Useful Guides for Writing and Formatting Research Papers 

Style Manual:  

Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed. NY: Modern Language Association of America, 2009. Print.

Web sites:

 Tufts University Research Paper Navigator.  Time management guide for research papers.

http://tinyurl.com/research-paper-timeline

Bedford St. Martin’s Press provides links to MLA, APA, and other citation formats.

http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/citex.html

Capital Community College’s excellent “Guide to Writing Research Papers Based on Modern Language Association (MLA) Documentation” that takes you through all facets of the process of writing research papers.

http://webster.commnet.edu/mla/index.shtml

The Internet Public Library’s “Teenspace: A+ Research & Writing”offers step by step guidelines for writing research papers.

http://www.ipl.org/div/teen/aplus/step2.htm

Purdue University’s OWL Online Writing Lab. This handout provides detailed information about how to write research papers including discussing research papers as a genre, choosing topics, and finding sources. Russell,Tony, Allen Brizee, and Elizabeth Angeli. “MLA Formatting and Style Guide.” The Purdue OWL. Purdue U Writing Lab, 4 Apr. 2010. Web. 20 July 2010.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/658/01/

Undergraduate Research Search Engine

College freshmen, sophomores, and community college students: find authoritative sources appropriate for college-level work using the Undergraduate Research Search Engine.

http://tinyurl.com/google-undergrad

Zotero is a free, open source utility that works in the Firefox browser to help users collect, manage and cite sources. It was developed at George Mason University.

http://www.zotero.org/

Citation Generators:

The student is responsible for providing MLA citations that meet the requirements of Lansdale School of Business. All online generators issue disclaimers as to their accuracy. You may use the citations generated as a basis for your MLA citation, but you must make the necessary revisions. Keep in mind the EBSCOhost and CQ Researcher databases provide MLA citations.

EasyBib (Current MLA format)

http://www.easybib.com/

This site formats and alphabetizes bibliographies for MLA style. MLA citation is free. Users can save a bibliography online or import to Word. You must format the imported citation and assure that it is correct. It includes a feature to upload journal article citations from databases.

KnightCite!

http://www.calvin.edu/library/knightcite/index.php

Maintained by the Hekman Library at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI.

BibMe

 http://www.bibme.org/

BibMe is a free citation generator developed at Carnegie Mellon University that produces citations and bibliographies in APA, MLA, Chicago and Turabian styles. It has some features not found in other free citation generators, such as autofill and the ability to switch between citation styles.

Landmark Son of Citation Machine
http://citationmachine.net/

NoodleBib Express

http://www.noodletools.com/login.php

Just need one or two quick citations? No need to log in or subscribe — simply generate them in NoodleBib Express and copy and paste what you need into your document.

Note: citations are not saved and cannot be exported to a word processor using this version of the tool. 

eSchool News 8 Feb. 2010

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/02/08/four-things-every-student-should-learn-%e2%80%a6-but-not-every-school-is-teaching/2/?_login=18038896f1?_login=18038896f1/

 “Four Things Every Student Should Learn … but not Every School Is Teaching.”Education technology consultant Alan November reveals key lessons that today’s students must know in order to thrive in the Information Age.

Dennis Pierce, Editor

Dennis Pierce summarizes a speech by education technology consultant Alan November. November feels that every member of the Net Generation should learn:

 1. Global empathy.  Acknowledge,  understand, and respect differences of other cultures and points of view in order to interact in a global environment. 

 2. Social and ethical responsibility on the web. Online responsibility to curb inappropriate behavior, bullying and harassment.

 3. The permanence of information posted online. Nothing is permanently deleted on the Internet. Employers, admissions representatives, creditors can use archives to access your personal and   professional information.  Internet Archive is one site that accesses such information.

4. Critical thinking about the information found online. Know how search engine rank web sites. Placement is not a guarantee of credibility. Google uses algorithms based on number of to a website (indicates use/citation) and incidence of search term in a site’s URL; hence, Wikipedia’s high placement. Critical thinking involves research, evaluation of information for accuracy, authority, currency, and purpose to determine credibility, and documentation.

 Video presentations:

http://liontv.blip.tv/file/621706/

Interactive tutorials:

http://www1.cpcc.edu/library/research-tools/DrCiteRight/library/research-tools/DrCiteRight/DCR-movie

http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/plagiarismtutorial/default.asp (requires free registration)

 http://library.camden.rutgers.edu/EducationalModule/Plagiarism/whatisplagiarism.html

  http://library.acadiau.ca/tutorials/plagiarism/ 

http://library.villanova.edu/app/Web/userfiles/file/AIGateway/quizCommonKnowledge.htm

http://library.villanova.edu/app/Web/userfiles/file/AIGateway/quizParaphrase.htm

Be aware of privacy issues and social networking. Before you apply for a job type your name in quotation marks, “John Smith”, into a search engine such as Google, Ask, Yahoo, MSN, etc. and look at the results. If you have embarrassing pictures or unflattering or negative information displayed, you need to remove it from your MySpace or Facebook or blog pages. Keep in mind your information may be linked with other people, so add additional information to your name with which you have an association such as your school, blogs, bands, etc.

Websites ‘keeping deleted photos’

According to the BBC user photographs can still be found on many social networking sites even after people have deleted them.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8060407.stm

Flesher, Jared. “How to Clean Up Your Digital Dirt Before It Trashes Your Job Search”
Job-Hunting Advice. 12 Jan. 2006. Career Journal.
http://www.careerjournal.com/jobhunting/usingnet/20060112-flesher.html
Flesher gives tips on removing or deemphasizing unwanted personal information on the Web.

Shaheed, Caroline. “Online Profiles May Put Brakes on Job Search.”
Top Stories.  6 Oct. 2007. CTV.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071004/ online_careers_071004/20071006?hub=TopStories
Shaheed offers information on removing personal information from search engine catches or archived sites such as the Waybackmachine. She also suggests strategies for establishing a positive and professional Web presence.

Perez, Juan Carlos. “Facebook’s Beacon More Intrusive Than Previously Thought.” Online Privacy.
30 Nov. 2007. PC World Online.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,140182-c,onlineprivacy/article.html
“A Computer Associates security researcher says that Facebook’s controversial Beacon online system goes much further than expected in tracking people’s Web activities.”

Niccolai, James. “U.K. Youth Warned MySpace Isn’t Private (OMG!!!!).”  Security.
26 Nov. 2007. Computerworld.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticle Basic&articleId=9048718 “Young people are compromising their career prospects and opening the door to online fraud by posting personal information on social networking sites without thinking about the consequences, a U.K. privacy watchdog warned Friday.”

Tips to ensure privacy on MySpace:

http://www.profilepitstop.com/articles/myspace-help/how-to-make-your-myspace-account-private.php

http://www.worldstart.com/tips/tips.php/4246