College Writing

Given that Microsoft Word is the world’s most popular word processor it’s worth knowing how to use it to create a bibliography.  Below is a short video tutorial and a list of helpful online resources to learn how to use both Microsoft Word 2003 and Microsoft Word 2007 to easily make a high class bibliography.

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One of the more difficult tasks in writing a paper is putting together the bibliography. To help make this task easier for you we have put together below a list of resources that will help you learn how to put together a top quality bibliography.

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If you take the time and effort to follow the advice in this series of tutorials you will find yourself consistently producing high-quality, interesting research papers that get good grades too. It’s true that the method that we described in this series takes time and effort, but the results will clearly pay off with the skills and knowledge that you gain and the higher grades that you receive.  And, perhaps even more important, training yourself to do what it takes to produce high quality work is a skill that you can take with you and benefit from in all aspects of your life - in college and beyond.

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Once you’ve revised your (hopefully) stellar research paper you may think that it’s time to hand your prized work in. Well, think again. There’s one more crucial step that you can and should make - get some quality feedback. Don’t underestimate the importance of this step. Hearing what other people think of your paper may very well be the crucial ingredient that distinguishes a good paper from an outstanding one.

This short video offers some good suggestions of who to ask to look over your paper.  Don’t skip this video - it has an idea or two that you may never have thought of and which may very well prove to be invaluable in your college career - and beyond.

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Rarely (if ever) is a great research paper written in one go. To really polish your work and make sure that your paper woks as a whole you will have to revise your first draft.  In fact, most likely you will have to revise your original draft multiple times.   This will help ensure that you are logically arguing and presenting your central thesis in a way that both your professor and other members of your class can understand and follow.  The following two videos provide a number of useful tips to help you get the most out of the revision process. continue

Once you have finished writing your outline for your research paper you need to work on producing your first rough draft.  Your goal now is not perfection, but rather to transform your outline into an actual essay.  You will need to revise this essay (most likely multiple times) before it’s in a presentable form.  Today’s video tutorials offer you a number of helpful tips on how to produce a quality first draft of your paper. continue

After you have taken, reviewed and organized your notes you are ready to create your outline. A good outline will transform your notes into the form and structure that your paper will eventually follow. Take the time to do this right as it will help you to better organize your thoughts and find out what you really want to say with your paper. The following two videos offer an overview and some helpful tips on how to write a good outline. continue

Once you have gathered together your resource material for your research paper it is time to start taking notes. This seemingly easy task is often times one of the hardest for students to do well. How to determine what to note down and what to ‘ignore’ is not always easy or obvious.  Here are a few tips to help you learn how to take good and effective notes. continue

Once you have determined both the topic and the purpose of your paper you are ready to begin researching your topic. Knowing how to research a topic is an invaluable skill that will effect the quality of your entire paper (not to mention help you in many other areas later on in life). There are a number of extremely useful resources at your disposal to help you conduct solid research and you should try to take advantage of as many of them as possible.

The following two videos will help teach you some extremely useful research techniques that will enable you to properly research your topic.

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Once you have narrowed down the focus of your research paper you need to decide what you hope to accomplish with your paper. The earlier you can figure this out the better as it will help you to properly channel your research time and efforts. With that said, though, you may find yourself changing your goals based on your research.  continue