Finding Research 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?

Every researcher has faced this problem: the moment when the research suddenly runs dry. This is a serious problem if you are required to use a certain number of sources for a paper. Sometimes it just doesn’t seem possible!

Finding Additional Resources

The first thing to do when your research seems to dry up is to check the bibliographies of the books you already have. Sometimes bibliographies are like gold mines of information.

You will probably discover that some of the sources used in the books are scholarly articles. Don’t be dismayed! Many articles are available online, and you may be able to find a specific article by doing a detailed Internet search.

Simply type the entire title of the article into a search engine and put quotations marks around the title. The search will either lead you to that article or it will direct you to another source (article) that quotes your original article. The other source might be just as helpful.

If you find a great article in a bibliography and it’s not available online, you can still get it with a little effort. Just go to a public library and show it to your librarian. If it’s not available on site, the librarian will probably be able to order it from another library.

Your article will be sent through the mail and should be available within a few days. This is just one more reason why it’s important to start your research early!

If That Didn’t Work

Sometimes that approach isn’t feasible. Some sources, such as autobiographies and encyclopedias, don’t have bibliographies.

These are times when it may be necessary to get a little creative. There are a few occasions when you simply cannot find specific books or articles on your topic. Time for some lateral thinking!

Lateral thinking involves shifting your thinking pattern from the logical, sequential pattern to a pattern that shifts focus onto something less predictable. It’s simple, really.

For instance, if you are working on the biography of a not-so-famous person (which often leads to a limited number of sources), then you may need to abandon the typical step-by-step biography approach and focus on some relevant part of the person’s life in more detail.

If your person was a doctor or midwife in Victorian American, you could delve briefly into one of these topics:

• Early medical tools
• Sanitation issues
• Misconceptions
• The daily life of a typical doctor/midwife in Victorian America

If you devote a paragraph or section to one of these topics, you will find that numerous sources are available. If you decide to do this, make sure the topic fits into your thesis and doesn’t jump outside the parameters defined by your thesis sentence.

But what if you’re working on a paper for science class? The same technique will work. For instance, if your paper concerns a rare South American bug and you discover late in the game that there are only two books in the entire world that discuss this bug, you could devote a few paragraphs to “a bug’s life.”

Seriously! You could identify the predator of the bug and write a few paragraphs about the tactics the bug uses to avoid his predator. Or—you could focus on an environmental factor that affects the bug and write about the struggles the bug faces when he encounters these factors. Then one of your sources could concern the environmental factor (or the predator) and not concern the bug specifically.

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Diagramming Sentences

A noun clause can serve as a predicate nominative, as in this sentence:

The fact is you are not ready.

Note that the phrase you are not ready renames the fact.

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Do You Use Your Cell Phone for Time Management?

When I meet with college students one-on-one, I tell them to bring every syllabus they have to the meeting, and then I have them write each due date or test date in a planner. More often than not, it seems, the students will pull out a cell phone and tap in the date.

I always say that I don't care what students use for time management, as long as they use something!

But I was surprised recently, at a workshop attended by college seniors, to find that the majority of them preferred an old fashioned paper planner as a time management tool. They said that they had learned over the years that the paper version was more personal and more reliable. "My cell phone dies," one said. "And that can be costly."

That made good sense. I know from my own family experience that teens and tweens tend to forget to charge phones. So maybe the cell phone is not the best tool for setting reminders, after all!

What do you think?

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Brain Food for Finals Week

The end of the school year is approaching for many, and that means final projects and big exams are ahead. It's important to stay healthy and alert--and you can do that by avoiding foods that make you feel sleepy and thick-headed, like sodas and fatty fast foods. I think you'll be surprised to find out how much these foods can affect your mood and your energy.

While you're preparing for end-of-year projects, why not give yourself a little edge with healthier meals? Try these ideas, for a change:

• How to Make a Healthy Plate of Food
• Healthy Homework Snacks
• Healthy Snacks for After School

It can't hurt, and it might pay off with great results.

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5 Tips for Motivation

Having a little trouble getting excited about your homework? Need a little jump start once in a while?

Actually, everybody needs a little prodding sometimes when it comes to getting work done. If you're bored with your homework, if it seems too hard, or if you don't think your homework performance really matters, you might find inspiration in these 5 tips for motivating students just like you.

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Make a Backup Copy of Your Paper

At this time of year, many students will be using word processors to work on lengthy final papers. The last thing you want to do is lose your work after you've spent hours or days laboring on a computer.

If you're working with Microsoft Word, you can use an auto-backup feature. You simply follow these steps for Microsoft 2007:

• Click on the Microsoft Office Button in the top left corner of your screen.
• Select Advanced on the menu to see a box appear.
• Scroll down until you see a section called Save.
• Click on the box beside Always create a backup copy.

If you're working in Microsoft 2010:

• Click on the File tab in the top left part of your screen.
• Select Options from the menu to see a box appear.
• Select Advanced for a list of advanced options.
• Scroll down until you see a section called Save.
• Click on the box beside Always create a backup copy.

This creates two copies of every document you create, but if you suspect that this feature takes up too much space, you can turn it off again once the school year ends.

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In Five Chunks

Rounding out our American Presidents are: R,B,C,B,O

40. Ronald Wilson Reagan
41. George H. W. Bush
42. William J. Clinton
43. George W. Bush
44. Barack Obama

Really, bliss can be overrated.

To help you glue all the short lists together, remember the number of names in each list by remembering there are six lists.

The number of names in each list are: 8, 7, 8, 9, 7, 5. Keep practicing these small "chunks" of information and, like magic, they'll all come together as one list!

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