard will tantalize and transform your rapt audience. What?! That line may be too flowery but does show how important it is to write advertising copy that demands to be noticed.
There are two considerations in creating compelling copy. You don't have much time to get noticed and the words have to be exactly right. You get one chance. Be clear and creative. And get to the point.
List your benefit early in the copy. Don't make your prospect guess. If you're selling fuel sipping automobiles, say so--in the beginning.
Tell prospects what they need to know--The who, what, where,why and when of your offering.
Economize your words. Go through copy and eliminate that not needed. You can say a lot with few words. Think Nike and 'just do it". Too many descriptors cloud your theme and confuse the message.
Write like you talk. Phrases are OK. Forget what an English teacher would say. Ad copy has a singular goal--to compel people to act.
Get creative with words. If you sell chairs, maybe customers tell you the chair is comfortable. You tell prospects the silken, smooth fabric created on old world looms will embrace them and create a safe harbor from the ravages of a stressful world. As you ponder your copy, consult a thesaurus for words that are more rich, descriptive and compelling.
After you've crafted copy that meets your approval, show it around. Ask those you trust to read and react to it. Listen to their suggestions. Rewrite. Rewrite some more. Put it aside and look at it in the morning. The words have to be right.
There are two considerations in creating compelling copy. You don't have much time to get noticed and the words have to be exactly right. You get one chance. Be clear and creative. And get to the point.
List your benefit early in the copy. Don't make your prospect guess. If you're selling fuel sipping automobiles, say so--in the beginning.
Tell prospects what they need to know--The who, what, where,why and when of your offering.
Economize your words. Go through copy and eliminate that not needed. You can say a lot with few words. Think Nike and 'just do it". Too many descriptors cloud your theme and confuse the message.
Write like you talk. Phrases are OK. Forget what an English teacher would say. Ad copy has a singular goal--to compel people to act.
Get creative with words. If you sell chairs, maybe customers tell you the chair is comfortable. You tell prospects the silken, smooth fabric created on old world looms will embrace them and create a safe harbor from the ravages of a stressful world. As you ponder your copy, consult a thesaurus for words that are more rich, descriptive and compelling.
After you've crafted copy that meets your approval, show it around. Ask those you trust to read and react to it. Listen to their suggestions. Rewrite. Rewrite some more. Put it aside and look at it in the morning. The words have to be right.
Hooks, Lines & Sinkers
Hands up if the title to this article made you think that you’d strayed into a fishing feature?
Perhaps you didn’t quite go that far, but hopefully you were puzzled or curious enough to wonder what on earth those three angling associated words have to do with writing. The answer of course is nothing at all if you are thinking of metal barbs, yards of tangled nylon and blobs of lead weights.
Think, however, of the good opening lines used to begin most successful short stories, novels and articles then the “hook” in our title takes on a whole new range of meanings and equates very well with the world of creative writing.
What most beginners fail to understand when they first begin writing, and this applies as much to articles as it does to short stories and novels, is that when they submit their work to an editor, competition judge or publisher there is only a brief moment to impress which is why a lot of attention needs to be paid to that first opening sentence.
Hooking your reader with a good beginning isn’t a guarantee to success, but it will serve to focus attention and make the judge, publisher or editor take more notice of the rest of the article, story etc. If nothing else, it presses an subconscious alert button in the reader’s mind that marks up the writer as a professional who knows his or her craft.
This in turn builds expectation and again focuses attention. As long as the rest of the piece lives up to its early promise, you can be sure that your effort will at the very least receive close inspection and hopefully much more!
So, just how do you come up with a good hook? It would be nice if I could say that there was some magic formula available but unfortunately I haven’t found it even if it does exist! Still there are several things that you can do to get things moving.
First of all don’t sit staring at your screen trying to think of a good opening line when you have a mind boiling with ideas struggling to spread themselves over the page! All this will do is make you tense up with frustration and dam your creativity.
Instead, start hitting the keys and slap those ideas across the screen! Once you have the basic outline down then you can start the editing process, including the opening sentence. If at this stage you are still stuck, try leaving the work for a few days, there’s a good chance you’ll come up with something when you’re mind is focused on something else and the first flush of enthusiasm has cleared from your brain.
Analogy, such as I’ve used to the fishing world, often provides a good hook. In the case of this article I used it in the title but hooks are used just as often or more so in the opening sentence. My actual opening “hook” made use of a question, which again is a very good way to start, as questions by their very nature demand a response from the reader, even if it is only to read to the end of the sentence!
I took this a step further by demanding physical action, “hands up”, which of course is a ridiculous thing to expect a reader to do when there is no way of knowing whether they have complied or not! It is this stupidity that hopefully grabs attention and carries on from where the title left off. PR writers are well aware of this process and often mis-spell words to create a similar effect .
Quotations and deliberate mis-quotations also make good hooks either from songs, proverbs or other literary works, but also try putting together unusual combinations of words.
For instance, you wouldn’t think that brussel sprouts could possibly have any effect on good or evil and I’m sure they haven’t! One of my son’s however has different ideas and his annual grumble during our recent Christmas meal gave me a marvellous opening line, or hook, for what will be a festive article taking a close look at this, in my opinion, much maligned vegetable!
What was it? Oh yes, when faced with a heap of those shiny green gems he muttered murderously, “If it wasn’t for brussel sprouts there’d be no evil in the world …” now is that a hook or what?
Which brings me on to another point. Hooks, I’ve found seem to have a power in their own right and often serve as a catalyst to the story or article itself which is why you should be on the alert for when they occur.
The brussel sprout incident is a prime example. Writing in any shape or form was the furthest thing from my mind, but the startled looks and laughter from the rest of the family were enough to confirm what I’d immediately thought, here was a hook begging for exploitation and with a enough power of its own to begin generating several lines of thought.
Being aware of hooks and the power they have on the reader is something every writer has to get to grips with if they want to achieve success so it is a good idea to train yourself to both generate hooks and be on the alert for them by listening to what other people say.
Having a small notebook handy makes a lot of sense, but reading what other people have done before you will also pay dividends. Try this quiz of opening lines to famous novels. It’s not easy, but don’t worry about your score, the real benefit of the quiz is seeing what worked for the author.
1. The scent of slaughter, some believe, can linger in a place for years.
2. When Mr Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday …
3. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth …
4. Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were.
5. The stranger came early in February one wintry day, through a biting wind and a driving snow …
6. “The marvellous thing is that it’s painless,” he said. “That’s how you know when it starts.”
7. Last night I dreamed of Mandalay …
8. A wide plain, where the broadening Floss hurries on between its green banks to the sea, and the loving tide rushing to meet it …
9. Mr Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-house for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes.
10. “Tom!”
Well, what did you think? Some were definitely intriguing but others in my opinion left a lot to be desired which just goes to show that the proof of the pudding is in the eat… er reading so don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the beginning is the be all and end all!
Oh and before you ask, I haven’t forgotten the lines and sinkers either, call those plots and twist endings and to find out more sign up for the WriteLink Short Story Writing Workshop, it’s free! www.writebytes.co.uk
ANSWERS:
1. The Loop by Nicholas Evans
2. The Lord of the Rings by J R R Tolkein
3. The Bible
4. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
5. The Invisible Man by H G Wells
6. The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
7. Rebecca by Daphne De Maurier
8. The Mill on the Floss by George Elliot
9. Animal Farm by George Orwell
10. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Perhaps you didn’t quite go that far, but hopefully you were puzzled or curious enough to wonder what on earth those three angling associated words have to do with writing. The answer of course is nothing at all if you are thinking of metal barbs, yards of tangled nylon and blobs of lead weights.
Think, however, of the good opening lines used to begin most successful short stories, novels and articles then the “hook” in our title takes on a whole new range of meanings and equates very well with the world of creative writing.
What most beginners fail to understand when they first begin writing, and this applies as much to articles as it does to short stories and novels, is that when they submit their work to an editor, competition judge or publisher there is only a brief moment to impress which is why a lot of attention needs to be paid to that first opening sentence.
Hooking your reader with a good beginning isn’t a guarantee to success, but it will serve to focus attention and make the judge, publisher or editor take more notice of the rest of the article, story etc. If nothing else, it presses an subconscious alert button in the reader’s mind that marks up the writer as a professional who knows his or her craft.
This in turn builds expectation and again focuses attention. As long as the rest of the piece lives up to its early promise, you can be sure that your effort will at the very least receive close inspection and hopefully much more!
So, just how do you come up with a good hook? It would be nice if I could say that there was some magic formula available but unfortunately I haven’t found it even if it does exist! Still there are several things that you can do to get things moving.
First of all don’t sit staring at your screen trying to think of a good opening line when you have a mind boiling with ideas struggling to spread themselves over the page! All this will do is make you tense up with frustration and dam your creativity.
Instead, start hitting the keys and slap those ideas across the screen! Once you have the basic outline down then you can start the editing process, including the opening sentence. If at this stage you are still stuck, try leaving the work for a few days, there’s a good chance you’ll come up with something when you’re mind is focused on something else and the first flush of enthusiasm has cleared from your brain.
Analogy, such as I’ve used to the fishing world, often provides a good hook. In the case of this article I used it in the title but hooks are used just as often or more so in the opening sentence. My actual opening “hook” made use of a question, which again is a very good way to start, as questions by their very nature demand a response from the reader, even if it is only to read to the end of the sentence!
I took this a step further by demanding physical action, “hands up”, which of course is a ridiculous thing to expect a reader to do when there is no way of knowing whether they have complied or not! It is this stupidity that hopefully grabs attention and carries on from where the title left off. PR writers are well aware of this process and often mis-spell words to create a similar effect .
Quotations and deliberate mis-quotations also make good hooks either from songs, proverbs or other literary works, but also try putting together unusual combinations of words.
For instance, you wouldn’t think that brussel sprouts could possibly have any effect on good or evil and I’m sure they haven’t! One of my son’s however has different ideas and his annual grumble during our recent Christmas meal gave me a marvellous opening line, or hook, for what will be a festive article taking a close look at this, in my opinion, much maligned vegetable!
What was it? Oh yes, when faced with a heap of those shiny green gems he muttered murderously, “If it wasn’t for brussel sprouts there’d be no evil in the world …” now is that a hook or what?
Which brings me on to another point. Hooks, I’ve found seem to have a power in their own right and often serve as a catalyst to the story or article itself which is why you should be on the alert for when they occur.
The brussel sprout incident is a prime example. Writing in any shape or form was the furthest thing from my mind, but the startled looks and laughter from the rest of the family were enough to confirm what I’d immediately thought, here was a hook begging for exploitation and with a enough power of its own to begin generating several lines of thought.
Being aware of hooks and the power they have on the reader is something every writer has to get to grips with if they want to achieve success so it is a good idea to train yourself to both generate hooks and be on the alert for them by listening to what other people say.
Having a small notebook handy makes a lot of sense, but reading what other people have done before you will also pay dividends. Try this quiz of opening lines to famous novels. It’s not easy, but don’t worry about your score, the real benefit of the quiz is seeing what worked for the author.
1. The scent of slaughter, some believe, can linger in a place for years.
2. When Mr Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday …
3. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth …
4. Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were.
5. The stranger came early in February one wintry day, through a biting wind and a driving snow …
6. “The marvellous thing is that it’s painless,” he said. “That’s how you know when it starts.”
7. Last night I dreamed of Mandalay …
8. A wide plain, where the broadening Floss hurries on between its green banks to the sea, and the loving tide rushing to meet it …
9. Mr Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-house for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes.
10. “Tom!”
Well, what did you think? Some were definitely intriguing but others in my opinion left a lot to be desired which just goes to show that the proof of the pudding is in the eat… er reading so don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the beginning is the be all and end all!
Oh and before you ask, I haven’t forgotten the lines and sinkers either, call those plots and twist endings and to find out more sign up for the WriteLink Short Story Writing Workshop, it’s free! www.writebytes.co.uk
ANSWERS:
1. The Loop by Nicholas Evans
2. The Lord of the Rings by J R R Tolkein
3. The Bible
4. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
5. The Invisible Man by H G Wells
6. The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
7. Rebecca by Daphne De Maurier
8. The Mill on the Floss by George Elliot
9. Animal Farm by George Orwell
10. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Thursday, May 25, 2006
How to Perform Dynamite Research
The quality of the papers you custom-write often depends upon the research techniques that were used to compile information. Very few assigned research paper projects are on subjects that the student is an expert about, and even in those rare cases where the academic writer is an expert it is necessary he perform research to stay up to date on his knowledge. Unfortunately, many students have developed poor researching habits and they do not get the most out of their research time. The following steps will help you maximize your research time and thus help you to prepare the best possible and custom written research papers.
Choose Your Topic Wisely
If your professor assigns your topic, you have little choice in the matter. However, if you are given leeway in the choice of your topic, make sure to choose a topic that you know you can manage within the given parameters of the research paper. For example, it would be very difficult to tackle the subject of the United States health care system in a ten-page term paper. However, a report on a particular United States health insurance provider could easily be covered within those ten pages.
Frame Your Research to Answer a Question
Before you ever begin looking through any of your chosen materials, take the time to create questions regarding your research topic. Using words such as who, what, why, how, when, and which will allow you to focus on your topic's most important issues. Then, when researching, gather information that answers those questions and informs your reader about those issues. By forming relevant questions about your chosen topic, you ensure that the information you collect is essential to the final essay or research paper.
Choose Sources From Several Different Formats
When you begin to gather your sources, do not limit yourself to just one type of resource, such as books or the Internet. There are a wide variety of informational formats available to you, such as nonfiction books and magazines, online databases, academic websites, almanacs, scholarly journals, and biographical indexes. By varying the type of sources as much as possible, you increase your chances of compiling as complete a collection of information as possible.
Be Selective with Your Sources
When it comes to custom research, all sources are not created equal. There is a difference between what are known as primary sources and secondary sources. Primary sources usually consist of raw data, such as original reports, interviews, or first-hand accounts of events. Secondary sources are materials that analyze primary source information to develop ideas about that subject. Generally speaking, primary sources are considered to be superior to secondary sources, and most academic institutions require that the majority of research material be comprised of primary sources.
Cite as You Go Along
Take the time to write out a complete citation each time you come across research material that you are going to use to develop your paper. If you are going to paraphrase or quote from any of these sources directly, be sure to record the page numbers where the information can be found. This will save you a great deal of time later by eliminating the need to search through your sources after the paper has been completed. Different custom academic writing styles have different standards for citation, so be sure to familiarize yourself with the rules of your chosen style. Failing to properly cite information can be construed as plagiarism, and can have disastrous effects upon your future academic career.
Doing Custom Research - Form Your Thesis
While some academic writers may create their thesis statements early on, it is generally a good idea to hold off on forming one until you have performed a significant amount of research on your chosen topic. This helps to prevent any subconscious bias during the analysis of the collected information. Once your thesis statement has been crafted, every other words within your essay should be used to support it.
Choose Your Topic Wisely
If your professor assigns your topic, you have little choice in the matter. However, if you are given leeway in the choice of your topic, make sure to choose a topic that you know you can manage within the given parameters of the research paper. For example, it would be very difficult to tackle the subject of the United States health care system in a ten-page term paper. However, a report on a particular United States health insurance provider could easily be covered within those ten pages.
Frame Your Research to Answer a Question
Before you ever begin looking through any of your chosen materials, take the time to create questions regarding your research topic. Using words such as who, what, why, how, when, and which will allow you to focus on your topic's most important issues. Then, when researching, gather information that answers those questions and informs your reader about those issues. By forming relevant questions about your chosen topic, you ensure that the information you collect is essential to the final essay or research paper.
Choose Sources From Several Different Formats
When you begin to gather your sources, do not limit yourself to just one type of resource, such as books or the Internet. There are a wide variety of informational formats available to you, such as nonfiction books and magazines, online databases, academic websites, almanacs, scholarly journals, and biographical indexes. By varying the type of sources as much as possible, you increase your chances of compiling as complete a collection of information as possible.
Be Selective with Your Sources
When it comes to custom research, all sources are not created equal. There is a difference between what are known as primary sources and secondary sources. Primary sources usually consist of raw data, such as original reports, interviews, or first-hand accounts of events. Secondary sources are materials that analyze primary source information to develop ideas about that subject. Generally speaking, primary sources are considered to be superior to secondary sources, and most academic institutions require that the majority of research material be comprised of primary sources.
Cite as You Go Along
Take the time to write out a complete citation each time you come across research material that you are going to use to develop your paper. If you are going to paraphrase or quote from any of these sources directly, be sure to record the page numbers where the information can be found. This will save you a great deal of time later by eliminating the need to search through your sources after the paper has been completed. Different custom academic writing styles have different standards for citation, so be sure to familiarize yourself with the rules of your chosen style. Failing to properly cite information can be construed as plagiarism, and can have disastrous effects upon your future academic career.
Doing Custom Research - Form Your Thesis
While some academic writers may create their thesis statements early on, it is generally a good idea to hold off on forming one until you have performed a significant amount of research on your chosen topic. This helps to prevent any subconscious bias during the analysis of the collected information. Once your thesis statement has been crafted, every other words within your essay should be used to support it.
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Research Paper in 60 Minutes: Fast and Neat
by Anastasia Kurdina
Assignments are prepared best when they are given much time and attention, but sometimes time deficit and busy student life require a skill of writing papers very fast. If you know what I mean, this brief guide on writing research papers in emergency regime is for you.
One of the most useful ways of writing research papers of any type is to develop a draft outline of what you have to cover. Let’s assume your research paper deals with advertising, but this topic is too broad, you should narrow it to more specific subject. In this, I advise you to follow the rule of “inverted pyramid”, starting with broad overview of subject and narrowing your focus down to the pyramid’s head, where your specific topic is formulated. For instance, the topic of advertising can be narrowed down to “Advertising techniques of Absolut Company”. In your outline, make a list of general points you want to make and notes or references that can support those points. Your strongest point should be the last in your list.
It is important to gain idea about what your thesis will be. If you don’t have any vision yet, spend some time brainstorming and noting your thoughts. Still, it’s normal to start your research without thesis or to change the thesis in the course of your research: as you learn more, your ideas on the subject change.
When you have a thesis, make sure it is not a mere statement of fact, like “advertising is used to raise brand awareness and sell products to customers”. A good thesis should make a strong claim about something, in the way: “advertising is the most important element in Absolut differentiation and positioning strategy. In its turn, the company changed the meaning of advertising in entire liquor market”. Also, your thesis should not be too broad. For instance, such thesis as “The paper will discuss the effectiveness of radio, TV, and printed advertising and their role in the economy” is too broad for most papers and takes too much time to elaborate.
After you have done developing your draft outline and decided on your thesis, you have to “fill in the blanks”. On this stage, many students stumble since they are used to linear approach to research writing instead of shotgun one. If you are absolutely unfamiliar with your topic, a good method of starting your research is to read good encyclopedia article. This will give you overview of the subject and provide you with good ideas for further studying. Also, pay attention to structure of encyclopedia article. This may provide you with your own ideas as to organizing your presentation. After you gain insight into the topic, the process is easier. To act fast, use search engine to find related info or apply to source that provides you with comprehensive journal and magazine articles, such as Questia (www.questia.com), HighBeam of Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com). Teachers value peer-reviewed articles and scholarly books, and therefore you should pay close attention to them to leave teachers satisfied. Encyclopedias and journal articles should be the first resources you apply to, but you are not advised to use encyclopedia article as the source of your work unless you are required. If you need current figures or specific facts that are extremely difficult to find, use a reliable website. After you collected all the information, you can find some interesting alternative opinions on the subject. Try to find opinions pro and contra discussed point, but don’t forget to site the resources you use. Every time you use a resource, you should refer to it and include it into your bibliography list. What is even more important, you should produce your own opinion on the subject and your own analysis of discussed topic. This is the moment where your paper acquires real academic value. Do not fear of being wrong, the most important thing required from you while you learn is ability to think and analyze, therefore any original analysis is valuable.
Writing is the final stage of your creative process. In writing a paper, constantly refer to your notes, your thesis, and outline.
Written paper should be structured according to standard pattern. Usually, it’s divided in three major blocks: introduction (where you will tell you audience what you are going to tell them), main body (here you will tell them – elaborate your thesis), and conclusion (tell the audience what you told them). That’s the simplest scheme you probably ever met!
In introduction you should start with broad overview of the topic of your research unless indicated otherwise in your assignment. This part should end with clear thesis statement unless required otherwise. This is very important for success of your paper. It is good to divide the main body – the review and discussion block, into several sections. Applying advertising at Absolut, these may include: theoretical overview of advertising in context of marketing communications, background and overview of Absolut Company, advertising mix of Absolut, and analysis of advertising trends in liquor industry. In conclusion, you sum up the main findings of your research and principal points.
After you have completed writing, put your paper aside for some time, refresh your mind, and come back to it a bit later to polish and revise your work. A good thing is to ask someone else to read your paper. He or she would produce fresh ideas and point to some mistakes you didn’t notice. Also, use spelling and grammar checking software, but make your own checking as well. Before you finish, ask yourself is there are flaws in the paper, check it on the following features: if it has transitions between different ideas, if it is choppy or disjointed, if it builds up ideas to the strongest point. Also, make sure that all parts of your paper support your thesis or refer to it. Ask yourself if you gave proper consideration to alternative viewpoints: comprehensive presentation is very important element of good research paper.
Approaching your research in this way, you will let the research process guide the direction of your future paper instead of trying to find relevant things that would match what you need. This approach is much faster and produces far better results for both beginners and those lacking time for writing assignments. As you master this algorithm, you can apply it to more complicated and serious projects.
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