Tutoring Tips Liddane Tutoring Tips Liddane

TIPS FOR WRITING A RESEARCH PAPER

By: Nathan MotulskyCongratulations, you have a paper topic! Now the daunting task begins: research. Where do you look for sources, and how do you keep material organized so that you can use it effectively in your paper? Here are some tips to help you get started and keep you going through the process.

  1. Search in your school’s library or the public library’s online database to find books and scholarly articles that are relevant to your topic. Don’t be overwhelmed–you don’t need to read entire books! When you find a book, look in the table of contents and choose a chapter or even a few pages that seem especially relevant to your topic. The introduction chapter is a good place to start if you’re not sure. Apply this to articles as well: the first couple paragraphs should give you a good sense of how useful it will be to your research. After you’ve searched through books and scholarly articles, depending on the assignment you may want to do some Google searches to fill in any information gaps. But remember to diligently question whether a website is reliable. You are responsible for choosing reliable sources.

  2. Keep a document with a list of all sources you have consulted and at least a short note about each source’s main argument/idea. For sources that you know you will use in your final paper, you might want to take more detailed notes and keep these at the top of the list. Keeping this list organized and accessible will be very helpful when you’re writing your paper!

  3. Write an outline that shows your main ideas and arguments, even though these will likely change as you write. The items in your outline will be most helpful if they are written as claims rather than noun clauses. For example: “Gatsby’s green light represents the American dream,” rather than: “Gatsby’s green light.” This way, you will be able to see the flow of your argument and ultimately write a much stronger paper. Our best ideas often come to us in the writing process, so revise your outline as your ideas change, and keep an updated version accessible as you write. This outline will help you stay focused as you move from one paragraph to the next.

  4. Cite accurately and cite often. Plagiarism often occurs when students forget where they read an interesting fact or they don’t think they need to cite a piece of information. As a rule of thumb, if you’re unsure whether something needs to be cited, always cite it. You can ask your teacher or a librarian later if the citation is necessary. Plagiarism is a serious offense in college and beyond.

 Remember, the writing process usually begins with writing one ugly sentence after another. Starting is the hardest part! You don’t have to show anyone these early sentences, but you have to write badly to write well. If you have organized research and a concrete outline, you have the building blocks for a stellar paper.

Here are some additional resources:

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Featured Tutor Liddane Featured Tutor Liddane

FEATURED TUTOR: MANON

We sat down with Manon, one of our awesome math tutors, to talk about their time working at LTLS, what lead them to education, and their tutoring philosophy. 

How did you get into teaching/tutoring?

For me it was a natural progression stemming from being very academically involved and enjoying doing well in school. I started tutoring peers in high school, then after high school I began working at an after school learning center. I was basically teaching a class of more than ten English students. I don‘t entirely know why they decided to give a seventeen-year-old the responsibility of making and implementing their own curriculum, but I enjoyed it! That experience was what helped me learn that I really liked working with kids and education.

What’s a favorite story you have from working at LTLS?

I feel like most of my experiences with my students are fun and funny. I spent almost an entire session about a week ago with a student trying to proofread their Excel spreadsheet and working together with them to figure out why their graph wasn’t a straight line. It was a really collaborative experience, and that’s what I enjoy. Initially neither of us really knew what was causing the issue, but we were working together to figure it out. I think stuff like that is really fun. I’ve also gotten to meet a few students’ pets, which is awesome. 

What have you learned through your work in education that you feel is most important to share?

A lot of people approach teaching as if they are a full person helping other people to become full people, but really, it's more of an information exchange. As tutors, we are already dealing with full people. It’s important to have the mindset that students already have plenty of knowledge; they just need someone to help them with the process of figuring things out and building more of a foundation. As people we are always learning new things and gaining new knowledge, and a tutoring relationship, like any relationship, requires give and take; it’s not one sided. I can learn a lot from my students just like they can learn a lot from me. 

What’s something we don’t know about you?

I wrote my first book when I was fourteen. It was about 250 pages long and was Attack on Titan fanfiction.

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Events Liddane Events Liddane

Demystifying the College Process with Brighton Jones: Thursday, December 10th

We are partnering with LB Kussick and Brighton Jones to bring you a nation-wide version of our Demystifying the College Application Process. This free webinar will be held Thursday, December 10th from 4:00 - 5:00pm PDT. Register and join us by clicking the link here!Using the 529 college savings plan Brighton Jones has created multiple resources to help break down ways to financially plan for costs associated with college. We have included some of these articles below and hope you will find them helpful as your students begin their college searching and application processes.

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