Mental gymnastics

Your mental training will include strategies for using your memory such as using acronyms, acrostics and rhyme-keys. Don’t know what those are? Check out the Joe Landsberger’s Study Guides and Strategies website where you’ll learn tips for how to study and ways to build your mental mass. For example, one way to recall information is called “chaining.”

Landsberger explains how to chain: “Create a story where each word or idea you have to remember cues the next idea you need to recall. If you had to remember the words Napoleon, ear, door, and Germany, you could invent a story of Napoleon with his ear to a door listening to people speak in German.”

Get physical

According to the American College of Sports Medicine, students who do some form of vigorous physical exercise regularly get better grades. A study of 266 undergraduates found that the average grade difference was 0.4 points higher for students who exercised seven days a week.

How is a busy college student supposed to exercise regularly when they have little time and no money for a fancy gym membership? Try these routines that can be done just about anywhere.

• Build strength: push-ups using the floor or a wall, lunges, squats, sit-ups
• Cardio burn: jumping jacks, running in place, jumping rope, walking/running up and down stairs, kickboxing

Shape.com has specific dorm room workout routines that are quick and easy to do.

Talent — Are you born with it?

Some students take to math like a duck to water and others can explain biology in their sleep, but even they have to work hard for their good grades. Just what does it take to be successful? According to Geoff Colvin, talent is overrated and what really makes a success is “deliberate practice.”

In a May 12, 2009 post for FranklinCovey.com titled, “Book Summary: ‘Talent is Overrated’ by Geoff Colvin,” Todd Wangsgard reviewed Colvin’s book describing his theories about success.

“The author explains, drawing several research-based conclusions, that the secret — deliberate practice — is designed, can be repeated a lot, requires constant feedback, is highly demanding mentally, and isn’t much fun,” Wangsgard said.

Not easy and not fun may not be your ideal choice, but if success were easy, your victories wouldn’t be nearly as rewarding.

Ace the exam without breaking a sweat

All of your practice and preparation will be put to use and proven effective when you have to take an exam, but the sheer pressure can make even the most prepared student shaky to the point of nausea. Sound like you? Relax. Plenty of strategies can help you whip your fall exams into submission.

You can read about them all in Motivation and Learning Strategies for College Success: A Self-Management Approach, by Myron H. Dembo. From time management, to study tips to dealing with different types of test questions, the author covers all the challenges that can derail student success.

Are you often baffled by true/false quiz questions? Dembo suggests looking for key words such as: most, always, better, or more, to give you clues that can determine what the statement really means. Always read test questions carefully and choose the answer you feel is the best. If you’re not sure, then he advises that you guess rather than leave the answer blank.

Do you stress out before the exam? According to Dembo, “Relaxation techniques can be grouped into physical and mental techniques. For example, controlling one’s breathing is an effective way to relax. Many experts in anxiety reduction teach individuals breathing exercises that involve long, slow exhalation. The diaphragm expands and tenses when taking in air and relaxes when the air is released. Thus, one way to relax is to increase the time you spend exhaling.”

Get into fighting condition this summer by strategizing your study routine, ready to hit the ground running in the fall. Success all comes down to deciding what you want and going for it with all you’ve got. With planning and persistence, you can go the distance.

Questia’s summer reading list

Questia has great reads available online, not just for school but for your down time. Search for books by title or author from a catalog of 5,000 free books. Among this treasure trove you’ll find the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who created one of the most enigmatic and admired characters in all of literature, Sherlock Holmes. The great detective has been portrayed numerous times in film and on television. The latest iteration of the character is the creation by the BBC, where Holmes and his friend Doctor Watson live in contemporary London. But, there’s nothing like enjoying the adventures of Holmes, the original CSI expert, in their original form including Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Return of Sherlock Holmes.

Try losing yourself in a long novel this summer. On Questia, you’ll find romance, history, adventure and drama within the pages of such classics as Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Jack London’s The Call of the Wild, White Fang, and Other Stories and Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations.

If reading time is limited, short stories are the perfect way to spend a summer afternoon:

Thirty-Two Stories: Edgar Allan Poe is one of the greatest writers of short stories in American literature. With chilling themes that include murder, jealousy and guilt, you’ll find yourself leaving the light on when you go to bed and listening for strange noises in the night.

Dracula: Vampires are all the rage these days, but nothing comes close to Dracula. Bram Stoker’s tale of the undead was the first novel to introduce the immortal character of the Count, who survives on the blood of the living. The story of Dracula is sure to chill your blood on a hot summer day.

Tarzan of the Apes: You can’t beat a novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs for good, clean adventure and fun. You may think that you know Tarzan from the many depictions in films, but none of those movies does justice to the original character. For example, did you know that Tarzan could speak perfect English?

Integrity: For a more contemporary read, you might try “Integrity” by Yale law professor, Stephen L. Carter. In this nonfiction work, Carter examines why integrity is so important to our society and why it is so difficult to achieve.

Join a book club

Summer reading can be a solitary activity if you prefer, but joining a book club can provide a new social experience. Try bookclub.meetup.com to locate clubs in your area, or visit an online book club like the onlinebookclub.org where you’ll find spirited discussions such as “Twilight vs. Harry Potter.”

Hit the museums

Summer is the perfect time for cultural exploration such as going to museums. Check with your local library or historical society for leads on museums in your area. Or, look into some virtual museums if you’re not able to make it in person. Most of the world’s museums now have some kind of online presence. Museumlink.com has compiled a list of many online museums around the world.

Work or volunteer

Even if you find yourself waiting tables this summer, you’ll notice that your brain is going to be challenged to stay sharp and problem-solve. And, because making an income isn’t always in the cards, consider volunteering as a way to learn new skills and make valuable career connections. Try sites like volunteermatch.org to find opportunities in your area.

You can even tutor your classmates by volunteering to be a peer tutor. Nancy Falchikov described the benefits of tutoring in her book, Learning Together, in which she says, “Reciprocal Peer Tutoring (RPT) has resulted in higher examination scores and lower levels of subjective distress than control conditions (Fantuzzo, Dimeff and Fox, 1989a). In addition, RPT received higher satisfaction ratings from participants than a more traditional type of learning engaged in by those in control conditions.”

Play brain games

What the heck, it’s summer and you’re entitled to have some fun, right? Play games that also challenge your mind by checking out sites such as:

• Smart-Kit
• Sporcle
• FreeBrainAgeGames
• Prevention
• Learn4Good

Lewis Harrison explains in The Journal article, “Those Brain Games are Good for Us” that “computer-based tests, which challenge the individual according to ability, produced significant improvements, particularly in what it called fluid intelligence, or general problem-solving ability.” Other choices include crossword puzzles and Sudoku. You’ll find versions online, in print and in download form for your phone or tablet.

Keep your mind sharp with these fun and educational activities this summer, and you’ll return to school in the fall ready to hit the ground running. Now, grab a glass of lemonade and head outside with your eReader to enjoy that summer sun!

Need help deciding where to start? Check out this infographic from bachelorsdegreeonline.com for even more ideas on how to spend your summer depending on your year in college.

QUESTIA POLL
College students: For a chance to win one of three $50 Visa gift cards, tell us what you think about the student loan rate hike that Congress is currently wrestling.

Ace your interview

May is here and for college students across the country, the end of the school year is in sight. Many of your friends and classmates may be preparing to head home or temporarily relocate for a summer job or internship, leaving you lonely or left out if you’re still in the process of job hunting. Don’t get discouraged, though — it’s not too late to secure a full or part-time position. Use this checklist from Career Coach Kim Nylander Herrera to help you achieve success with your summer job search.

Summer job search to dos:

• Review and update your resume. By this time, you most likely have a resume on hand. If you’re an upperclassman or graduating senior, you have invested a great deal of time and effort into getting your resume in top shape. However, it can be amazing how many things can change in a few months: the work study program you completed last quarter, the extracurricular group you joined, the cross-functional project you participated in. Take the time to ensure that your resume is up to date and includes your most recent activities as employers value the leadership skills that these accomplishments demonstrate. At the same time, keep it tight and to the point. The article, “Writing Effective Resumes and Cover Letters” suggests treating your resume as a sales tool: everything on your resume should support your objective. If it doesn’t, leave it off.

• Create a structured job search plan. The end of the school year is an exciting and busy time when finals and year-end activities can bog you down with competing priorities. Therefore, create a schedule of certain days and times dedicated to the job search and stick to it as much as possible. In addition, set up a method for tracking jobs you’ve applied to and actions you have taken, such as an Excel spreadsheet that details the date you applied for various jobs and the method you used for each application (online, via mail or in-person). This information will prove invaluable when you need to follow up with employers regarding your application. Margaret Krantz of Hanover College’s career center offers some quick tips for students on how to connect with employers regarding submitted job applications in her article “How to Follow Up Without Being a Pest.”

• Develop a multi-prong approach to locate job openings. When searching for a summer job, the best strategy is to utilize as many resources as possible to diversify your search: leverage your school’s career services office, register with temporary agencies, talk to friends and family members and set up job alerts with job boards that specialize in posting positions for college students such as Monster.com’s niche site for college students — college.moster.com.

• Make networking a priority. The end of the school year is an ideal time for get-togethers — BBQs, beach outings, graduation parties, weddings, etc. Use these opportunities to renew old contacts and develop new ones. However, remember whenever possible to take advantage of the networking opportunities and contacts you have before school ends. It is easier to connect with people when they are just down the hall or sitting across a lecture hall than when they’re suddenly 200 or 2,000 miles away. Not sure where to start when it comes to networking? Alexis Grant offers students six techniques in her September 2011 usnews.com article “6 Ways to Network While You’re in College.”

• Check the availability of your references. For many professionals, summer is the time to schedule family vacations and time away from the office. For professors, it may also be a time to travel to international conferences and other off-campus events. For this reason, be sure to follow-up with your references to determine their availability to talk to potential employers on your behalf. Ask for and make a note of what each person’s best method of contact is for the summer months — email, cell phone or an office line.

• Brush up on your interview skills. Now is also the time to practice tough interview questions. In Chapter 4 of  How to Interview like a Top MBA: Job-Winning Strategies from Headhunters, Fortune 100 Recruiters, and Career Counselors, Dr. Shel Leanne offers tips on how to answer the toughest interview questions by helping you identify your top personal attributes as they apply to specific jobs.

• Volunteer. If the job search is taking longer than anticipated, sign up to be a volunteer for a cause you care about and, if possible, one that is related to your long-term professional goals. Linda Whitney’s article “How Volunteering Can Give You that Vital Edge” explains that volunteering is a way to demonstrate to employers that you are a dedicated, emerging professional, and it will help you develop a broader network of contacts, while developing industry-related skills — all while giving back.

• Take care of yourself. Finally, bear in mind that the job search can often be a hectic and stressful process. Eating right, exercising regularly and getting together with friends and family members are important factors in helping to keep you relaxed and motivated while you work toward reaching your summer employment goal. Experience.com’s jobs and career blog offers some low cost, quick stress management tips to help you during your search. WebMD also offers a robust list of stress management techniques you can start implementing today.

Kim Nylander Herrera is the owner and founder of Navitas Human Capital Consulting. She has a background in designing and leading human resource programs and initiatives for Fortune 500, nonprofit and emerging business. Ms. Herrera is also Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC) who utilizes her in-depth knowledge of the human resource function to assist individuals in accelerating their career growth.

QUESTIA QUIZ

1. Assess your workload: Start off on the right foot by taking a step back to see where you stand among your big heap of assignments. An article by Michael Sandler called “Surviving semester’s end: Expert advice for avoiding panic at the end of the semester” suggests that you put all exam dates and deadlines for papers and assignments in an excel table. If you have other responsibilities such as extracurricular activities or a job, make sure they’re on your radar, too. Excel tables help you to easily glance at what’s due and when.
2. Ration your time: According to the article “Beat the clock: Learning to manage your time,” you should budget three hours of outside class work for every hour you spend in class, as a general rule. Along with reading, reviewing and doing homework, factor in extra time for major projects or papers, while giving your hardest classes top priority.
3. Resist distractions: Health Psychologist Lynn Rossy suggests in “Ten tips to reduce end-of-semester stress,” to check email at limited times during the day and avoid other unnecessary distractions like Facebook and phones. If you can’t resist the temptations, disconnect your computer from the Internet and put your phone away in another room.
4. Organize your work space: A typical college dorm room or apartment probably looks as disheveled as your hair from all the hair pulling during finals! An article called “Testing Times to Come; as Coast Students Prepare for End-of-Year Exams, Experts Offer Some Handy Study Tips” by Hannah Busch shares tips for time-management and staying focused, including the importance of an organized study area. “Where you study has a huge impact on how you study. Having a tidy desk means you’ll spend more time studying and less time looking for things. The area should be well-lit and quiet.” If this sounds like an impossible feat for your personal desk, high-tail it to the library!
5. Stay healthy: Training your brain is like training for sports. Author Michael Sandler suggests that you take time to eat, sleep and exercise to maintain a healthy body and mind. Stay well-hydrated and snack on foods high in protein to keep you alert. Break out the shake weight if you must and exercise at least 20 minutes a day, three days a week to improve mental stamina and focus.
6. Go easy on the caffeine: Caffeine is fine in moderation, but you can recharge your mind in other ways too. Psychologist Lynn Rossy offers helpful alternatives to downing energy drinks and pulling all-nighters. “Use stretching, walking, running or other exercise as a way of re-invigorating the body and mind. Stay away from sugary snacks that give you a quick high and then have you running on empty for the next few hours.” With too much caffeine in your system, you might end up staying awake all night beyond the time needed to study and won’t get enough rest to actually take the final the next morning.
7. Remember what you learn: Eliminate the bad habit of cramming as much information into your head as possible then purging it after finals. A lot of time and money has been put into your education, so you should take the value along with you well after finals. In the article “Get the Most Out of Your Course,” Tara Kuther, Ph.D., recommends holding on to that course material. “A crucial course may become part of your basic skill set and something you refer back to often in your career. Other courses are useful in preparing for graduate admissions exams such as the Graduate Record Exam or licensure exams.” As finals week comes to a close, and all your exams and projects are finally handed in, don’t just throw away your papers and bolt for the door. Make sure you collect all your final papers and exams from your professors even if you turned them in on the last day. You never know when you’ll need to draw on them in the future.

Keep these tips in mind as you approach finals week and you’ll have a great jump start on wrapping up a successful semester. You’ve made it this far, you can go the distance! The education you’re striving toward is a life-long investment. Be sure to get the very most it by preparing, staying healthy and retaining the information you worked so hard to digest.

Share with us in comments below: What are your tips and tricks for surviving finals week?

QUESTIA SURVEY
Are students and professors on the same page when it comes to study habits?
Click here and answer for a chance to win 1 of 3 $50 VISA gift cards!

As you prepare for your job hunt, you need to know how to properly market yourself and leverage the skills you’ve acquired through your education. A liberal arts education produces the following types of people:

• strong communicators
• team players
• fast learners
• clever interpreters
• problem-solvers
• creative thinkers
• well-rounded individuals

Now that’s an impressive set of skills that would bring value to any employer!

What can you do with a liberal arts degree?

Liberal arts students have more profitable career options than you might think. Author of Great Jobs for Liberal Arts Majors Blythe Camenson shares that, despite the unfound prejudice, they are by no means “unemployable.” “In reality, a liberal arts degree, with all its various study areas, opens more employment doors than any other area of professional study. The ability to think creatively, solve problems, and communicate effectively—both verbally and through written word—are skills liberal arts graduates acquire. And, these skills are highly sought by employers in a variety of fields.”

An article called “20 Lucrative Careers You Can Get with a Liberal Arts Degree” on businesspundit.com lists twenty job categories with incomes ranging from $50,000 to over $100,000 from job titles such as insurance underwriter, education administrator and business manager. Additionally, a recent study from Georgetown University shows that unemployment rates among liberal arts majors doesn’t differ so drastically from many other majors, and the difference decreases quickly with experience.

Greg Bolt shines light on some of the income myths on careers for graduates with Bachelor of Arts degrees his article “Grads Getting Job Skills to Go with Diplomas.” “Students with career-oriented majors do earn more money for the first few years after graduation, but after five years the income graph changes. ‘Then the lines cross and they never cross again.’” B.A. graduates may take a little extra time to discover their callings, but eventually have the potential to supersede other bachelor degrees in income.

Great jobs for liberal arts majors

Ask yourself what you want to do when you graduate. If you answered very specifically like, “I want to be a nurse,” then your path down a professional degree is clear. However, if you’re unsure how to answer, then a liberal arts major might best suit you. The broad education you’ll receive will open up a variety of choices in careers.

Arts and humanities courses will give you a general knowledge in a range of subjects that might inspire your career path. An article called “Career-Oriented Majors and Liberal Arts Majors” on CollegeBoard.org shares just some of the popular liberal arts majors and careers you might choose:

• Anthropology: archaeologist, museum curator
• Communications: newspaper reporter, advertising and marketing executive
• English: writer, editor
• History: archivist, historian
• Languages and linguistics: foreign service officer, interpreter
• Sociology: market researcher, jury consultant

Leveraging a broad background for the changing job market

Today’s evolving job market is always an uncertainty, and the more you can use intellectual ability to differentiate yourself from others in the workplace is important. Joyce Gioia explains in her article “Career Planning for the 21st Century” that the best way to prepare yourself for the changing job market is to obtain a formal liberal arts education in addition to more niche skills that you might gain through internships, volunteer work or extracurriculars. “Job candidates with broad, interdisciplinary backgrounds have become increasingly attractive to employers, and this trend is likely to continue in the future as more professionals are called on to perform an increasingly expanding range of tasks. Students in the liberal arts will be uniquely suited to these looming challenges, having developed a familiarity with a wide variety of ideas in both science and culture.”

Bachelor of arts and science degrees even make you flexible enough to switch careers if you desire. Greg Bolt goes on to explain that “in a job market where people change careers an average of three or four times in their lifetimes, a focused set of skills often leaves a person less able to adapt to a changing marketplace.” Your humanities courses provide you with the fundamentals of writing, the ability to problem-solve and the instinctive resourcefulness that all your future employers will be looking for throughout your professional lifetime.

Develop essential writing skills for landing a job

Regardless of your choice in major, having a solid set of writing skills can not only boost your grades, but also make you attractive to a wider range of employers who expect written communication abilities no matter your degree. Browse the thousands of Questia research topics that will come in handy for your writing projects.

Share with us in the comments below: What’s your major and what career do you want to pursue?

Recommended reading: Famous Liberal Arts Majors

QUESTIA QUIZ

Identifying your audience

Your paper will likely be presented to a diverse audience from professors and teaching assistants to classmates or peers, with each group having its own unique way of interpreting your research. The Purdue Online Writing Lab’s article titled Identifying an Audience explains, “It is perhaps helpful to approach the audience of a research paper in the same way one would when preparing for an oral presentation. Often, one changes her style, tone, diction, etc., when presenting to different audiences. So it is with writing a research paper.”

In Schaum’s Quick Guide to Writing Great Research Papers, author Laurie Rozakis, Ph.D. explains that in order to adapt your term paper to your particular audience, you should ask yourself the following questions:

Who will be reading my research paper?
How much do my readers know about my topic at this point?
What is the basis of the information they have? (e.g. reading, personal experience)
How does my audience feel about the topic? Are they neutral, hostile, enthusiastic, or somewhere in between?

Tailoring your writing

Your decided audience will determine what types of sources are appropriate to use in your research paper. Rozakis suggests, “For a source to make the final cut, it has to fit with your audience, purpose, and tone. It must be appropriate to your paper.”

An article from Dartmouth College’s Writing Program called What is an academic paper? explains the importance of beginning a term paper with your audience in mind.  “In the college classroom, the audience is usually the professor or your classmates – although occasionally your professor will instruct you to write for a more particular or more general audience. No matter who your reader is, you will want to consider him carefully before you start to write.” It suggests asking yourself this varied set questions:

What do you know about your reader and his stance towards your topic?
Moreover, what effect do you hope to have on the reader?
Is your aim to be controversial? Informative? Entertaining?
Will the reader appreciate or resent your intention?

Writing for instructors

Often your professors and teaching assistants will have a general understanding of the topic that you are researching. Despite this, some professors ask that students write as if an outsider were reading the term paper. Other times, professors will ask that students not waste time with general summarization of the topic and break straight into personal research and discoveries. If you are unsure which approach your professor prefers, ask them so you know you’re heading in the right direction. Professional, well-organized research that is correctly cited is the way to impress your professors and any teaching assistants that may be grading your term paper.

Writing for peers

Sometimes you may be asked to write a term paper with your classmates or other peers as your primary audience.  Laurie Rozakis suggests that even when you are writing for someone you would consider to be on your own skill level, you should still write in a formal, unbiased tone. She says to makes sure that, “the writing won’t condescend to its audience, insult them, or lecture them.” This will ensure that your peers take your research seriously and put appropriate consideration into their reviews. Don’t waste your peers’ time by adding unnecessary “fluff” to your research paper. They will know when they see it and likely find your efforts to be less credible.

Studies in the textbook Hearing Ourselves Think: Cognitive Research in the College Writing Classroom indicate that knowing how to write a term paper requires remembering your target audience throughout the entire term paper process. “Experienced writers considered the audience’s needs before and during revision; inexperienced writers often thought about the audience’s needs, but typically in the midst of revision lost track of their goals for the audience.”

An academic term paper that is written from start to finish with your target audience in mind is far more likely to be well-received. Remembering that your instructors and your peers may have different expectations of your research presentation will result in a term paper that your readers are engaged in and eager to review.


QUESTIA SURVEY
How much time should you spend on your research paper?
Students and professors may have entirely different views on how much time students should spend researching and writing their papers. Share your thoughts in Questia’s Research Paper survey.
Tell us what you think!

Professor Relationship

An article called “Student-Professor Relationship” provides some tips for establishing a positive relationship with your professor.

1. Attend class regularly and be on time. If you must be absent, contact your professor and describe your situation. Ask what material will be discussed so that you can be prepared for the next class session.
2. Participate in class discussions. Relate current issues to course content.
3. Ask questions and be prepared for class.
4. Avoid disruptions and negative attention such as talking with other students, receiving phone calls, eating and drinking during class, leaving early, sleeping in class, not reading the syllabus, or making excuses.
5. Turn in assignments and exams on time.
6. Sit toward the front and center of the classroom. Sit up straight and obtain direct eye contact with the professor. Make sure your professor knows your name.
7. Address your professor’s title and pronounce their name correctly.
8. Be open-minded and respect the opinions of the professor and other students.
9. Schedule a meeting with your professor. Regular meetings with your professor have many benefits such as getting advice and showing interest.

Teaching Assistant Relationship

College may be the first time some students encounter a teaching assistant (TA). Your instincts may be to go directly to your professor for help, but TAs are equally receptive to students’ questions and eager to give guidance. Additionally, they’ve been in your seat far more recently than your professors have and know where you’re coming from. TAs have great insight on the course requirements and tips to make the class go smoothly for you. In an article called “How to Establish a Good Relationship With Your Teaching Assistant,” teaching assistant, Danielle Lorenz suggests to get along best with your TA, students should follow directions. “Perhaps one of the easiest ways for you to do well in a course is to follow the directions that are given to you. Treat the syllabus you are given at the beginning of the term as a holy text: do not lose it, and read it frequently!”

Lorenz goes on to suggest that students ask questions. “If there is a point that you don’t understand something – course material, your assignment, what you need to know for the exam – ask us. If there are no questions we assume you understand. Always follow the rule of thumb (which I employed as an undergrad and still use in my own classes and told my students to use as well): when in doubt, ask. At the same time, emailing us frantically the night before because you don’t understand something is not a way for us to sympathize with you. In fact, it is highly irritating.”

Resident Advisor Relationship

If it is your first time living away from home, you may be curious why young adults require someone to supervise 24/7, let alone someone so close to your own age. An article from the Magazine for Leaders in Higher Education titled, “On the Front Line: A Conversation with Resident Assistant Dan Oltersdorf” explains that “Approximately 100,000 resident assistants work and live on U.S. college campuses. Since college administrators can’t be everywhere all the time, a resident assistant (RA) can be their eyes and ears when it comes to safety and other student issues.” Most students that have lived in dorms previously can tell you that issues come up that you may not be able to handle on your own, and you’ll be happy you have someone trained in emergency response and crisis management.

For those that think their RA is just out to get them, it’s really not in the RA’s benefit to focus their time on every move you make. In an article called “Build an RA Relationship for an Easier School Year,” author Emily Chapman lets students know how to avoid causing problems for the RA all together. “Your RA doesn’t want to write you up. They don’t. It requires paperwork and yelling and it’s a pain. The best way to avoid being written up? Be quiet. Tell your friends to be quiet.” Staying out of trouble is the best way to stay on your RA’s good side and make both your lives easier.

Boundaries

With all three of these relationships, remember to be careful sharing too much of your personal life. Emily Chapman reminds students to keep their online life protected in particular. “Any half-way savvy reader will know to put their professors, parents, grandparents, and clergy members (it happens) on limited profile. Remember to do this with your RA—they may be obligated to report you if they see that amusing photo of you with a beer in your dorm. Their personal feelings about you will not trump their no-doubt strong desire to not get fired.”

Following this advice isn’t a recipe for becoming teacher’s pet, but should instruct you on how to network early. You may even find yourself with a new college mentor that could help you when applying to graduate school, an internship or your first job out of college.

QUESTIA POLL

Persevere

As this is your final research paper of the semester and likely your final grade, it’s important not to give up on it until you’re truly proud of your work. Finals week is generally the most strenuous time in your college career, and the weeks leading up to it may have you stressed out already.

Now that you’ve completed all your research, it’s time to make sure all your logic and writing is as it should be. An article by Kathy Livingston called Guide to Writing a Basic Essay suggests it may be time to rearrange some things if you’re not confident with the flow of your paper. “Look at your paragraphs. Which one is the strongest? You might want to start with the strongest paragraph, end with the second strongest, and put the weakest in the middle. Whatever order you decide on, be sure it makes sense. If your paper is describing a process, you will probably need to stick to the order in which the steps must be completed.” Keep writing and backing up your claims until you’ve removed all doubt from your argument.

Proofread

An article called Panic Paper explains that it is best to do your proofreading after a good night of rest. “Go to sleep! When you wake up in the morning, proofread your work. You will be refreshed and better able to spot typos and awkward transitions.” If it is possible for your turn-in schedule, don’t do all your final editing at the end of a long night of writing and researching. Give your poor eyes a break until morning. You’ll be far less likely to let those small errors slip by you.

Livingston goes on to give example of some finishing touches you should consider after you finish writing your research paper this semester. She suggests asking yourself the following questions as you’re deciding whether or not your paper is polished enough to hand in:

• Does it make logical sense?
• Have you run a spell checker or a grammar checker? These aids cannot catch every error, but they might catch errors that you have missed.
• Do the sentences flow smoothly from one another?

If you come up with the answer “no” for any of these, consider revising slightly. Make sure your sentences and paragraphs make sense in the order they are presented in your research paper. If they don’t, insert additional content or transition words so your reader is not confused by your thought process along the way. Author of A Rose for Emily, M. Thomas Inge, suggests that students “provide a lead-in for all quotations. Failure to do so results in a serious breakdown in coherence. The lead-in should at least name the person who is being quoted. The ideal lead-in, however, is one that not only names the person but indicates the pertinence of the quotation.”

As you’re reading over your research paper, you’ll want to look out for common spelling errors. As Kathy Livingston mentioned, spell checking tools don’t always work because they often can’t tell when you’ve simply used the wrong form of a word such as “their” vs. “they’re.” Here is a helpful list called The Most Common Spelling Errors in College with words that students tend to struggle with.

Peer-Review

Sometimes after you’ve spent so many pain-staking hours adding your own finishing touches to your research papers, you may lose perspective on it. Getting a friend or classmate to peer-review your paper may be just what you need to feel confident about turning it in to your professor. Not only can they check for errors or misspellings, but they can also give you feed back on the overall thesis of your research paper.

In a helpful book called Procrastination: Why You Do It, What To Do About It, authors Jane B. Burka and Lenora M. Yuen say, “If you feel unsure of yourself, of the validity of your own ideas, or even of creating ideas of your own, then you may feel that you can’t act without looking to other people for help–not simply in terms of feedback or brainstorming, but help that will provide a viewpoint or a structure that you can adopt as your own.”

Burka and Yuen go on to explain that “Many college students […] devote weeks to gathering research for a term paper, but never actually write it because they have to sort through so many contradictory opinions to offer a perspective of their own.” Simply gaining the overall approval from a peer can greatly reduce the anxiety that may accompany an important project.

Remember to keep trying until you’re completely happy with your final research paper. Even though you may be frustrated with your paper by now or exhausted from the last weeks of school, you’ll regret it on turn-in day if you didn’t try your hardest. Get this final project done right with these research paper hints so you can enjoy your holiday!

QUESTIA QUIZ

The blog post, The Dreaded Research Paper – Pointers for Success, suggests that you first “prepare the ‘shell’ of your paper per whatever style your program requires.” Begin with compiling every page that your professor has requested for your finished research paper such as a title page, abstract page, headers for your sections, works cited page, etc.

1. Introduction: A well-guided professor is a happy professor. Therefore, your introduction should be clear and provocative and should provide a road map to your research paper. It doesn’t have to be as specific as detailing what each section will contain, but it should certainly describe what you’ll be examining, analyzing, and proving. Readers begin forming judgments about a research paper after just viewing the introduction, which is why it’s so critical to make it shine.

2. Clear Thesis: A great research paper can go bad with an unclear research thesis. Most professors locate and evaluate thesis statements as one of their primary grading criteria. Your thesis statement should be evident by the end of your introductory paragraph, and it should be repeated in your conclusion. Write It! A Guide for Research by Betty Bankhead suggests starting with a focus question and answering it with your thesis statement.

Examples:

“Focus Question: Why are scientists concerned about global warming?
Thesis Statement: Global warming is causing a change in the earth’s weather patterns that will have disastrous effects.

Focus Question: What effect did the Crusades have on Europe?
Thesis Statement: The Crusades directly contributed to the rising influence of the Catholic Church in Europe.

Focus Question: can the novels Huckleberry Finn and Catcher in the Rye be compared?
Thesis Statement: The novels Huckleberry Finn and Catcher in the Rye have main characters who experience a rite of passage from adolescence to adulthood.”

This criterion can vary, so check with your instructor to find out what he or she expects from students.

3. Organization: Writing-tipstoday.com suggests you ask yourself the following questions before turning in your research paper:

• Do you have all the items your professor asked for: a title page, an abstract, an introduction, body paragraphs, a summary, a conclusion, a works cited page?
• Are they in order in accordance with what your professor has outlined or based on whichever editorial style the professor has established for the paper?
• What about subheadings, footnotes, parenthetical references (or superscript, depending on style)?
• Do you have transition sentences, and are they serving their purposes?
• Do your ideas progress logically throughout the paper?
• Have you checked and double-checked with the grading rubric or appropriate style manual, as well as your professor, to ensure that you’ve included every necessary portion?

If the answer is “no” to any of these, go back and revise.

4. Integrating Sources: Professors expect sources—that’s what puts the “research” in “research paper.” Moreover, they expect you to integrate those sources and fuse them with your ideas, equally. If you have 10 sources and only use two, for example, a professor will notice and grade you down.

Just as important, make sure you are using reliable research sources. Ask your professor ahead of time whether your sources are okay—most will not accept sources such as Wikipedia or blog entries; some will only accept sources from approved journal databases.

5. Be Concise: Leave loquacity to Charles Dickens. Wordy, bombastic writing will impress no one, least of all your professor. The longer it takes him or her to understand what you’re saying, the less clear you’ll be and the quicker your grade will drop. If you think you might be rambling, consider having a roommate, peer, or friend read your research paper and offer feedback.

6. Originality: Your writing should be your own. In other words, anything not in quotations should be your ideas and analyses, not anyone else’s. It’s not uncommon for students to pursue the same research topic, but most professors will try to ensure that each one is unique. Many instructors request the thesis ahead of time so they can evaluate it, as well as verify that each student is working on a different research paper.

Plagiarism isn’t always stealing someone else’s paper—it can be something as simple as cutting and pasting a quote from a journal and forgetting to cite it correctly. The book How to Research by Loraine Blaxter says:

“Plagiarism most commonly occurs accidentally or unintentionally, when writers are unaware of the appropriate conventions for referencing other people’s work. Whether is accidental or deliberate, however, and particularly if you are submitting a piece of writing for credit or possible publication, you are likely to be severely penalized if you are found guilty of plagiarism.”

Check and recheck your work to ensure this hasn’t happened.

7. Editorial Style: Many professors require a certain research paper format such as APA, MLA, or Chicago. This isn’t a suggestion, and your professor may lower your grade if you don’t follow the correct style. Some grade more harshly than others, but style is especially important in your parenthetical references and on your works cited page.  Questia helps you to format your citations, bibliographies, and works cited pages in seven different writing styles to help you do well on your research paper.

If you would like to learn more about APA, MLA or Chicago, you can purchase editorial style manuals online, or you can use one of the many free online resources, such as Purdue’s The Owl.

Recommended Reading:

Schaum’s Quick Guide to Writing Great Research Papers
99 Jumpstarts to Research: Topic Guides for Finding Information on Current Issues
The Effects of Repeated Idea Elaboration on Unconscious Plagiarism
Shortcuts for the Student Writer
The Research Project: How to Write It

QUESTIA QUIZ

It’s easy to get caught up in something that you’re passionate about, but if that means discussing the broadest of topics, such as simply “Barack Obama,” then you’re never going to be able to dive deeply into anything specific. You’ll only be skating over the top of a hundred concepts covering his early years, government experience, and his presidency. Instead, begin with that research subject and try to find one specific issue that you can develop into a solid thesis. Consider writing about the impact of just one of the changes he’s made in office or perhaps the way one group has been affected by his presidency.

Chapter 3 of Schaum’s Quick Guide to Writing Great Research Papers explains the difference between a subject and a topic. “Recall that a subject of a research paper is the general content […] subjects are broad and general. The topic of a research paper, in contrast, is the specific issue being discussed.” Schaum then gives example that if your subject is “Animal Rights” you may make your topic “If zoos are cruel rather than educational” or “if testing medical procedures/drugs on animals should be increased or decreased.”

Looking for specific ideas to get your brain in gear? Questia has a section devoted to Research Topics broken into 14 major categories. Select one of these broad ideas and you’ll be connected straight to thousands of good research topics linked directly to the over 77,000 books and 4 million articles on our virtual shelves. Questia shows the most popular research topics in each category, making it easy to zero in on a great subject. Upon clicking a topic link, Questia pulls the most relevant books and articles for those topics. It also offers related books and articles you may not have considered. Looking through these may just spark some creativity and get you started on writing your research paper.

Some schools even offer suggestions of interesting research topics on their library or Writing Center websites. The topics page at Midway College gives an alphabetical list of topics and gives one suggestion of where to take those ideas.  Another excellent resource is the book 99 Jumpstarts to Research: Topic Guides for Finding Information on Current Issues. This book is intended to teach good research habits and offers readers search terms, food for thought, and background and statistics on 99 interesting research topics.

In a blog post called How to Choose Good Essay or Research Paper Topics, author Ishmael Ahab advises, “One thing that you can do is to browse at your old essays or research papers. Look for old topics that you can reinvent. You can also look for ideas on those old essays or research papers that were not given enough focus. Those ideas can be used as the main topic for your new essay or research paper.” Not everyone saves all of their old papers, of course, but you can brainstorm previous ideas that you’ve had for topics. Review these old, dusty ideas and reimagine them into a research topic that better suits your class’s focus and your since-developed academic abilities.

Once you’ve chosen a good research paper topic that you know can hold up to your own interrogation, the real research can begin. Have a look back at some of our other helpful blog posts for help with how to write a research paper:
Back to school tips: How to write a research paper
Top 10 mistakes when writing a research paper

Leave suggestions in the comments section below with your own methods for brainstorming topic ideas for research papers, projects, blog posts, etc.!

QUESTIA QUIZ