Finding Statistics

Reports are always more interesting and convincing if they contain data or statistics. Some research numbers and results can add a really surprising or interesting twist to your papers. This list provides some good places to start if you want to support your opinions with some research data.

1. Public Agenda

This great site provides insight into what the public really thinks about a wide spectrum of topics. Examples are: what teachers think about teaching; America's views on crime and punishment; how minority populations feel about educational opportunities; what American teenagers really think about their schools; public attitudes about global warming; and much, much more! The site provides free access to press releases on dozens of research studies, so you don't have to browse through dry percentages.

2. National Center for Health Statistics

Statistics on cigarette smoking, birth control use, child care, working parents, marriage probability, insurance, physical activity, causes of injury, and much more!

3. U.S. Census Bureau

You'll find information on income, employment, poverty, relationships, ethnicity, ancestry, population, houses and living conditions.

4. U.S. Government Economic Statistics

Read the White House briefing room statistics on employment, income, money, prices, production, output, and transportation.

5. U.S. Department of Justice

Find crime trends, trends on investigations, gun use, convictions, juvenile justice, inmate violence, and more.

6. National Center for Education Statistics

Find statistics provided by the "federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education." Topics include dropout rates, performance in mathematic, school performances, literacy levels, postsecondary choices, and early childhood education.

7. GeoHive

This site provides "geopolitical data, statistics on the human population, Earth and more." Find interesting facts about the countries of the world, like the largest cities, biggest airports, historical populations, capitals, growth statistics, and natural phenomena.

8. Adherents

Curious about religions of the world? This site has information regarding religious movements and their countries of origin, predominant religions, biggest churches, affiliations of famous people, holy places, movies about religion, religion by location—it's all there.

9. A Nation Online

Internet usage reports from the U.S. government, with information about online behavior, entertainment, age of users, transactions, time online, effect of geography, usage by state, and much more.

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Leadership Styles

There will be many times in your educational career when you will be called upon to lead a discussion group or a project.

There are several different approaches to being an effective boss or project leader. Some people are born with a natural style and some can learn to mold their behavior to fit any situation. Understanding each style is important in order to maximize your leadership skills. Do you know which style you have? Do you know how and when to alter your leadership style?

There are four major types of student leadership roles. You will find that there is an appropriate time and place for each style. As you progress in your studies, you may want to learn skills and techniques from each leadership style.

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Test Taking Strategies

Eat and drink wisely on the morning or day of the test. Make sure you don't go into the test hungry. Hunger can interfere with your concentration, and so can the noise of a rumbling stomach. Don't create an unnecessary and unfortunate distraction!

Along similar lines, feel free to have some caffeine if you like it, but don't drink too much just before the test! Than can cause another sort of distraction.

Don't forget to wear a watch. You'll need to keep an eye on the minute hand while you're testing.

Arrive early to the classroom. Give yourself time to relax and reflect for several minutes before the test begins.

Look over the entire test as soon as you receive it. Take time to evaluate the test, in order to determine how much time you should spend on each section. For instance, if you find a multiple choice section followed by two large essay questions, be sure to give yourself enough time for the essays. Assign a time limit to each section. You can always go back if you finish early.

Pay close attention to directions. Read them twice, if possible. Don't make assumptions.

For multiple choice questions, try to answer the question before looking at your choices. If you're right, one of the choices will match your answer.

Tackle the easy questions first. Skip over any questions you're not sure about. Sometimes answers come clear to you later, after you take a second look at the question. (Sometimes, the answers even appear in the essay question or elsewhere!)

Every time you skip a question, be sure to mark it. How many times have you left an answer blank by accident? Ouch--what a waste. Be sure to make a star beside questions if you skip them. Don't leave any blanks.

For defining terms, concentrate on themes and chapter titles. If you're facing a list of terms to define and you're unsure about a few, think back to major themes (usually found in chapter titles). Ask yourself: where might that term have appeared? Take a guess if you're not sure. You may get partial credit if you're close.

Stay positive! If you start to doubt yourself, you may go blank. Keep concentrating on your strengths.

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Pre-reading and Re-reading

Any time you receive a reading assignment for a difficult textbook or another challenging source, you should follow a method of pre-reading and re-reading.

As you pre-read the source, you will scan the words for a few things: you should get an understanding of the overall message; you should observe the structure of the work (find the intro, summary, thesis); and you should identify and mark any unfamiliar words.

Once you have scanned and identified these elements, take some time to look up the new words and jot down the definitions.

The pre-reading stage will set you up for a deeper understanding of the material as you read and re-read the text.

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Clichés

A cliche is a phrase or expression that is so overused that it becomes annoying. Most cliches begin life as very clever expressions. The first time around, they convey a distinct message in a very funny way—and that makes them repeatable. After too much use, however, they just become corny.

Cliches should be avoided in your academic writing because they tend to make our work sound amateurish. Why? Cliches are a lazy. They convey a very specific message that everyone understands, but they do so in a very unimaginative way.

For example, the following trite expressions may convey your feelings about a particular subject you’re writing about, but they’re guaranteed to make your reader “roll his eyes.”

• It made my blood boil
• That rubbed me the wrong way
• My eyes were glazing over
• This pushes all my buttons

You may use cliches without realizing it, so it is a good idea to keep an eye out for tired and overused phrases as you proofread.

Examples of cliches

• Don’t get your nose out of shape.
• Don’t get bent out of shape.
• The teacher chewed me out.
• It’s driving me up the wall.
• That burned me up.
• He’s wound up tight.
• He was mad as a wet hen.
• His goose was cooked.
• She was in a fix.
• He was in a pinch.
• She was on the spot.
• She likes to toot her own horn.
• That was easy as pie.
• That was pretty hard to swallow.
• He was grasping at straws.
• She was flying by the seat of her pants.
• It got under my skin.
• My skin was crawling.
• I was pinning all my hopes on a win.
• There was a glimmer of hope in his eye.
• They couldn’t see eye to eye.
• There was a little give and take.

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Process Essay

How-to essays, also known as process essays, are like recipes; they provide instruction for carrying out a procedure or task. You can write a how-to essay about any procedure that you find interesting-as long as your topic fits the teacher's assignment.

The first step of writing your how-to essay is brainstorming.

1. Draw a line down the middle of a sheet of paper to make two columns. Label one column "materials" and the other column "steps."
2. Next, begin to empty your brain. Write down every item and every step you can think of that will be needed to carry out your task. Don't worry about trying to keep things in order yet. Just empty your head.
3. Once you've noted every fact you can think of, start to number your steps on your brainstorming page. Just jot a number beside each item/step. You may need to erase and scribble a few times to get the order right. It's not a neat process.
4. Your next job is to write an outline. Your essay could contain a numbered list (like you are reading now) or it could be written as a standard narrative essay. If you are instructed to write a step-by-step without using numbers, your essay should contain all the elements of any other essay assignment: an introductory paragraph, a body, and a conclusion. The difference is that your introduction will explain why your topic is important or relevant. For example, your paper about "How to Wash a Dog" would explain that dog hygiene is important for your pet's good health.
5. Your first body paragraph should contain a list of necessary materials. For example: "The equipment you will need depends somewhat on the size of your dog. At the very minimum, you will need dog shampoo, a large towel, and a container large enough to hold your dog. And, of course, you will need a dog."
6. The next paragraphs should contain instructions for following steps in your process, as enumerated in your outline.
7. Your summary explains how your task or process should turn out if it is done correctly. It may also be appropriate to re-state the importance of your topic.

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Negative Numbers

The opposite of a whole number is the negative of that number, and the list of negative numbers and whole numbers make up our integers.

… -4, -3, -2, -1, 0 1, 2, 3, 4 …

Note: The number 0 is a little special; it is also considered an integer, but 0 is the opposite of itself.

Why do we need to understand negative numbers?

Negative Numbers are All Around Us

In everyday life, we use the concept of negative numbers all the time. We deal with negative numbers when it comes to money, for instance—more specifically, when you “owe” something.

If you start the day with no money in your pocket (0 dollars) and you borrow three dollars for lunch, you own 3 dollars. That means your lunch money value for the day is (-3).

The next day, you must bring six dollars to school if you want to eat lunch. You need three dollars to pay for yesterday’s lunch (and get your lunch money value back to zero), and three more dollars to buy today’s lunch.

See this worked out in math terms:

0 – 3 = (-3)
(-3) + 6 = 3

Now that you realize that you have been using negative integers for your entire life, you can make sense of this math concept involving negative and positive numbers:

n + (-n) = 0

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