How to Listen

Have you ever zoned out during a lecture? After listening to your teacher or guest speaker several minutes, do you sometimes realize that absolutely nothing is sinking in?

If this sounds familiar, you might need to sharpen your listening skills a little. After all, if you plan to go to college or get a job in the future, you’re going to have a lot of speeches to listen to. You can improve your retention by practicing active listening.

What is active listening? Imagine that you’re just sitting down in class to take notes, when the teacher announces that “there will be a quiz on this lecture.” Suddenly, you’re more alert. You watch attentively as your teacher speaks and you underline each and every word that is emphasized or repeated.

Each time you sit down to listen to a speaker or a class lecture, you should listen as if you’re going to be tested on the material. After all, you might be!

Here are some tips to help you learn to improve your listening skills:

• Listen for verbal clues. Your teacher will emphasize any important terms and concepts.
• Watch for nonverbal clues. Eyebrows, hands, pauses, eyes: these features all show expression when your teacher makes an important point.
• Be mindful of your own reactions. When your teacher says something that sound interesting, curious, or surprising, go ahead and nod or smile. If the teacher says something boring or unpleasant, try not to have an ugly response. Why? To keep yourself on track. As long as you’re managing your reactions, you’re still listening.
• Avoid making predictions. If we think we know what someone is about to say, we stop listening and start drifting.
• Focus on the words, not the person. Don’t get distracted by an ugly dress, weird hairstyle or goofy tie.
• Don’t get caught up on one detail. Stay on pace.
• Don’t let your mind wander. Put that food, person, music, or daydream out of your head and save it for later.

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Gadgets for Students

These days it's hard to justify a big-ticket purchase if it's not really useful for fun and for education. But the good news for parents is that most gadgets will do both! Find out which supplies and gadgets are really helpful for students, and which you might want to pass over.

1. Apple iPad

What is it you really want to do? Because whatever it is, you can probably do it on the iPad. With the many thousands of educational applications that are available, this product is the most versatile and useful for students from grade school to college. There is absolutely no reason to put this one off--except for the price. The good news? The least expensive version of this gadget is still better than the competition.

2. Livescribe Pulse Pen

Livescribe’s Pulsec smartpen is an actual ink pen that records what you’re writing and what you’re hearing as you take lecture notes. Anyone who has ever struggled at the back of an auditorium trying to make notes will love this product. If you can spare $150-200 for a pen, and if the student is willing to take the time to use it right, this product could make a monumental difference. Is it worth the purchase price? Yes.

3. Wacom Bamboo Tablet Pen

This gadget is a great tool for doodling and drawing, but it's also a great device for marking up PDFs with circles and highlights. That ability alone makes this a great gift for college students, who receive many reading assignments in the form of PDFs.?

4. Doxie Portable Scanner

Slip this portable scanner into your book bag, and it will be a lifesaver when you need to capture an image for a presentation--or it will be your best friend on those days when you lose your lecture notes and you have a test coming up. Share notes and images with your study group using this handy gadget.

5. iPod Touch

The iPod Touch ?could be one of the best study tools ever invented, if students want to use it this way. This little gem can do anything a laptop can do, with the right applications loaded. It can quiz students with thousands of flashcards, it can hold tutorials and games, and it can become a document editor. Students can email, chat, work on projects--just about everything a student needs to do. This is a definite yes to the question, "Can my child use this tool to study?"

6. Amazon Kindle

This e-reader didn't start out as a good choice for students; it was much too limited and too expensive at first. But it's getting better and better with each model. It's also coming down in price!

Students can download thousands of books and read them or store them for later--and many classic books that students need to read are available for free. With the new Kindle, students can also mark up PDFs and textbooks with highlights and notes.?

What's more, students can listen to textbooks as they relax, with the new text-to-speech option. E-readers are finally becoming totally student friendly!

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Common Typing Problems

There's nothing like typing away on a paper, only to find that you're not actually typing what you thought you were typing! There are several problems you can encounter with a keyboard that can drive you nuts. Especially if you're on a deadline. Don't panic! The solution is probably painless.

Some letters won’t type: Sometimes a tiny piece of debris can get stuck under a few of your keys. If you find that a certain letter won’t type, you may be able to fix the problem by using a compressed air duster and gently blowing off your keys.

My buttons are sticking: Keyboards get very dirty sometimes, especially if we have a tendency to snack and type. You can clean a keyboard yourself (laptop or desktop), but it may be safer to have it cleaned by a professional.

Numbers won’t type: There is a "numbers lock" button near your keypad that turns the pad on and off. If your numbers won’t type, you’ve probably pressed this button by mistake.

My letters are typing numbers! It can be scary to type words and see nothing but numbers appearing! This is probably an easy fix, but it is different for every type of laptop. You have "numlock" turned on, so you need to turn it off. This is sometimes done by pressing the FN key and the NUMLOCK key at the same time.

Typing over my letters: If you are editing a document and are surprised to find that you are suddenly typing over words instead of inserting between words, you have accidentally pressed the "Insert" button. Just press it again. That key is an either/or function, so depressing it once causes it to insert text, and pressing it again causes it to replace text.

My cursor is jumping: This is one of the most frustrating problems of all, and it seems to be related to using a laptop with Vista or Windows XP. One possible solution is adjusting your touchpad settings. Secondly, you could "disable tapping during input." To find this option with XP, go to:

• Control panel
• 
  
• Mouse
• 
  
• Advanced
• 
  
• Advanced feature settings
• 
  
• Tapping and feature settings
• 
  
• Tapping settings
• 
  
• Disable tapping
• 
  

If this doesn’t work, you can try installing Touchfreeze, a utility developed to disable your touchpad while you are typing text.

A bunch of text disappears mysteriously: If you accidentally highlight a block of text and type any letter, you replace all the selected when you type. This can happen in an instant, often without our noticing it. If you find that a lot of your text has disappeared, try hitting the "undo" function several times to see if your text reappears. If not, you can always hit redo to get back to where you started.

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Overwhelmed by Research

When working on a large project, students can sometimes become overwhelmed by all the information they gather in their research. This can happen when a student is working on a large paper with many segments or when several students are working on a large project together.

In group research, each student can come up with a stack of notes, and when the work is all combined, the paperwork creates a confusing mountain of notes! If you struggle with this problem you may find relief in this coding technique.

Overview

This organization method involves three main steps:

1. Sorting research into piles, forming sub-topics
2. Assigning a letter to each segment or “pile”
3. Numbering and coding the pieces in each pile

This may sound like a time-consuming process, but you will soon find that organizing your research is time well spent!

Organizing Your Research

First of all, don’t ever hesitate to use your bedroom floor as an important first tool when it comes to getting organized. Many books begin their lives as bedroom floor-piles of paperwork which eventually become chapters.

If you are starting with a mountain of papers or index cards, your first goal is to divide your work into preliminary piles that represent segments or chapters (for smaller projects these would be paragraphs). Don’t worry—you can always add or take away chapters or segments as needed.

It won’t be long before your realize that some of your papers (or note cards) contain information that could fit into one, two, or three different places. That’s normal, and you’ll be pleased to know that there is a good way to deal with the problem. You will assign a number to each piece of research.

Note: Make absolutely certain that each piece of research contains full citation information. Without reference information, each piece of research is worthless.

How to Code Your Research

To illustrate the method that uses numbered research papers, we’ll use a research assignment entitled “Bugs in My Garden.” Under this topic you might decide to start out with the following subtopics which will become your piles:

A) Plants and Bugs Introduction
B) Fear of Bugs
C) Beneficial Bugs
D) Destructive Bugs
E) Bug Summary

Make a sticky note or note card for each pile, labeled A, B, C, D. and E and start sorting your papers accordingly.

Once your piles are complete, start labeling each piece of research with a letter and a number. For example, the papers in your “introduction” pile will be labeled with A-1, A-2, A-3, and so on.

As you sort through your notes, you might find it hard to determine which pile is best for each piece of research. For example, you may have a note card that concerns wasps. This information could go under “fear” but it also fits under “beneficial bugs,” as wasps eat leaf-eating caterpillars!

If you have a hard time assigning a pile, try to put the research into the topic that will come earliest in the writing process. In our example, the wasp piece would go under “fear.”

Put your piles into separate folders labeled A, B, C, D, and E. Staple the appropriate note card to the outside of its matching folder.

Start Writing

Logically, you would start writing your paper using the research in your A (intro) pile. Each time you work with a piece of research, take a moment to consider if it would fit into a later segment. If so, place that paper in the next folder and make a note of it on the index card of that folder.

For example, when you are finished writing about wasps in segment B, place your wasp research in folder C. Make a note of this on the folder C note card to help maintain organization.

As you write your paper you should insert the letter/number code each time you use or refer to a piece of research—instead of putting citations in as you write. Then once you’ve completed your paper you can go back and replace codes with citations.

Note: Some researchers prefer to go ahead and create full citations as they write. This can eliminate a step, but it can become confusing if you are working with footnotes or endnotes and you attempt to re-arrange and edit.

Still Feeling Overwhelmed?

You might experience some anxiety when you read back over your paper and realize that you need to restructure your paragraphs and move information from one segment to another. This is not a problem when it comes to the labels and categories that you’ve assigned to your research. The important thing is making sure that each piece of research and each quote is coded.

With proper coding, you can always find a piece of information when you need it—even if you’ve moved it around several times.

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Guessing On a Test

There is some confusion and disagreement about whether students should guess on tests. The quick answer is that it is hardly ever bad to guess on a test.

There is only one reason why you should NOT guess on a test: you should not guess if you will be penalized substantially for a wrong answer.

Guessing on the SAT

Some students are tempted not to guess on the SAT I, because they hear that students are penalized a fraction of a point for each wrong answer. But a fraction of a point is not a substantial amount, especially of you can increase your chances of guessing right.

It is OK to guess on the SAT if you can first eliminate one or two answers that you know are wrong. The odds work in your favor this way. If you get down to two or three choices that you think may be right, then guess which one is best. Odds are, you’ll break even or gain a few points by guessing.

What About SAT Math Questions?

There is a portion of the SAT math that contains no choices. Instead, you must come up with answers on your own and fill them into a grid. No points are subtracted for wrong answers on this grid-in portion of the math test, so if you can come up with a logical answer, it’s still a good idea to guess.

Guessing on the ACT

There is no penalty for guessing on the ACT. If you don’t know, guess.

Guessing on an AP Exam

There is also a small penalty for wrong answers on AP exams. However, the penalty is so small that you are more likely to break even or gain by guessing. On the AP exams, scorers subtract one-fourth of a point for a wrong answer in the questions that contain five possible answer choices, and one-third of a point in questions that contain four possible answer choices.

All this means is that you can guess wrong three or four times for every answer you get right and break even.

Classroom Tests

If there is no penalty for wrong answers on a school test, then you should guess.

If your teacher tells you that you will be penalized (points are subtracted) for wrong answers, then follow an easy plan:

If the teacher will subtract an entire point for each wrong answer, don’t guess.

If the teacher will subtract a half a point for wrong answers, don’t guess.

If the teacher will subtract a third of a point or less, first eliminate what you can and guess.

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Make a Practice Exam

Practice tests are great study tools, but it can be a lot of work to make up a practice test again and again. Follow these directions to create an inexpensive practice test holder. It's a tool for turning your practice tests and study guides into reusable, dry-erase sheets.

Difficulty: Easy

Time Required: 10 minutes

Here's How:

1. Take two sheets of transparency film and tape them together on the sides and bottom. Use thin, clear tape. You may also use a clear plastic document sleeve.
2. Leave the top edge open, so you can slip a piece of paper between the plastic sheets.
3. Create your own study guide or practice test, leaving blank spaces where your answers should go.
4. Put the practice test into the plastic holder. Using a dry erase marker, write your answers on the sheet.
5. Once you're finished, check your answers. Then wipe away your answers and try again!

Tips:

1. You can turn any study guide into a practice test by covering up key words and phrases with white-out or white tape. This creates an automatic fill-in the blank practice test.
2. Keep one on hand for every subject!

What You Need:

• 2 sheets of clear plastic (transparency film)
• clear tape
• your practice sheets
• thin dry erase markers
• paper towels

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Title Page in MLA

Place your report title about one third of the way down your paper.

Place your name about two inches below the title.

Place your class information about two inches below your name.

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The Freshman Year

If you are looking forward to your freshman year of high school, you're experiencing one of the most exciting times of your life. Sometimes it also feels like one of the most daunting times. These tips can help you prepare for a successful beginning to your high school career.

Organize Your Life and Your Studies

Let's face it, some people are naturally more organized than others. Some of us always seem to work with a messy desk and a cluttered brain. There are some easy ways to break messy habits and improve your study skills.

• Color-Coding Your Work
• Organize Your Time
• A Sloppy Writer's Guide

Choosing the Right Path

It's important to get off to the right start when it comes to choosing classes. You should get to know your guidance counselor and become familiar with the types of courses that are required in your chosen diploma type.

• Questions for Your Guidance Counselor
• Choosing the Right Diploma Type
• What Are Core Classes?

Improving Your Study Habits

Do you study best alone or in a group? Do you learn best by seeing, hearing, or acting out new information? If you take the time to evaluate your personal learning style, you can give yourself an early advantage in high school.

• Discover Your Learning Style
• Find a Study Space
• Study Groups

Communicating with Family

Avoid the stress and tension that arise from a lack of communication with your parents and siblings by discussing your needs and laying out a plan ahead of time. Don't fight over the computer or your curfew!

• Homework Contract
• Homework Time from Mom's Point of View
• Avoiding Sleep Deprivation

Building New Skills

High school is the time for preparing for college. Each year your assignments will become more and more challenging. Learn essential skills and build upon them for a bright and successful future!

• Using a Library
• Using Microsoft Word
• MLA Style Tutorial

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Beware the Time Traps!

We're nearing the end of another school term, and you know what that means (finals!). At a time like this, it's more important than ever to manage your time.

The first step toward improving time management skills is identifying your time wasters. These little traps can cost you valuable time that you should spend preparing for back-to-back exams.

You can pick more than one:

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SAT Essay Tip

The following quote comes from the instruction page for the SAT essay section at the College Board web site:

"You are asked to develop your point of view on the issue, not give a straight report of the facts. This is your opinion, so feel free to use "I," and give examples that are meaningful to you, even ones from your personal life or experiences."

So just image you are sitting at a desk taking the actual test, and you're asked to come up with a meaningful even in your life. Could you?

Prepare Ahead: Take an Inventory of Important Events

Meaningful life events are things you normally think about in your quiet time, when you're lying on your bed listening to your favorite music. For most people, they're tough to drum up under the glaring lights and high stress of a test environment.

So what can you do? Before you go to the test, come up with a bank of experiences to draw from.

A personal experience bank is a list of meaningful experiences in your life that you can reflect upon to find a lesson or a meaning. If you think about it, you can probably come up with a list of several events that were pivotal in your life.

These pivotal events may not be happy times, but they are times that brought about change. For instance, can you think of a lesson or new outlook you gained from any of the following situations?

• Your first kiss
• A trip to a foreign country
• A really dumb mistake that became dangerous
• Standing up for yourself when it wasn't popular
• Failing to do the right thing, then being ashamed
• The passing of a pet, friend, or a relative

30 Minutes to Future Success

Find a quiet time to sit and reflect. Make a list of your own experiences, and write a brief paragraph about each event. Is there a moral or lesson to each one?

This exercise will help you realize that we truly do learn from everyday events, as well as painful ones. But it will also give you a rich bank of information to draw from on test day, and for the rest of your life.

Feel Silly?

At first, it might seem a little shallow and ironic to keep a list of deep-meaning experiences on hand to use as a tool for a good score on the test. Don't worry about that.

The essay portion of the SAT is designed to determine whether a student can develop and express meaningful essays. Not mechanical essays. You will be expected to use examples from your studies and your experiences. This exercise merely encourages students to prepare ahead of time.

Read more advice about the SAT writing section.

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Vocabulary Quiz IV

This quiz can help you build your word power and prepare for college entry exams. If you miss any of the words, simply try again in a day or two!

There are 10 questions. Have fun!

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Cell Phone Tips

If you're a normal student, you probably love your cell phone. It provides a connection to all the important people in your life. But did you know that the cell phone can actually be a handy device for aiding in homework and studies, and it can be a great safety feature, as well?

1. Cell Phones and Time Management

Reminders and alarms are some of the most useful tools on a cell phone, but they are also the least appreciated.

Most cell phones come with a scheduler to allow you to set an alarm at a certain time of day or on a certain date. You can set alarms to remind you of an established daily homework time to keep you from chatting right through your work time. For instance, you can set up a beeper that goes off every night at 7.

You could also use calendar reminders to notify you when projects and assignments are due. These reminders can be set up weeks and months ahead of time.

2. Group Communication

If you find yourself working on a group project or needing the advice of a few friends as you do your history homework, try using the three-way calling feature. It's available on most cell phones.

You may not even be aware that this feature is available on your phone, so you may want to experiment a little. First call one friend and establish a clear connection. Then enter the number of a second friend on the keypad and press send. If your phone has the three-way feature, then the second call will go through and the first friend will be on hold. Simply press send again to re-connect with the first friend.

3. Cell Phone as Audio Tool

Some cell phones come equipped with a voice recorder. This tool can be priceless if you tend to forget things. You can use the recorder to remember homework assignments, to memorize terms, to practice foreign language pronunciation, and dozens of other tasks. It's a great feature for auditory learners.

If your phone doesn't have the voice recording feature, you can accomplish many of the same tasks by sending yourself a voice message.

4. Pictures and Illustrations

More and more phones come equipped with picture-sharing features. This is important because pictures can be used as illustrations in reports and presentations. If you're in the library or out and about and you see an image that would work for a project, simply capture the image on your phone.

The are several ways you may be able to save and transfer the picture. Depending on the cell phone, you may be able to use a memory card, Bluetooth technology, or a USB cable that connects your cell phone with your computer. You may have to do a little detective work to find the best method for your phone.

5. Podcasts

Right now it's pretty expensive and cumbersome to access a podcast from most cell phones, since many cell phones require the middle step of downloading a podcast to a computer. But technology is barreling along pretty quickly. With the advent of cell phone/MP3 player combos, the prospect of widespread podcast sharing is growing ever more likely. Look for teachers/professors sending podcasts and students accessing them more and more.

6. Cell Phones and Ebooks

If your phone has a built-in Internet browser, you have a whole library at your fingertips! Basically, if you can access the Internet through your phone, you can read ebooks from a variety of great sites.

One good source for ebooks comes from text2ph.com, a site that allows you to access books stored on its server. You just download a few pages at a time. There are hundreds of ebooks available on the site. You don’t even have to download any software to use this service.

7. Sending Money

There may be times when you need to travel to conduct research or to visit prospective colleges. Parents may be interested to know that your cell phone can provide some security while you’re on the road.

PayPal Mobile works with an existing PayPal account to send and receive money. If you find yourself stranded on the road, your parents can send money to you and you can send money to others (like a towing service) via text messaging.

This feature takes some effort and time to set up, so you may want to consider checking it out now, before you actually need it.

8. Getting Directions

Afraid of getting lost on the road? Google Maps may provide the answer. The Google Mobile Web site provides many services, including step-by-step directions to and from locations, complete with satellite photos and maps. This is another free feature that you should check out and practice ahead of time!

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Group Memorization Activity

Need to memorize a long list of people, places, or things? This fun activity is much like the Method of Loci mnemonic, but it's also a game. This activity will show you just how easy it can be to memorize a list.

First, write up a random list of ten objects for each person in your group. A sample list would look like this:

• pickle
• frog
• window
• scarecrow
• sea monster
• chicken dinner
• wallet
• carpet
• toilet paper
• banana

As you can see, you can have fun simply creating the lists! Once you have a list for every student, you'll give each person five minutes to memorize the list by making up a story.
Have students imagine themselves standing in a room of their house. Each student will create a story, using every item on the list, in sequence. A sample story for our list might go like this:

"I was standing at the refrigerator, searching for a pickle, when a frog lept from behind the milk jug."

You'll soon find that it's easy to make up a short story using the words in order. You'll also see that this makes memorizing a list incredibly easy. Students should take turns reciting their stories--while others check the lists to make sure they say the items in order.

You'll have a great laugh with this activity!

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Can You Follow Directions?

Believe it or not, failure to follow directions properly is one of the most common mistakes students make on big tests.

As you get closer to the end of the term, you should be mindful to read over all the instructions carefully to make sure you understand what the teacher really wants from you. For a little practice, you might want to review a list of instruction words to make sure you understand how to answer each question.

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Getting Enough Sleep?

The evidence is pretty clear that students need to get a good night's sleep to do well in the classroom. Yet studies also show that teens are wired to stay up late and sleep later in the mornings. Put it all together, and this means that many students don't get enough sleep!

See also: Should You Stay Up Late to Study?

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Footnotes 101

If you're writing a paper in MLA or APA style, you may be wondering if and when you should use footnotes (or endnotes). In fact, the MLA style guides recommend limited use of notes in your papers. Instead, you should stick to the use of parenthetical citations to reference your sources.

Upon occasion, some student writers will desire to make comments and clarifications that might serve to disrupt the flow of the paper. In that case, it is acceptable for the writer to use an occasional note. Any notes should be created with the insert footnote command on your word processor. This feature will ensure that the notes are formatted correctly.

But don't take any chances! As always, you should ask your instructor if you have any questions about the use of special elements in your paper.

On the other hand, students who are writing papers in the Turabian style of writing may be required to use footnotes or endnotes. The notes-bibliography method is preferred in this style, and you don't have to limit your use to source references. In this style of writing you may use footnotes or endnotes to do a few things.

• You can make acknowledgments (generally in the first note).

• You may make clarifications and add special information.
• You can add a cross reference.

If you're wondering about the difference between footnotes and endnotes, you should know that there is not a difference; it is all about preference! If your instructor has a preference, that's the style you should use.

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Instructional Words

Instruction words are very important, but they are often overlooked and misunderstood by students during exams and tests. It is important to know what is expected of you when you encounter words such as “analyze” or “discuss” on an exam. Valuable points can be earned or lost, depending on your understanding of instructional words shown here.

• Analyze: Take apart a concept or a process, and explain it step by step. You could encounter analysis questions in any discipline, from science to history. An analysis question is usually a long essay question.
• Comment: If a test question prompts you to comment on a fact or statement, you will need to explain the relevance of the fact or statement. For example, you could be prompted to comment on a particular amendment quoted in a government exam, or comment on a passage that is quoted on a literature exam.
• Compare: Show likenesses and differences when you compare two events, theories, or processes.
• Contrast: Used for showing differences between two processes or theories, a contrast question could appear on a literature exam, a history exam, a science exam, and more.
• Define: Provide a definition of a key term you’ve covered in class. This is usually a short essay type of question. (See Memorizing Terms)
• Demonstrate: If you are asked to demonstrate, you must provide proof of your answer by using an example. A demonstration could be a physical action, a visual illustration, or a written statement.
• Diagram: Demonstrate your answer by drawing a chart or other visual element to illustrate your points.
• Discuss: When a teacher instructs you to “discuss” a topic, he or she is trying to determine whether you understand both sides of an issue. You will need to demonstrate that you know the strengths and weaknesses of both sides. You should pretend that you are having a conversation with a friend and voicing both sides.
• Enumerate: Enumerating is providing a list in a particular order. When you enumerate a list of items, you may need to specify why items go in a particular order.
• Examine: If you are prompted to examine a topic, you will use your own judgment to explore (in writing) a topic and comment on significant elements, events, or acts. Provide your opinion and explain how or why you came to your conclusions.
• Explain: Provide an answer that gives a “why” response. Provide a complete overview of the problem and solution for a particular issue or process. This is a typical form of question used in science exams.
• Illustrate: If you are expected to illustrate a topic, you should use examples to show or explain a topic. Depending on the subject matter, you might use words, drawings, diagrams, or behavior to illustrate an answer.
• Interpret: Interpretation of a subject calls for the ability to read between the lines and draw conclusions. You will be expected to explain the meaning of an act, action, or passage in an interpretation.
• Justify: If you are asked to justify something, you will be expected to use examples or evidence to show why (in your opinion) it is correct. You must provide reasons for your conclusions and opinions.
• List: Lists are used in every discipline. In list questions you must provide a series of answers. If you are expected to memorize a certain number of items for an exam, be sure to remember how many there are in total. (See Dates and Lists)
• Outline: Provide an explanation with headings and subheadings. This is a common instruction word found on literature exams. (See Mind Maps)
• Order: Provide a chronological or value-based answer by listing several items (terms or events) in correct placement. You could be asked to place events in a certain order on a history exam, or you could be asked to put a scientific process in the correct order. (See Method of Loci)
• Prove: To prove an answer, you must use evidence (this could be numbers) or reasoning to solve a problem. Tests that require proof normally appear on science or math exams.
• Relate: Relate could mean a few different things on an exam: 1) You could be asked to show a relationship between two events or items by discussing their similarities; or 2) You could be required to provide a written account of something (as in literature).
• Review: If a test question prompts you to review a process or event, you should recall and repeat all the most important elements or facts that you learned about a specific topic in essay form.
• Trace: To trace an event or process, go over it in detail and explain it step by step. You could trace an event that occurred in history or you could trace a process in science.

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Cause and Effect Essay

A cause and effect essay assignment can be challenging. Your job as a writer is to show the relationships between events (how one causes another), but relationships between events are not always straightforward! They can be subtle and/or complex. You will need to demonstrate a number of logical and factual relationships in this type of essay, so you will need to set off with a scientific approach.

Alas, sometimes we have to go with logic when we choose a topic, instead of following our hearts!

You can start off by making a chart to compare several topic ideas. Brainstorm to come up with a causal chain for each possible topic. Try this with a few possible topics to see which one demonstrates a the most straightforward chain of events.

When choosing an essay topic, you may have to compromise a bit. We can't always write about topics that intrigue us. Sometimes we have to choose topics that are easiest to articulate.

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Punctuating Titles

Do I underline a song title? What about a painting?

Even the most experienced writers have a problem remembering the proper punctuation for certain types of titles. Books are italicized (or underlined) and articles are put in quotation marks. That's about as far as many people can remember.

Following are guidelines for punctuating titles according to Modern Language Association (MLA) standards.

There is a trick to remembering how to treat titles, and it works well enough that you can commit most types of titles to memory.

It's the big and little trick.

Big things and things that can stand on their own, like books, are italicized. Little things that are dependent or that come as part of a group, like chapters, are put into quotation marks.

For example, a CD or album are major (big) works that can be divided into smaller parts, or songs. The song names (small part) are punctuated with quotation marks.

For example:

• The Sweet Escape, by Gwen Stefani, includes the song "Wind It Up."

Underline any published collection, like a book of poetry. Put the individual entry, like a poem, in quotation marks. However: a long, epic poem that is often published on its own would be treated like a book. The Odyssey is one example.

Punctuating Titles of Works of Art

Creating a work of art is an enormous task, isn't it? For that reason, you can think of art as a big accomplishment. Okay, that might sound corny, but it will help you remember! Individual works of art like paintings and sculptures are underlined or italicized:

• Michelangelo's David
• Mona Lisa
• The Last Supper
• The Pieta

Note: A photograph, which is much smaller than a work of art, is placed in quotation marks!

Titles and Names to Italicize

• A novel
• A ship
• A play
• A film
• A painting
• A sculpture or statue
• A drawing
• A CD
• A TV Series
• A cartoon series
• An encyclopedia
• A magazine
• A newspaper
• A pamphlet

Titles to Put Into Quotation Marks

• Poem
• Short story
• A skit
• A commercial
• An individual episode in a TV series (like "The Soup Nazi" on Seinfeld)
• A cartoon episode, like "Trouble With Dogs"
• A chapter
• An article
• A newspaper story

More Tips on Punctuating Titles

Some titles are merely capitalized and not given additional punctuation. These include:

• Religious works, like The Bible or The Koran
• Buildings
• Monuments

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What Is Procrastination?

Do you put off your big assignments until the last minute? Do you find yourself doing unimportant tasks when you should be starting on a big research project? This is procrastination, and it is apparently a very common trait among students. One report from 2007, which refers to procrastination as "self-regulatory failure" (ouch!), states that 80%-95% of college students procrastinate!

But even professionals don't fully understand why people procrastinate. Some scholars say procrastination stems from low self-confidence, others say students procrastinate because of disinterest, while others claim that procrastination can stem from perfectionism.

What do you think? Do you procrastinate? Take a procrastination quiz to see if you are a procrastinator. Then let me know how you overcome the urge to put things off.

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Graphic Organizers

Sometimes it's easier to organize and expand your ideas when you have a visual tool. Graphic organizers will help you identify, organize, and label your thoughts by putting them into patterns and shapes.?

Click on any image to print.

1. Expanding an Idea

Grace Fleming

Sometimes you have to start small, with a single idea, and then open your mind to new possibilities. This tool gives you a visual method for expanding on a single idea for research or other assignments.

2. Sequence of Events

Grace Fleming

It can be difficult to figure out a sequence of events until you put pencil to paper.

3. Main Idea and Supporting Ideas

Every project, big or small, will involve a big idea and supporting evidence. This tool helps you separate facts and supporting ideas from your main point.

4. Building Blocks

Grace Fleming

Many concepts and events become clear when we use building blocks to describe how they came to be. From historical events, to laws, and even to nutrition--we can understand many things more readily when we see them as building blocks.

5. The Cycle

Grace Fleming

Life is full of cycles. Weather cycles, life cycles, rock cycles--many natural events can be understood when we see a visual representation of the cyclic process.

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Panic Paper

Have you ever put off writing a paper until the day before it was due? You’ll be comforted to know that we all have. Many of us know the panic of settling in Thursday night and realizing suddenly that a ten-page paper is due at 9 a.m. Friday morning!

How does this happen? No matter how or why you get into this situation, it’s important to remain calm and clear-headed. Fortunately, there are a few tips that will help you get through the night and still leave time for sleep.

1. First, collect any quotes or statistics that you can include in your paper. You can use these as building blocks. You can focus on writing descriptions and analyses of the separate quotes first and then tie them all together later.

2. Review the main ideas. If you are writing a book report, reread the last few paragraphs of each chapter. Refreshing the story in your mind will help you tie your quotes together.

3. Come up with a great introductory paragraph. The first line of your paper is especially important. It should be interesting and relevant to the topic. It is also a great opportunity to get creative. For examples of some outstanding introductory statements you can consult a list of great first lines.

4. Now that you have all the pieces, start putting them together. It’s so much easier to write a paper in pieces than to try to sit down and write ten pages straight. You don’t even have to write it in order. Write the parts you feel most comfortable with or knowledgeable about first. Then fill in the transitions to smooth out your essay.

5. 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.

Good News About Last Minute Papers

It's not unusual to hear veteran students claim that some of their best grades have come from last-minute papers!

Why? If you take a look at the advice above, you'll see that you are forced to zero in on the most impressive or important parts of your topic and stay focused on them. There is something about being under pressure that often gives us clarity and increased focus.

Let's be perfectly clear: it is not a good idea to put off your assignments as a habit. You'll always get burned eventually. But once in awhile, when you find yourself having to throw together a panic paper, you can take comfort in the fact that you can turn out a good paper in a short amount of time.

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Why Use Visual Aids?

If you are required to use a visual aid in your presentation, you should be glad! Visual aids can improve your presentation in many ways. They can clarify information for the audience, and help you, as the presenter, focus on the topic at hand.

Visual Aids Enhance Learning

Visual aids will make your presentation a little more interesting for the audience. It's difficult for many audience members to stay focused on a verbal presentation. Visual aids break up the monotony.

• The visual learners in your audience are able to understand information more readily by looking at images.
• Tactile learners will appreciate a prop that they can touch and experience. Period clothing and other cultural artifacts provide a good experience for the audience.
• Auditory learners will enjoy hearing sound recordings that enhance your presentation. A presentation about colonial America could be enhanced by period music, for example.

Visual Aids Help the Presenter

Props and images can make you, as the presenter, feel more at ease. Many students feel more relaxed and secure when they can redirect viewers' eyes to another object.

Visual Aids can help you when you're drawing a blank. If you forget an important statistic or date (which we can do under pressure!) you can look to your poster or chart as a prompt.

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Can't Find Sources?

You've selected a great topic and you've found two fabulous sources. Research is going well, and then suddenly you hit a brick wall. You discover that the resources you've found seem to be the only ones available on your topic.

But your teacher requires five sources! What now?

There are a few steps you can take before you take the drastic step of changing your topic at a late date. Find out how to locate additional sources after the well runs dry, by using some tricks that professional researchers use.

More Resources

• Writing a Research Paper
• Using Note Cards
• First Things to Consider

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Trustworthy Sources

Research is conducted to get at the truth of a subject. As simple as that sounds, you will soon learn that the truth is often very difficult to find!

As a researcher, you will find that every question can have many possible answers and every event will be described differently by witnesses, partly because events are clouded by opinions and viewpoints. You can see evidence of this if you browse through your television news programming.

Look through your news shows and you will find programs with names like "Reliable Sources" and TV channels who make claims to be "Fair and Balanced or "The Most Trusted Name in News." You will also see that any two news organizations will report the very same event in two very different ways.

So where do you find the truth?

You have to develop a critical eye and ferret out the facts for yourself!

A person who has developed critical thinking skills will be able to discern facts from opinions and pick up on small clues that help to determine trustworthiness of sources.

Can You Trust the Source?

It can be helpful to put the topic of trustworthy sources into perspective with an exercise.

Imagine that you are walking down a neighborhood street and you come upon a disturbing scene. A man is lying on the ground with a leg wound and several paramedics and police officers are buzzing around him. A small spectator crowd has gathered, so you approach one of the bystanders to ask what happened.

"This guy was jogging down the street and a big dog came running out and attacked him."

You take a few steps and approach a woman. You ask her what happened.

"This man was trying to rob that house and a dog bit him."

Now you don't know what to believe!

Two different people have given different accounts of an event. To get closer to the truth, you have to find out if either person is connected to the event in any way. You soon discover that the man is a friend of the bite victim. You also realize that the woman is the dog's owner. Now what do you believe? It's probably time to find a third source of information-and one who is not a stakeholder in this scene.

What Is a Stakeholder?

In the scene described above, both the man and the woman providing the reports have a big stake in the outcome of this event. If the police determine that an innocent jogger was attacked by a dog, the dog's owner is subject to fines and further legal trouble.

If the police determine that the apparent jogger was actually involved in illegal and dangerous pursuits at the time he was bitten, the wounded man faces penalty--and the woman is off the hook.

If you were a news reporter, you would have to determine whom to trust by digging deeper and making an assessment about every source of information. You would have to collect details and determine if your many sources were trustworthy, or if they were clouded by distortion. And distortion can stem from many causes:

• Stakeholders' ambitions
• Preconceived beliefs
• Political designs
• Prejudice
• Sloppy research

So What Is a Reliable Source?

It is nearly impossible, after an event has occurred, to determine the exactness of every detail. Every recounting of an event involves points of view and opinion to some degree. The best sources will provide a consensus view and identify all information providers. The following statements should help you determine the trustworthiness of your sources:

• Every writer, lecturer, reporter, and teacher has an opinion.
• 
  
• The most reliable sources are straightforward about how and why they are reporting.
• 
  
• An Internet article that provides news but does not provide a list of sources is not very trustworthy. (The article you are reading supplies advice as opposed to news.)
• 
  
• Anybody can publish on the Internet.
• 
  
• Internet publishers can be dishonest about their identity.
• 
  
• An Internet article that provides a list of sources for a newsy article is more trustworthy.
• 
  
• An Internet article that is published by a reputable research organization or a respected professor at a reputable university and provides sources is even more trustworthy.
• 
  
• Any source is more trustworthy if the author and the publisher are easily identifiable and it is clear that the author and the publisher are not driven by profit.
• 
  
• Books are generally considered more trustworthy than the Internet because books are stable and unchanging. An online article can be edited at any given moment, while a book is published as a whole at a specific, identifiable time and date.
• 
  
• Books are generally considered more trustworthy because the author and publisher are clearly stated and they are held responsible. When a book publisher publishes a book, that publisher takes responsibility for its truthfulness.
• 
  
• News organizations are businesses.
• 
  
• Cable news, radio shows, and other media sources must make a profit. If you use these as sources, you must consider their many stakeholders and political slants.
• 
  
• Fiction is made up-so fiction is not a good source of information.
• 
  
• Movies are fiction. Even movies based on real events are fiction.
• 
  
• Memoirs and autobiographies are nonfiction-but they contain a single person's point of view and opinions. If you use an autobiography as a source, you must acknowledge that the information is one-sided!
• 
  
• A nonfiction book that provides a bibliography of sources is more trustworthy than a book that does not.
• 
  
• A book published by a profit-making company has a stake in the success and the popularity of the book. This profit-making potential can cause a book to be more scandalous and more sensational--and less truthful.
• 
  
• An article that is published in a scholarly journal is usually scrutinized for accuracy by the publisher. A publisher-especially a university press--has a reputation to protect.
• 
  
• Some sources are "peer reviewed." These books and articles go before a panel of non-stakeholding professionals for review and assessment. This body of professionals act as a small jury to determine truthfulness. Peer-reviewed articles are very trustworthy.
• 
  

Scholarly research is a quest for truth. Your job as a researcher is to use the most trustworthy sources to find the most accurate information. Your job also involves using a variety of sources, to reduce the chances that you are relying on tainted, opinion-filled evidence.

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Test Mistakes

1. Leaving an answer blank.

There is nothing wrong with skipping over a tough question to give yourself some extra time to think it over--just as long as you remember to go back to the question later. The danger is forgetting to go back to every question you’ve skipped. A blank answer is always a wrong answer!

Solution: Each time you skip a question, put a check mark beside it.

2. Answering a question twice.

You’d be surprised how many times students choose two answers in multiple choice. This makes both answers wrong!

Solution: Review your work and make sure each true/false and multiple choice question only has one answer circled!

3. Transferring answers incorrectly from scratch paper.

The most frustrating mistake for math students is having an answer correct on the scratch paper, but transferring it wrong to the test!

Solution: Double check any work you transfer from a scratch sheet.

4. Circling the wrong multiple choice answer.

This is a costly mistake, but one that is very easy to make. You look over all the multiple choice answers and pick the one that is correct, but you circle the letter next to the correct answer—the one that doesn’t match your answer!

Solution: Make sure the letter/answer you indicate is the one you really mean to select.

5. Studying the wrong chapter.

Whenever you have a test coming up, make sure that you understand which chapters or lectures the test will cover. There are times when a teacher will test you on a specific chapter that is never discussed in class. On the other hand, the teacher’s lectures may cover three chapters, and the test may cover only one of those chapters. When that happens, you can end up studying material that won’t appear on your exam.

Solution: Always ask the teacher what chapters and lectures will be covered on a test.

6. Ignoring the clock.

One of the most common errors students commit when taking an essay test is failing to manage time. This is how you end up in a panic with 5 minutes to go and 5 unanswered questions staring back at you.

Solution: Always take the first few moments of an exam to assess the situation when it comes to essay questions and answers. Give yourself a time schedule and stick to it. Give yourself a set amount of time to outline and answer each essay question and stick to your plan!

7. Not following directions.

If the teacher says “compare” and you “define,” you are going to lose points on your answer. There are certain directional words that you should understand and follow when you take a test.

Solution: Know the following directional words:

• Define: Provide a definition.
• Explain: Provide an answer that gives a complete overview or clear description of the problem and solution for a particular question.
• Analyze: Take apart a concept or a process, and explain it step by step.
• Contrast: Show differences.
• Compare: Show likenesses and differences.
• Diagram: Explain and draw a chart or other visual to illustrate your points.
• Outline: Provide an explanation with headings and subheadings.

8. Thinking too much.

It’s easy to over-think a question and begin to doubt yourself. If you tend to second-guess yourself, you will inevitably change a right answer to a wrong answer.

Solution: If you are a thinker who tends to over-think, and you get a strong hunch when you first read an answer, go with it. Limit your thinking time if you know you tend to doubt your first instincts.

9. Technological breakdown.

If your pen runs out of ink and you can’t complete an exam, your blank answers are just as wrong as they would have been for any other reason. Running out of ink or breaking your pencil lead halfway through a test sometimes means leaving half your exam blank. And that leads to an F.

Solution: Always bring extra supplies to an exam.

10. Not putting name on test.

There are times when failing to put your name on a test will result in a failing grade. This can happen when the test administrator doesn’t know the students, or when the teacher/administrator won’t see students again after the test is over (like at the end of a school year). In these special situations (or even if you have a very stern teacher) a test that doesn’t have a name attached to it will be tossed out.

Solution: Always write your name on a test before you get started!

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"Revisiting" for Test Prep

I've read many studies about the brain and memory, and one thing that seems clear is the importance of "revisiting" material for a memory boost. Revisiting in test preparation means studying a topic one day, setting it aside for a day or two, and then going back to it.

The studies show that you learn the most when you study, step away, and then return to information a few times.

This finding reinforces the importance of starting early when it comes to preparing for a test. You don't have to start early and study constantly. You should start early, study a few hours, close the book, and repeat after a day or two.

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Wrong Word Right Word Quiz

Test Your Word Knowledge

This quiz will test your knowledge of the most commonly-confused words. If you're ready to build your communication skills, this quiz can help. Just test your word knowledge and check your score. If you missed any words, you can study the words and take the test again in a few days!

Wrong Word Right Word Quiz

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Reaction Papers

You may be asked to write a reaction paper in response to reading a book, watching a film, or examining a work of art. This reaction (or response) paper should contain a mix of your own analysis and a summary of your impressions and opinions.

Reaction papers are typically written in the first person and should, therefore, include expressions as "I think" and "I believe" in the text.

The reaction paper can challenge students who prefer to work with clear guidelines and precise expectations. It may help some students to think of a reaction paper as a letter to a friend--a descriptive letter that contains an introduction to the subject (book, poem, or other work) and all your honest thoughts and impressions about it.

Some students will benefit from reading an example of a reaction paper.

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Speech Writing Tips

Are you nervous about an upcoming speech? If you are, you can manage your nerves a little better by getting to the root cause of your fear.

Imagine that you're about to give your speech, and then figure out what it is that you fear. Are you afraid that you'll freeze up in front of people? Worried about asserting yourself? Are you afraid that people will be bored stiff? Figure out what issue is really causing your stress, and then write your speech to address your biggest fear.

For example, if you're afraid that you will freeze up in front of people, you will want to build lots of visual markers into your speech notes. Segment your speech so that you have guideposts. Then hold a pencil in your hand, and mark of your guideposts as you progress.

And if you are afraid that people will get bored, you must work hard on your introduction to make it so entertaining and / or fascinating that people will be enthused from the start. It's a little calming when your audience is engaged and interested. And when you're calm you're more in charge.

• Submit Your Speaking Tips
• How to Write a Speech
• Your Speech Introduction
• Write a Persuasive Speech

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Write a Limerick

You might need to write a limerick for an assignment, or you may want to learn the art just for fun or to impress a friend. Limericks are fun--they usually have a bit of a twist and a perhaps a silly element. And best of all, they can be a great way to express how clever and creative you can be!

A limerick contains five lines. In this mini-poem, the first, second, and fifth lines rhyme, and the third and fourth lines rhyme. Here is an example:

There once was a student named Dwight,
Who slept only three hours a night.
He dozed in the classroom
And snoozed in the bathroom,
So Dwight’s college options are slight.

There is also a certain rhythm to a limerick that makes it unique. The meter, or the number of beats (stressed syllables) per lines, is 3,3,2,2,3. For example, in the second line, the three stressed points are slept, three, and night.

The syllabification is (usually) 8,8,5,5,8, but there is some variation in this. In the limerick above, there are actually 6 syllables in the third and fourth lines.

To write your own limerick, begin with a person and/or a place. Make sure that one or both of them are easy to rhyme. For your first try, start with “there once was” and finish the first line with five more syllables. Example: There once was a boy from Cancun.

Now think of a feature or an event and write a line that ends in a word that rhymes with Cancun, such as: Whose eyes were as round as the moon.

Next, skip to the fifth line, which will be the final line that includes the twist or punch line. What are some of your rhyming word choices? There are many.

• Balloon
• Raccoon
• Spoon
• maroon

Try to think up something funny or clever to say and write a line that will end with one of your rhyming words. (You will find that the two short lines in the middle are easy to come up with. You can work on those last.)

Here is one possible result:

There once was a boy from Cancun,
Whose eyes were as round as the moon.
That wasn’t so bad,
But the nose that he had
Was as long and as flat as a spoon.

Have fun!

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Sentence Problems

Sentences are made when we string words together to convey a complete thought. There are some types of sentence errors that occur more frequently than others. It's important to know the most common types of errors and to avoid them in your writing.

1. The Comma Splice

Some say the comma splice is the most common type of sentence error, but that should be good news for you! The comma splice is an error that is easy to identify and fix. A comma splice occurs when two independent clauses (clauses that could be sentences on their own) are jammed together with a comma.

2. Rambling Sentences

Rambling or run-on sentences are sentences that contain several clauses connected by coordinating conjunctions such as: and, or, but, yet, for, nor, and so. A rambling sentence may appear to follow the technical rules of grammar in places, but the sentence as a whole is wrong because it rambles.

3. Sentences That Are Not Parallel

One portion of the SAT writing test requires students to find and improve poorly-written sentences. It’s important for students to know what problems appear frequently within these sentences, in order to improve their chances of scoring well. One common sentence problem involves non-parallel structure.

4. Sentence Fragments

A sentence fragment is a statement that cannot stand alone as a sentence, even though it might look like it should be able to. A sentence fragment may be lacking a subject, a verb, or both. It might even contain words that look like subjects and verbs.

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Rambling Sentences

Rambling or run-on sentences are sentences that contain several clauses connected by coordinating conjunctions such as: and, or, but, yet, for, nor, and so.

A rambling sentence may appear to follow the technical rules of grammar in places, but the sentence as a whole is wrong because it rambles.

I was happy to walk down the aisle as a bridesmaid in my sister’s wedding, but I was very embarrassed when I stumbled in the middle of the ceremony, for when I recovered, I looked up and saw my sister and I thought she was going to faint, because I could see her standing in the doorway waiting to begin her own walk down the aisle, and her face was all white, she looked like she was going to throw up.

Much of this looks correct, because the various clauses are connected correctly (except one comma splice). Don’t hesitate to break up sentences that ramble:

I was happy to walk down the aisle as a bridesmaid in my sister’s wedding. However, I was very embarrassed when I stumbled in the middle of the ceremony--especially when I recovered. I looked up and saw my sister and I thought she was going to faint. I could see her standing in the doorway, waiting to begin her own walk down the aisle. Her face was all white and she looked like she was going to throw up!

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Microsoft Word Shortcuts and Tricks

Did you know that you can press CTRL + ] and increase your font size by one point?

There are lots of shortcuts and tricks you can use when typing your paper in Microsoft Word. Have you ever tried to find the command for a hanging indent for a bibliography? It always seems to be in a strange place.

You can actually create the hanging indent by highlighting your text and pressing CTRL + T. You might be able to write your paper much faster by learning these Microsoft Word shortcuts.

Photo by Tom Denham

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No More Hand-Raising?

A few schools in the U.K. have decided to put a stop to an age-old tradition. Children in these schools are prohibited from raising hands when they have a question or a comment. Instead, students are asked to do a "thumbs-up" gesture when asking to speak.

Educators decided that hand-raising can be disruptive, and one teacher suggested that the act of raising hands might put off some less aggressive students by requiring them to "put their ideas forward in a forceful way." It's true that some students can get a little overly enthusiastic with their excited hand-waving.

What do you think? Is a thumbs up better than a hands up?

View the original article here

Passive Voice

Students hear a lot about passive voice, but sometimes it takes them awhile to understand what makes a verb passive or active. To figure this out, students must concentrate on the subject and the verb of a sentence.

In active voice, the subject is performing the action (doing the verb). In the following sentences the verbs are in active voice.

Rob hit the baseball pretty hard.
John broke my favorite dish.
Laura took my beach towel.
Stephanie ate the entire pie.

Observe that the verb is in the passive voice in each sentence below. Notice that the subject is not acting; instead the subject is being acted upon.

The baseball was hit pretty hard.
My favorite dish was broken by John.
My beach towel was taken.
The entire pie was eaten by Stephanie.

Notice that the verbs in passive voice are preceded by “was,” which is a form of “be.” One way to recognize passive voice is to look for a form of “be” preceding the verb.

The pickle was eaten.
The pickle is eaten.
The pickle will be eaten.
The pickle has been eaten.
The pickle had been eaten.
The pickle will have been eaten.

The sentences above all make it very clear that a pickle is, was, or will be eaten—but we cannot tell from these sentences who is actually eating. The phrases leave us wondering a little, and that is why teachers don’t like to see too much passive voice in your writing.

Passive voice tends to be vague, while active voice is direct and clear.

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Field Trip Rules

Field trip days are often the best days of the entire school year. Most students look forward to this day for weeks or months! That's why it is important that you mind some basic rules to keep the trip safe and enjoyable.

For a Safe Field Trip

Don't get reckless on the bus. You don't want your day to end early, do you? Misbehavior on the bus can get you into trouble and ruin your day. You could end up sitting on the bus while the others enjoy the destination.

Don't wander off. Listen carefully when the teacher gives instructions about sticking with the group or sticking with an assigned partner-even when going to the restroom. Don't ever wander off on your own, or your trip could end badly. If you break this rule, you could end up with the teacher as your partner!

Respect the chaperones. You should respect any chaperones and listen to them as you would your own teacher or parents. Chaperones have a big responsibility, watching after so many students at one time. They can't afford to give too much attention to one "squeaky wheel," so they will probably be intolerant to distractions. Don't be disruptive.

Respect nature. Some field trips will take you into contact with animals or plants. For your own safety, be mindful of potential dangers and don't assume you can tug, pull, tease, or touch things safely.

Don't roughhouse. You may visit a factory containing equipments with moving parts, or a museum with rooms full of pottery and glass, or a riverside with fast-running water. Kids don't always think about the dangers that come with certain places, so think about the potential hazards before you go, and remember not to push or pull on friends.

Keep an eye on the clock. If you are supposed to meet your group for lunch or for loading onto the bus, you should keep an eye on the time. You don't want to miss lunch, and you surely don't want to be left behind.

For a Fun Field Trip

Arrive in plenty of time to get on the bus. You don't want to miss the fun day because you ran into heavy traffic. Plan ahead and leave early.

Eat and drink in designated places. Don't assume you can buy a soda from a machine and drink it anywhere. Your destination site might have strict limitations when it comes to drinking or eating on site.

Dress for hot and cold. If it's a warm day, it could be really cold inside a building. If it's cold outside, it could be steamy inside! Try to dress in layers so you can add and subtract as necessary.

Don't litter. You can be banned from some locations for this. Don't be sent back to the bus!

Bring comfort items for the ride. If you are facing a long bus ride, ask if you can bring a pillow or small cover for comfort.

For a Smart Field Trip

Bring along a small recording device or a notebook-because you know there will be a follow-up assignment or quiz.

Pay attention to any speakers. If your teacher has arranged a speaker, and if a speaker takes time out of his/her day to share wisdom with you, don't ignore it! This trip is for your education. Oh-and there probably will be a quiz.

View the original article here