Instead of just sitting on some tropical beach and sipping pina coladas during your vacations, it is very possible to get a ton of personal growth from your travels. But in order to do this, you will have to get off those all-inclusive beach resorts and five-star hotels. Although there might be some exceptions, most…

No matter where you are in your intellectual journey, the ability to assemble and analyze large amounts of complex information is a skill that can pay large dividends both in monetary terms and in terms of your overall satisfaction with life.  What follows is a very short guide and template for writing excellent research papers. Re-Evaluating…

Thanks to the nature of life and society, we’re often forced to make our most important decisions under pressure. Whether that pressure is caused by a lack of time, emotional duress, or something else entirely, it’s hardly the best state in which to make reliable decisions. Without a way to switch into an objective mindset…

We have to have the latest and greatest gadgets. We have to be on the newest and coolest web apps. We have to be cutting-edge. But does all this technology really help with our productivity? I’ve found that there are days when I just have to back away from the bleeding edge if I…

I get to write a lot.  Fortunately, I like it because it is an important part of my job.  I also find that writing helps me organize jumbled messes of thought.  Here are notes on writing, which you should do daily no matter your occupation. 1. “Writing is research” (James Buchanan).  This is the…

Fresh research suggests our bias for action is emotional, not rational. An article by Patricia Cohen in the New York Times “Business Day” section on March 1st, reporting on a study made by economist Ofer H. Azar at Ben-Gurion University of Negev in Israel, adds another dimension to the topic of the…

It’s back to school time, yet again.  In the spirit of the season, I decided to gather together the best tools, websites, and advice I know of to help make you a more effective and relaxed student this semester. Since I know you’re broke, it’s all free! 10 Free Applications Every Student Needs Unless you…

With final essays and term papers coming due (at least here in the States) I thought I’d take a moment to offer some well-needed advice to this year’s crop of young plagiarizers who are about to fail there classes because of really dumb decisions they’re making as I write this. Listen. I know it’s been…

I find Wikipedia to be a great starting point for online research, but you can’t really use it in your writing. Scholastici.us has 20 other suggestions that you could actually reference legitimately. Encylopedia Britannica – I know it seems awfully “old school” but this site is an excellent source of information and much more…

A little while back, I wrote about ways for students to add a little extra “kick” to their research papers. Those strategies were meant for students who had already mastered the basics of performing research, not students just getting started doing research and writing papers. As with writing, though, research skills…

No assignment save the comprehensive final exam seems to engender such fear in students as the research paper, especially the open topic research paper. Faced with the prospect of writing 5, 8, 12, or more pages on a topic of their choosing, a lot of students panic, unsure what to write about and how…

If your’re researching on the web, check out these site and apps put together by the Online Education Database. It’s a great list when you know you can’t use Wikipedia. As good as it is, no university will trust it. Add to this list Footnote.com and we’re in business. Artcyclopedia – If you’re looking for information…

Web Research is, “a Windows program that helps you save important information from the Web, store it on your computer, and then organize and reuse it in your projects.” Web Research comes in several different flavors including an Internet Explorer Add-On, a Firefox Extension, and an Outlook Add-In. Web Research works with Windows…

Warning: No, you’re not on Parent Hacks all of a sudden, but I want your take on this. I was never a big fan of report writing, especially the research portion. But when I could make it into a dazzling project, then it was kind of fun. My mom helped me with this big report…

Looking for some quick references on how to sounds good in your research paper? Or don’t understand whata are the phrases there for? The follow page could help you, for you to refer on and make your research paper more professional, or help you understand what does the researcher really want to say. For instance: Research…