Research Tips and Tutorials

• Determine the research subject
• Types of reading materials for the kind of reseach a student wants to do
• Articles, books, newspapers, journals, etc.
• Finding reading materials online
• Interlibrary Loans
• Determining the validity of the source.
• Researching the author(s) and his/her knowledge on the subject
• Make sure the published date will not affect the usefullness of the information
• Keep track of the sources in order to create a bibliography
• APA, MLA, etc.

Answered Questions



1.) I selected this book because I have always been interested in ancient Egyptian society, also because it made me think of the old Brendan Frasier movie called "The Mummy" (a movie I blamed for most of my childhood nightmares). 
2.) The book has one author, E.A. Wallis Budge.
3.) The book is called The Mummy.
4.) The book was printed by Random House. It was printed in 1989 in the United States, specifically in New York, Toronto, London, Sydney, and Aukland.

Paragraph

The Mummy is a book written by E.A. Wallis Budge. The book covers a lot of information about ancient Egyptian society.  It informs about geography, heiroglyphs, funerals, and other aspects of the Eyptian people.  However, not all questions are answered. The author states that "it is pretty clear that no traces of their works or buildings have come down to us, and as skulls belonging to their time have not been found, any statement as to their race charicteristics must be based on pure assumption". This book was published by Random House, and printed in 1989 in New York, Toronto, London, Sydney, and Aukland.

Works Cited

 

 

 

Budge, E.A Wallis. The Mummy. New York: Random House, 1989. Print.

I chose to study more into the campus Library's research tips and tutorials.  Before even entering the library, a student should have a clear idea about what they would like to research or write about.  Sometimes the information can be found online in articles from the site lrts.stcloudstate.edu/library in the library tab, under "articles and databases".  The library has a variety of different sources from which to draw information from, such as articles, books, newspapers, journals, etc.  Provided with all the information, the student must decide what kind of information they need and how much they wish to delve into a particular subject.  Once this is decided, the student can go online and search for reading materials with greater ease, rather than diving headfirst into the vast expanse of reading materials in the library.  However, not all information will be beneficial.  Some articles or books may not be entirely credible and an alternative should be sought.  If there is no clear author or, upon researching the author, they are not trained or have much knowledge on the subject they are adressing, the student should explore different options for their research.  If what the student is studying is time sensitive, then the publishing date should be verified, because a book or article may be out of date and more information could have been discovered since the work was published.  Once the research is done, a bibliography is required.  A student can either use the APA citation style, or the MLA, depending on the kind of paper being written (there are more citation styles, and looking into those would be beneficial, but the APA and MLA styles are the most standard).

InterLibrary Loan

Upon studying the links provided on the class blog, I found a program called the Interlibrary Loan (or ILL).  This is a service provided free for students and staff of St. Cloud State.  Its function is to retrieve a book or article from a different library is the campus library does not have what the student requires in stock.  All that is needed of the student is their code on the back of their Student I.D, their last name, and the book or article that they are searching for.  The amount of time a student can have the material would be set by the library from which the material came (unless it is a photocopy of an article, then it need not be returned unless specified).  The only things that may not be loaned out are rare books or items in special collections, reference materials, fragile or large items, electronic books, or most videos and audio tapes.

Chapter Two Summary

The group 2 members:

1. Alfarajullah, Hasanain

2. Ahmad, Aljahdali,

3.Alshammari, Faisal

4. Bugshan, Zaid,

5. Peterson, Victoria

Chapter 2

I-Introduction

a.What the book is about (a general overview)

b.Where Conor was in Chapter Two

II-Conor and the orphans met Krish and Nuraj’s mother at the Little Princes orphanage

a.They learn how the children came to the orphanage

b.They visit the boy’s mother on multiple occasions

III-Conor came across seven orphans who were not being well-cared for

a.The children became orphans after being taken from their parents who were deceived by a politician.

i.Conor tried lightening their spirits with games and a pictures

ii.The children were sick and hungry, Conor and Farid realized something had to be done

iii.They requested the help of a politician (Gyan) to find the children a safe home

1.The Umbrella Foundation with Viva Bell and Jacky Buk planned on picking up the children and caring for them

IV-The Nepal political situation worsened and it became dangerous for people to be there

a.Conor left Little Princes and returned to America

Quotations and Paraphrasing Presentation (Group 4)

Victoria Peterson

Faisal Alhajiri

Hussain Alsufair



Quotations and Paraphrasing

 



Introduction

• Why quotations and paraphrasing is used
• What plagarism is
• What quotes are
• What paraphrasing is

Quotations

• Two parts of quotations
• Direct
• Indirect (or paraphrasing)
• When/how to use quotations
• To support an argument
• Use the most important part of the quotation
• How to introduce a quotation with the author's name / describe the source of the quotation

Paraphrasing

• Two methods: Literal and Free
• Literal- substitute original words
• Free- Used in final drafts, completely rearange words and sentence structure
• Reasons to use paraphrasing
• To retell a passage (usually to make sure the reader can understand)
• To explain what a passage or idea means

APA Style

• APA is the American Psychological Association
• This reference system is used for disciplines such as:
• Education
• Buisness
• Science
• What you need (it varries from what kind of source you got the quote from):
• Author's name
• Date / Published Date
• Website, book, article title, etc.
• If a quote is longer than 40 words, quotation marks would no longer be used. Instead, the quote must be indented and seperated from the rest of the text.
• When paraphrasing, elipses must be used (...)
• When changing words slightly, square brackets must be used

MLA Style

• MLA is the Modern Language Assosication
• It is used as a reference system for Liberal Arts and Humanities
• Always have to use the author's name in the text unless there is no documented author
• How to use quotations
• Use quotation marks with short quotations (four lines or less), must cite the author and the page number.
• Quotations longer than four lines must be indented

APA information link
MLA information link

"Little Princes" Book Review

The book "Little Princes" by Conor Grennan was a very well-written, true story about how Conor completely changed his life perspective and helped improve the lives of Nepalese orphans immensely, while they helped him improve his life as well.  Conor was bored in the job he had held for 8 years and rashly decided to spend most of his savings on a year long trip around the world.  In order for this trip to seem valuable to people he would tell his experiences to, he decided to volunteer in one of the world's poorest countries, helping care for orphans.  Where his reasons for volunteering started off as self-centered, the more time he spent with the children, the more he came to love them.  He still went on the trip around the world, but Conor's priorities had completely shifted, and he returned to Little Princes multiple times, for longer and longer stays.  Even though his original intent was to do his time volunteering, then go on the "fun" part of the trip, he realized his time was more valuable and more well-spent caring for the less fortunate orphans of Nepal.  Eventually he and his friend Farid built a non-profit organization to further the efforts of keeping the children safe, and potentially reuniting them with their parents.

Where the retelling of his story and journeys could easily have been boring (how many people can really relate to him?), it was kept interesting with how personal it was.  He exposed his thoughts to the readers, told stories that lead us to love the spirits of the Nepalese children, and added doses of sarcasm and humor to keep the reader interested.  "Little Princes" was wonderfully written, it almost felt as though my views and perspective were changing right alongside Conor's.  I found myself rooting for the children to be reunited with their parents, worrying when Conor or the kids were in dangerous situations, feeling his guilt when the seven orphans were taken by a child trafficker, and joyful when they were found.  I would constantly turn to the pictures in the book, looking at the joy on parent's faces, the scenery, and the energy that the Nepalese children had.

I would recommend this reading book.  It takes the reader on a worthwhile journey, both on a personal scale and on a cultural scale.  I learned a great deal that I did not know about previously, such as the horrors of the Civil War in Nepal, the reality of child trafficking, the hope and power people have in such desperate times.

Evaluation of "Who Am I"

I read and evaluated all of the available "Who Am I" posts from the class.  My three favorites were MinJie Zhu's (9), Brandon Doege's (9), and ChuYan Gao's (8).  I picked these three because they felt the most personal and I learned more about them and where they came from or how they grew up.


Evaluation spreadsheet here

"Little Princes" Comparison

The author of "Little Princes", Conor Grennan, grew restless at his office job in Prague.  He had quickly decided to take a year off and travel around the world, since he did not have any plans for settling down nor any reason to conserve his savings.  However, he realized spending most of his savings to leave suddenly on a year-long trip looked more than a little selfish, and decided to do some volunteer work so he would appear selfless.  There were many volunteer opportunities available, but he chose to work with orphaned children in Nepal, one of the world's poorest countries.  Conor did not want to boast to his friends and family back home about his volunteering when the work sounded easy, so he decided to do something that would really impress people.
His attitude changed drastically during his visit, this was especially apparent when he left Little Princes for the first time.  He had grown close with all of the children, and their outlook on life, in spite of the trials they had been through, changed Conor's perspective for the better.  He made sure to return in a year, after he had completed his previous travel plans.
Initially, Conor had gone to Nepal out of guilt, more or less.  He did not want people to think of him as selfish for using most of his savings on a world trip, and thought it best to volunteer for a few months so he would not damage his reputation.  After those first few months, however, Conor grew to love the Nepalese children and returned to them a year later.