Friday, February 11, 2011
#13 - There's Got to Be an Easier Way...
Please discuss your frustration with the traditional methods of research presented to you in class. What tools have you found online that might make the project easier and/or more "21st Century"? For example, have you used an online organizer for research papers? Or perhaps an MLA formatter like NoodleBib or Citation Machine? Or do some of you prefer the traditional pen/paper outlines and other organizational methods?
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59 comments:
When writing a research paper, there are only a few things that bug me. Source constraints, paper length, and mandatory outlines/organizers. I also dislike the MLA format, as most college papers use APA formatting, which I am all ready familiar with. That being said, I like to use new programs that make compiling information and facts easy, as well as a number of other online sources, over more traditional sources.
As far as tools for the project are concerned, I think that there are dozens of brilliant online tools, that many might not know about. Many of these tools can be found in google labs. For those that do not know, google labs offers a streamlined interface, which displays google apps that are still in beta. Beta, refers to a app or software product that is still being tested, and might have a few bugs or issues.
Google Labs: http://www.googlelabs.com/?tags=search
Google labs hosts a number of new search options, that make compiling research and date very easy, and they have saved me a lot of time.
The thing that fustrates me the most when doing research is having to use a book as a source of information. Most of the books can be found online or even a better source of information. Having to go to the library is pointless in most cases. for organizing my paper i like to use online organizers or sometimes i can just do it my self with pen/paper.
I think a reserch paper is a lot of fun. I happen to love it. I like learning about my topic and strengthening my opinion. The MLA format isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be. If I focus, I know I can get it right. It's simply just spacing and other particular formating.
I haven't used any tools for my MLA format except for my brain and maybe yours too. (For spacing my bibliography)I used SIRS for my research but I do like using books for my reserch too.
My frustration would probably be having to, on occasions, utilize information from books to gather research about my topic. I feel that now-a-days, we have computers, and more importantly, the Internet, which can make finding much needed information significantly quicker and easier. The tools that I have discovered online would have to be SIRS, which is where I got my idea from originally, and Noodle Bib, which is where I got some help with my citations for my bibliography.
There is a lot of online sources that have helped me write the paper so far. The site Easybib has helped me with MLA formatting. There is a lot of useful websites.
-Nick G.
I prefer using online resources for my data. Using books are inconvenient because you sometimes cannot find the information you need.
I feel that the traditional methods of writing a research paper are difficult and time consuming. I did my bibliography using the packet given to us in class, but it would have been easier if i used an internet source like NoodleBib.
My frustartion with the traditional methods of research presented to my class are the index cards as well as the outline itself. I agree that the index cards help but I feel like its unecessary. This shouldnt be for the teacher to grade but for my own benefit so I think taking down notes on a loose leaf is much more appropriate. This should all be personally up to the individual as long as the paper is completed and handed in on time and if not the consequence is clear. Th tools that I use is google specific information and click on a few articles until I find a satisfying site. Sometimes this is annoying but when you find what youre looking for the rest is simple. If i had to chose I would say that the "21st Century" methods are more efficient; however I believe that everything should be up to the writer with just a given date.
By: Alina B
Great comments here, guys. Alina and Will, I absolutely agree with both of you. The traditional steps can be cumbersome in light of today's technology; however, the process is largely the same. And yes, Alina, the steps probably don't have to be graded, and they won't be when you write papers in the future (college). But to make sure you understand the significance of the process, there must be accountability, especially at this early stage of your academic lives. I trust you see the wisdom in this.
While doing this research paper I get frustrated with the paper spacing having to be absolutly perfect and I like doing citations better online by usuing cites like Citation Machine. But researching my topic is fun becuase i get to learn more about something that im intrested in.
Research papers have become easier to do and to fail at the same time because the internet offers more information that anyone needs to complete a research paper but it is the important part not to plagiarize your paper because of all these great sources on the the internet they make it much more tempting to just click copy and paste this will result in a failure of a paper. This can be avoided by citing your sources and if you gather your sources correctly cite them and elaborate on them it will result in a great paper so with all of the technological advances you just need to be smart and use them correctly. With the site noodleBib it makes bibliography very easy and fast all you need to do is cut and paste and just fix a couple of punctuation errors and you will have a perfectly created bibliography so these technological advances have been very helpful and are a big part of completing a research paper if you use it correctly
My frustration is trying to organize the research paper. The booklets that we get to guide us definitely help. The index cards are a great idea so we know exactly what we want to write about. Having online resources really help. The library website(SIRS) is a great way to find resources and information. Sometimes when looking through a book you don't always find everything you need. I rather use my own type of organizer then an online organizer. It is all up to the writer and how they want to organize their writing and what they feel comfortable with.
Danielle, period 7
I have a hard time concentrating in class. I can do research but, I would rather write my paper at home. I have used recent articles or reviews on particular reality TV shows and a book on opposing viewpoints and opinions about reality television programs. I have not used SIRS or NoodleBib, I prefer pen and paper outlines to organize my thoughts easily.
Danielle W
What frustrates me the most about the research paper is that I have a hard time finding certain parts of the citations from some sources especially books and I have an easier time finding citations on websites.
I hate having to do cite where I got every single source of information from. I understand that not doing so is plagiarism but it is a huge hassle! I am frustrated with having to put everything in a specific order. I feel as if my paper is very disorganized and so far it doesn't make a lot of sense. I found that sirs is extremely helpful and makes my project a lot easier. I used Easybib to do the bibliography which I believed helped a lot. I also think the outline we were required to complete helped me understand exactly what each paragraph is going to be about is my paper. I think this is very useful for all essays and I hope to use this method in the future. I like both online tools and traditional methods!
The thing that bugs me is having some source restrictions. But i like using noodlebib because it makes organization at least a little easier.
I prefer the traditional pen/paper outlines. Technology always seems to fail on you and I can never seem to figure it out. My frustration with the traditional research is how much information there is on my topic, I've tried using SIRS, eLibrary and the databases the librarian talked to us about, but there is never specific articles on what I am searching for. When I use Google there are a lot of sources to choose from, and it gets very confusing, so everything is just a lose lose with my sources.
Jackie, your frustration is not uncommon. However, I find two of your comments particularly interesting: one, you feel disorganized, and two, your outline helps you to see exactly what each paragraph is going to say. These two things should go hand-in-hand. Rework your outline until you are comfortable with the logical order, being as specific as you can with your subtopics (note cards); this way you will see your paper through before actually writing it, and you will waste much less time when you finally do sit down to finish it. This after all is the whole point of the notecards/outline. And your comment indicates that you probably realize that, regardless of how the final paper turns out. Well done!
When writing research papers I do not like havng to find and cite all of the information I use. I am curently in a scienc and research class so writing them is not out of the ordinary. I like using traitional outlines to organize my thughts in the essay. Outlines also help me to organize informtion and show me where need more details.
I hate all essays, so this one isn't too different. I didn't know there were online things to help you write it, so I just used the packets that were given to us in class. I actually think that the index cards were very helpful and made it a lot easier to write it in the end.
I feel like the steps that we've been taking are much more time consuming. Sure the index cards are helpful, as well as the outline, but i feel like it'd be so much easier to just write down my thoughts quickly instead of following a specific format. but because we need to, its a lot more time consuming than what i'd consider "necessary." i do find the databases such as SIRS very helpful, since it sends me straight to the websites all about my topic.
I agree with Jackie 100% when it comes to citations. It’s really annoying having to cite every single piece of information we find and use in our essay. What I really enjoyed having though was Sirs. Sirs helped so much when it came to finding different articles and even statistics. I didn’t really like NoodleBib it kind of confused me at points and I found it easier to do the bibliography with the booklet you gave us in class. Also I was actually surprised at how helpful the note cards were. At first I was like this is going to be really annoying to do, but in the end it helped me get all my main ideas out in front of me so once I started writing the actual essay all the information I needed was right there.
I find it annoying to have to cite in the paper itself where you got it. Pen and paper outlines are easier than having to type up the whole outline and then type it into an essay.
I believe the most frustrating part of the traditional methods of research is having to cite webpages and sources cited from the web in MLA format. I believe that because most teachers are reading our papers over the computer, we should be able to just copy and paste the link into our paper to be clicked on.
I find the most frustrating part of writing a research paper is trying to organize all of your ideas. The packets we get that explain everything, along with the library web browsers (SIRS), really help a lot too. The index cards helped so much because they basically were everything you were going to write in your paper right there for you. Rather then use an online organizer, I'd prefer to use my own strategy of writing a paper.
I didn't have much frustration when it came to researching for the paper, but I did have some trouble looking for an unbiased article that supported my thesis topic. I used Google, Bing, and a couple of other search engines for my research as well as SIRS to find the stuff for the paper.
I don't like writing my paper in general because I find it hard to find the right facts am I looking for , I like the index card method bees use it helps me to know where my essay is going and i find it easier to write with it
The most frustrating part of writing a research paper for me is having to cite and keeping up with the MLA format. I know citing is important but it is annoying. I found the outline to be most helpful. I always pour out my thoughts on paper which can be difficult to orgainze into seperate ideas. The outline allowed me to organize my paragrpahs ahead of time so I do not repeat that mistake.
I found it very uneesary useing any source that doesn't come from the internet because I belive the internet is the best, most speific, to the point source. However I did find the note cards helpful because all of the information for the paper was right there in front of me.
I think the traditional methods are annoying, but I also think the newer methods are even more annoying. I think it is easier to just use the traditional methods rather than having to learn how to use so many different websites. Not that it's extremely hard to learn how to use these websites, but it is much easier to just stick with the traditional method rather than having to learn how to use a new website every time a new, more efficient website is created. I also think the traditional method is tedious, however, and I just prefer to write the paper without outlining it first. Either way I look at it, it is tedious to outline a research paper and I really don't have the patience for creating an outline. Not that I don't have patience, I just don't have the patience for this type of work. However, I can handle it, I just prefer not to use it.
I think that there is a lot more helpful online databases that so far help with the paper
I am a very organized and visual person. I like to lay out my information and index cards in front of me. I know there are online index cards and organizers, but i need the information in front of me. Also, if I work off of a computer screen for a longer period of time were I’m reading and writing, I can become more bored and easily distracted, but thats just me. I prefer the traditional wiring out the information in your own words. I think this helps with writing the the paper in the long run, because if you want to change anything, you can just move the index cards around. Also, when you write something out, it is more liking to stick in your head and you will remember it better.
Kaitlyn Period 9
I dont like to use books to find the research im looking for because its slower and not as specfic. I liked using SIRS because I found what I needed there. I did not use an online organizer for my paper or NoodleBib. I think it was easy to do it without NoodleBid.
I didn't really have much trouble with my research paper. There was a lot of information to use. I just had some issues making sure I wrote enough pages I needed to. The MLA format made my paper well organized.
I like to use online sorces because its easier to find the informations, and books are really unconvieniant and you could sometimes not find all the information you need.
I don't really have any frustration with the traditional methods of research. One complaint I have is the note card/index card idea is a little bit disorganized. Not the way you formatted it but the way that after I'm done showing you it stays in my folder and is disorganized. I think that if a spreadsheet was provided for us, with the same format, it would be much less cumbersome. Another complaint I have is MLA formatting. Even though we have been using it for years it is still tedious and painstaking to cite every source. However, I have been using a citing website where i an just copy and paste the URL and it gives me the cited version.
The frustration I face when writing a research paper is dealing with the amount of pages if its a lot and running out of things to say. Some tools I found that make my project easier were databases like sirs and Noodle Bib for citing things. These tools take away some of the stress from writing the paper rather then using traditional methods.
During the research paper writing process, one thing I did not like was the index card outline. I, personally, find it a lot easier to simply write the outline straight out with out the index cards and just build my essay out from that. I prefer to type up my outlines because it's simpler to go back and organize what youve written cleanly with backspace, cut, and paste without having to bother with eraser marks and white out. I don't have the greatest handwriting, so when my outlines and research are typed up it is a lot easier to go along with what I've written.
Kyle O. Period 8
Personally i liked the cards. other than that old methods seem to be something that are unescessary in our writing. If we can get rid of the wait and time it takes to write a good paper we can focus on what is important and that is the work we put into it. Yes there are dangers of false information but the time we can put into organized and reliable information combats the time it takes to write out an essay or to cite things. yes i use the Citaiton machine and it works great but i do feel i lose a little of the "how-to" of citations.
I find that writing papers is not that hard for me. The only problem i get sometimes is writers block. The web site that i like the most would be NoodleBid.
my fustraition with the project was the note cards. I felt like this was a unnescary step towards the overal goal to write the papper. I found my self and others to really strugle with this because we normaly will have our own ways of preorganizing our papper so being forced to do a new way caused some chaos.
I find it annoying to have to cite in the paper where you got the information from. Pen and paper outlines are easier than having to type up the whole outline and then type it into an eassay. I feel that the outline is a waste of time when you can just write the essay and proof read it after.
i feel that it is easeier to write a research paper then a literay essay and i dont see a point in useing book sources i think the internet should be enoff and the steps should not be graded i like using noodletools for the citations and for the use of the note cards this was alot easier to to write
I created my bibliography without using an online website to create a citation machine. But i was introduced to an online citated machine afterwards and it was alot more easier to work with.
I found finding enough info for the project was hard. The site i used the most was sirs i felt it was a great site. I prefer the paper and pen method the most i dont like using differnt new technology ways i find it to hard.
I feel the most frustrating thing is finding book sources for your paper. I feel it is a lot more efficient to look up sources online.
Vin I
I am a very visual person, therefore the index cards helped me a lot. I have been doing outlines since the third grade so I learned to like them. I do prefer using the outline and the index cards because they give me a preview of what my paper will look like.
I get easily frustrated with having to organize my paper before hand. For a research paper, I would rather find the information off the internet (since many books can also be found here) and write as I find the information. I usually reorganize and "kinks" while editing my paper for format, grammatical, and spelling mistakes. I do feel that the bibliography did help when needing to go back to previous resources. The cards did not do much for me due to the fact that my outline was on the computer and anything that needed to be moved or changed would be done through cut and paste.
When writing a research paper, some things that bother me is finding resources that discuss my topic. The books that I had didn't point out a lot of aspects of daycare. I didn't like that it had to be a certain amount of pages. It was also difficult to find many topics to write about in each paragraph. The tools online that made the project easier was sirs. It was easy because they already had the MLA formatting and I only had to change a few things on it.
The internet makes research papers a lot easier because of all the information it has on it. It is easier than looking through a book for information. It also makes it easier to site the sources.
I honestly did not get very frustrated with the traditional methods that we were taught in class. I had no real need to find other tools to help make the project easier. The only real problem I had was not being able to find some of the information needed to properly site each source. I definitely prefer using index cards and a typed outline to organize my paper.
The only major problem I had with this project was being able to tell which sources were reliable and which ones weren't. For the majority of the project, I used Sirs. However, Sirs didn't have every piece of information I needed, so I had to search for information on Google and Bing. Overall, the sources I used in the end seemed pretty reliable though.
i don't really think that the methods given to us in class were hard at all, i didn't use any online organizers for my paper i just did it the old fashioned way.
When doing this research paper it was frustrating at times but with certain web resources it was made very easy. One of my favorite online tools that i used when writing my research paper was Sirrs. On Sirrs i was able to find helpful articles but I also used the organizer tool they provided. The online resources were very helpful but I think i will always prefer making index cards on my own.
Researching for the paper by reading a book can be frustrating. Most books you can find the same information online and it will be updated. The MLA formatter online are easier to is easier and faster than looking up the information for the citation yourself.
I prefer using internet tools such as google. Books usally cover the more broad topics, but some subjects such as mine could be hard to find in our library. The internet provides a bigger horizon of knowledge to us. I found the biblography to be the most frustrating because finding the authors and dates were difficult in some cases.
Jarred C
I had some frustration with writing the research paper. I found it stressful to make sure to go by the MLA formatting and not to mess it up. I didn't really use any online tools to make the project easier. I felt that they might confuse me even more. I think that I prefer writing things down on my own for outlines and organization. However, when I write other papers I usually don't make that much of an outline.
- Lauren
I think that the MLA format/outline was stressful. I think you should let each student develop their own outline, and let them organize their essay the way the want. I dont like doodlebib.
I feel that the traditional methods of writing a research paper are hard and ttakes up alot of time. I used the packet given to us in classto do my bibliography, it would have been easier and quicker if i used the internet site NoodleBib.
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