A good academic paper starts out with a clearly defined topic which is neither too broad or too narrow. For example, "Cactus" would be too broad a topic. On the other hand, A topic is too narrow if you can't find any information about it. For example, suppose your foreign language subject to, "foreign language policy in South Dakota." Although you might have a strong interest in this topic, South Dakota may not have a specific policy about foreign languages. If you have chosen the topic, "teaching Chinese in elementary schools," and your research attempts have been fruitless, it may be that you are considering a topic that no one else has previously presented. In other words, no one has determined that Chinese should be a major language taught as commonly as Spanish or French.
Using an outline can help you organize your material and can also help you discover connections between pieces of information that you weren't aware of when you first conceived the topic of your paper, After you have identified a topic and prepare an outline of the project, you can begin to gather information from authoritative reference sources: pertinent books, encyclopedias, and articles in magazines and journals. Be cautious when using material from the Internet. Before citing Internet sources, check the credentials of the writer. Are they associated with a university or well-known corporation? What experience and training do they have in the field?
Before you turn in your paper, double check it for errors. If you can, after you have checked for errors, let another person (for example, your parent or an older sibling) check it too. Are there any references missing from the bibliography. Is referenced material from sources properly cited? Do the sentences and reasoning make sense. Did you include an abstract or summary of the paper in the case of APA format papers? As soon as you are satisfied with your paper, run a spell and grammar check. (Check your spell checker setting and make sure that they set to Grammar and style). At that point, you can hand in your paper.
Term paper writing is a serious task that students will have to undertake while pursuing studies in institutions of higher learning. This is necessary to determine the student’s knowledge and understanding of the subject. It is therefore critically important that students devote much of their free time to familiarize with the format of writing term paper. Quite often the efforts needed to write a term paper are similar to writing a research paper though term paper may not be as exhaustive as research papers in content and manner of presentation.In order to present a quality term paper, the student must pay special attention to all details including the term paper format, topic, language style, source materials, grammar, punctuation, creative imagination etc. Prior exposure to academic essay writing is critical for writing a good term paper. Thus for term paper writing or research paper writing or doing a thesis project, a student must have written essays on a variety of subjects in his school days. One should be familiar with the various essay formats like MLA/APA/Chicago/Harvard that are standard and followed everywhere and a student should know each one of them well.Every aspect of the term paper writing is equally important and calls for meticulous preparation and painstaking efforts. The writer should gather as much relevant facts as possible about the topic from all available authentic sources to make the paper informative. The writing should conform to the peculiarities of citation style prescribed by the educational institution. ÂThe components of a standard term paper format are:The cover page should mention the name of the student, the name of the professor, the name of the course, the due date of submission and the title. Care must be taken to ensure the title is appealing so as to kindle the interest of the reader and induce him or her to read the contents.There has to a term paper content outline providing an abstract and a general overview of the topic. This is to be followed by the Introduction, which should present the thesis statement, elaborate somewhat on the issues the paper deals with and explain how they will be supported in parts of the term paper.Body of the term paper is understandably the largest and most critical part of any term paper where the writer expatiates at length the varied aspects of the researched topic, elaborates on the main points and drives home their importance, presents evidence as irrefutably as possible citing facts and figures drawn from different sources.Conclusion is a mandatory part of any research paper or term paper writing. Most term paper writers use Conclusion as a weapon not only to sum up the contents but also to assert their view with a sense of finality to persuade the reader to believe in what is written. There has to be a Reference Page to acknowledge the information taken out from various sources including books, book reports, journals, essays and used by the writer in his term paper. The reference should mention the authors’ names and page numbers.It is an unfortunate fact that many students no very little about the term papers format and the all other components of a research paper. There are of course custom term papers available online and the writers of these custom papers know well both theory and practice and provide some excellent term papers. There are quite a few reliable Websites that offer writing assistance for term papers, research papers, essays, thesis writing and even dissertations.
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NEW BOOK/WEBSITE DEPICTS A PSYCHOLOGY IN CRISIS
by Katherine Moyer
Fireflysun.com Correspondent
WASHINGTON -- Next month, American Book Publishing Group will make available to the public a factual novel by a Ph.D. psychologist that exposes sources of moral and intellectual corruption in departments of Psychology.
On May 1, the American Book Publishing Group will make available for sale to the public a novel that exposes sources of moral and intellectual corruption in our departments of Psychology. Moved by what he calls the "sheer pointlessness of the profession," newly christened Ph.D. J. Wyatt Ehrenfels aborts his pursuit of an improbable career and impossible vocation to publicize the evils of the field in Fireflies in the Shadow of the Sun. Ehrenfels uses his real experiences as a student or instructor in six psychology programs as evidence for his accusation that professional and technical developments within the field have undermined the adequacy, accuracy, and authenticity of our inquiry into the facts of human nature. While the novel seeks to entertain its readers with drama and suspense, the book's website (launch date May 1), which doubles as a portal for reform in psychology, presents over 100 pages of documentary-style discourse on the inherent flaws of the discipline and the twisted psyche of its practitioners. Fireflysun.com has matured into an instrument of educational reform, mobilizing his cause into a campaign to preserve the most conservative principle in Psychology (i.e. human nature) and to oppose the wholesale abandonment of the "psych-" to the "-ology." Brilliantly written to show us the heart of what is at stake, Fireflies details the consequences of the practices by which academics and therapists alike erode the humanity in their students and in their subject matter with a form of professionalism that stifles true callings and true scholarship.
At the heart of the novel's inspiration is the fate of JW Ehrenfels himself, whose career ended when the Student Ethics & Evaluation committee, which convenes as part of the faculty at the end of every semester to discuss student progress, placed him on probation. "I remember exactly how my advisor summarized the decision," conveyed Ehrenfels. "He told me that while there was no evidence for misconduct as a teaching assistant, I was clearly unconventional and the faculty decided that to be unconventional is to be unprofessional. Suddenly, I realized how hard I would have to fight for my doctorate and that no matter what happens - Ph.D. or no Ph.D. -- my career is essentially finished." Ehrenfels grieved for more than just the end to a career. "I did not understand what had just happened to me. Where did I go wrong? I know this sounds aristocratic, but I was born with a special symbiosis to my subject matter, as if at birth there was an inherent connection between my personality and the phenomenon of dreams. I was born to study them. I remembered my dreams vividly as a child, and started to read many books about dreams. Starting at age 10 with those ridiculous astrology dictionaries and pop trash self-help books, I quickly ramped up to a dull and vapid college textbook until I ultimately settled at age thirteen in the original works of CG Jung. Inspired by the hope I could spend my days researching dreams, I worked hard academically, raising my GPA from a grade school 2.5 to a 4.0 in high school. I over-achieved in every course unrelated to psychology to maintain as near perfect a GPA as possible. I improved my standardized test scores from a tepid 1100 on the PSAT to a 1290 on the GRE. I spent $2300 applying to 40 graduate schools over the course of two years, competing with hundreds of other applicants for a paltry five positions. Once in a program, I matriculated faster toward my master's thesis than any other student, presenting to my committee advisor the first draft of my proposal before the first day of the first semester. I was one of a handful of students to finish my thesis 2 years after enrollment as specified in the program handbook, all the while maintaining a 3.90 GPA. And then, at the same faculty meeting at which my advisor announced I had successfully defended my thesis, a small group of faculty led by the stalwart department head dropped the bombshell.
It would seem that I did everything I needed to do, until I was given an opportunity as a graduate student to do what I had always wanted - to work on my masters and to teach a General Psychology class, where I apparently made some choices that revealed my personality to the faculty. Just as I realized I had deviated from the one-size-fits-all professional identity issued by the department, it was too late. It took me a few months to realize the gravity of what I had done - of what I am -- but I never did understand why the faculty reacted the way it did to my choices. This pantheon of professors essentially equated my unconventional decisions with a pernicious non-professionalism and, even more surprising, they seemed to take it personally."
I interviewed J.W. Ehrenfels extensively for fireflysun.com, at which time he attempted to make sense of what had happened to him, attempting a formal diagnosis of what he called the professorial pathology. "Professors lack an intrinsic interest in the subject matter of Psychology, usually ending up in the field by default or due to an interest in scientific methodology that could have just as easily landed them in Sociology, Biology, or Actuarial Science. I mean -- where is the psyche in psychology? The only knowledge psychologists choose to acknowledge as valid is one in which human behavior is reduced to neurons or social influence." Ehrenfels refers me to an article written for his book's website by co-expatriate Connie Vaughn, who brilliantly noted, "there is nothing at stake in Psychology." Professors have no intercourse with the world outside the university let alone any measurable implications for lives. Seldom is an academic or even a clinical psychologist consulted by a corporate or government agency. They have to promote - to proactively insinuate themselves - into the world by advertising their services as consultants. "Even within the university itself," continued Ehrenfels, "there is little sake for which professors perform their jobs. If on top of a fundamental disinterest in your work you pile a low salary and no advancement structure, what is there? Why do they do what they do?"
The heart of the Ehrenfels critique is his contention that professors place special conditions on their self-esteem -- that they need to participate in a consensus to feel valid. Part of this "contribution" is a Hippocratic-like promise to the public of a unified theory of psychology and, while this remains a work-in-progress, professors work on an appearance of science and solidarity, constructing a common ethics and methodology intended to conceal and constrain their diversity of theories. It is hyper-technical observance of this consensus to which they refer when they speak of "professionalism."
Thus we see in the professorial psyche both a private pathology (i.e., low self-esteem) and a public persona (i.e., professionalism). Their white-knuckle grasp of their ethics, professionalism, and scientific principles is intended to convey to the public a set of high standards with a social conscience. But in the name of progress and the public good -- in the name of science and ethics -- in the name of competence and community hygiene -- these academics and therapists alike disqualify as unscientific those aspects of human nature which do not readily lend themselves to their methodology much in the same way they disqualify students who do not readily lend themselves to training. "There is much that they fear," claims Ehrenfels. "They see nothing short of chaos outside nothing less than perfect consensus. But in their own viewpoint - which may differ from that of their peers, they see a point on which the profession will ultimately converge. This means they can be schmoozed. It is this viewpoint that a student needs to massage with almost sycophantically sexual strokes. Seldom outside these conditions will a professor choose to defend a student against an attack from his peers."
To readers for whom this depravity seems far-fetched, Ehrenfels provides the grounding in some common sense psychology. Ehrenfels maintains that as long as their self-esteem requires a movement toward consensus, professors need evidence of the conformity of their peers and students about as much as they need oxygen. This may manifest itself acutely as a need for the attention and adoration of undergraduate students, particularly with the older male professors needing to feel loved by their 18-year-old female students and with the younger female professors needing to feel in control of their male students. But loved-starved and power-hungry professors aside, you can always count on this chronic need to see the consensus reflected in their own work, the work of their peers, and the work of their graduate students. The book, hereafter known as "Fireflies," recounts verbatim the histrionic and hyperbolic reactions of professors to students who step one inch to either side of the putative white line. Ehrenfels describes how these overt expressions are needed to fortify a fragile self-esteem rooted in a faรงade, a "a glass house of cards with clay feet built on a foundation of sand." Without a well-differentiated self or purpose in the profession, professors vacillate in the most schizoid way between overbearing confidence and irascible insecurity -- each taking turns concealing while compensating for the other. To obtain the Ph.D., a student can simply hide a doubt or harbor an unconventional point of view, but for the student to accumulate the credentials (i.e., publications, teaching assignments, letters of recommendation) necessary to procure postdoctoral employment, he or she must observe departmental policy and proactively pander to faculty opinion. Ehrenfels believes this trait to be congenital trait in effective graduate students. "If a student has to learn to pander to their professors' insecurities, chances are the student will not survive. You do not want to give the faculty an opportunity to sell you and your future out to preserve the precious group norms that maintain harmony within the department. Each lives for that opportunity to be the key player in the maintenance of consensus. Strangely enough, since the mid 1970s we social psychologists actually have had a name for our own degeneracy - we call it 'groupthink.'"
Fireflies is not only a relentless indictment of professors, but on the effects of their pathology on the study of human nature. "They may not fly our planes or inspect our beef, but they are trusted to present the public with a view of its own humanity." Clearly, the faculty viewed his inclinations -- indeed J.W. Ehrenfels himself -- as antithetical to science, but Ehrenfels contends it was they who created a science so severe and so stingy as to be antithetical to its own mission -- counterproductive to the basic constitution of Psychology as the study of human nature. "Methodolatry," he called it. "As if to compensate for the spiritual function they repress in their own psyches, professors exhibit an almost religious adoration for - and liturgical observance of - the experimental method and philosophy of science." In an attempt to understand this, Ehrenfels unleashed his insatiable curiosity upon the professors themselves, seeking in the plot of his book human motives for their most inhuman science.
Swiss Psychiatrist CG Jung, of whom Ehrenfels believes himself to be somewhat of an atavism, developed a personality typology based on four components to a normal perceptual process: sensation (establish that x exists), thinking (determine what x is), feeling (is x agreeable or disagreeable?), and intuition (what are its implications and where does it go from here?). Ehrenfels uses this theory to contrast persons of human proportions from a perverse professoriate, for whom Materialism is sensation, Doctrinarism is thinking, Credentialism is feeling, and Careerism is intuition. In other words, when the psyche becomes the subject matter for a profession, it is formulated and manualized to the point where it ceases to function and appear as it does in nature, becoming a caricature. Clinical professors who moonlight as therapists weed out students who exhibit personalities or idiosyncrasies - skeptics in research shrink from the direct study of dreams and, in their fear of meaning itself, have unleashed a campaign for rationality so extreme as to dwarf the irrationality, bankruptcy, and fraudulence of the 19th Century spiritual mediums they continue to treat as public health risks. Blinded by their crusade, the professors look at the world around them and see in statistically unique personalities only a potential for maladaptiveness and in phenomena beyond rational explanation only a potential for fraud. If there are two things professors fear, it is being fooled and not fitting in.
And yet readers of Fireflies will come to believe that it is the faculty itself that is fraudulent. While this is just a dry and pale introduction to the book, I believe the book will take readers into a world where they enjoy the horror of every painful realization about this institution. Using scripted dialogue and description, Ehrenfels brings to life a world that is dead to us in a post-apocalyptic retrospective that compels us to consider whether we are indeed too late to change an institution. "I believe in the psyche. I believe if mistreated, that it will reassert itself at some point, but regrettably not in my lifetime. I am too late to save my career, but perhaps I can warn future generations of Carl Jungs so that while they are subjected to the professional equivalent of abortion, they can at least understand why."
Why indeed? Ehrenfels believes that Psychology departments have elevated to the level of supreme principle professional requirements that are entirely irrelevant to scholarship and education. For the mere appearance of science and professionalism - and for the sake of a career within that profession - academics adopt methodologies for teaching and research that constrain independent thinking and limit real productivity. While the field bends over backwards to admit students of diverse race and ethnicity, with an extreme prejudice do professors select out -- or weed out -- students with diverse ideas. Psychology departments effect fundamental changes in the character of students willing to sacrifice their personal standards and intellectual freedom for membership in a profession. This is the vampirism of the times, when student acquiescence to professorial preferences and penchants for the sake of tenure is the nonliterary equivalent of the manner in which a vampire sells its soul for immortality and carnal membership in a fraternal brotherhood. Ehrenfels recalls the likeness of his department head to a head vampire, who once remarked that it was a student's duty to represent your department -- a department which in turn is required to represent the broader field of Psychology - which in turn is required to represent science." I personally am amazed that universities can preserve the illusion of academic freedom. What is academic freedom worth in a place where tenure is needed to guarantee the right to speak freely? In a place where the professors work overtime to ensure that certain people never receive tenure?
Once monuments to academic freedom and havens for intellectuals and introverts, our State university system now fosters conformity that values science and professionalism for their own sake. This technico-professional "knowledge" is most evident where it is most misplaced, i.e. in the instruction of undergraduates. 18-year-old students who have never been exposed to Freud's theory are instructed to summarily dismiss Freud as a charlatan and chauvinist, with nary a clue that their professor's familiarity with Freud extends no further than second-hand hearsay and innuendo. This minimization and belittlement of psychology's forefathers betokens a field at odds with its own constitution. Even undergraduates are required to read and comply with APA writing manuals and professional research methods -- which often includes mainframe statistical software -- and encouraged to publish to bolster their candidacy for admission to graduate school.
If for no other reason, psychologists have created this language and methodology to fill the void in their real knowledge of human nature. Oh, and here is the other reason. In order to call themselves experts in human nature, these professors have to convince ordinary people, who have access to their own psychology, that they are not qualified to claim expertise. I mean, I cannot wander into any physics lab and wander off with Uranium-238, but I can reflect on my life. Professors maintain the illusion of professional superiority in two ways akin to Piaget's mechanisms of (1) assimilation and (2) accommodation. (1) Use your science to portray human beings in a way that they no longer resemble themselves. Case in a point: a statement by my own General Psychology instructor, who once remarked, "if you want to study human nature, read Ann Landers; we study psychological law." Research has all but bowed out of the real business of self-knowledge, replacing the study of individuals with a statistical analysis of behavior samples to produce averages that are thought to be universal laws. But universal laws that are not established on the basis of the study of exceptions (i.e. individuals) cannot claim status as rules. Consequently, most our research findings have no better than a fictional status even worse than the so-called popular myths psychologists love to mock. (2) Invent a secret trade code (i.e., jargon, style, and format) so that people will attribute intelligence to works they can neither find nor understand without comparable training.
The code itself serves within the field as a replacement for real knowledge about human beings. In short, if you don't have any knowledge, invent it. No one will know you have replaced nature with fiction. And while they are busy alienating humans from the enterprise that studies their humanity, they figure they might as well play a little God and surgically remove those parts of human nature they find troublesome or perplexing. No, I am not talking about violence or avarice, I am talking for example about the skeptical abuse of dreams, whereby physiological psychologists -- under white cloak and EEG dagger - announce in support of their predilection that dreams have no meaning or that they have no function greater than that revealed in their highly circumscribed study. "What beauty or value - indeed what purpose - can dreams appear to have once we reduce them to lines of ink on paper roll." Ehrenfels is particular protective of dreams, which he views as the most objective products of human nature, and he seems to excel at pointing out the intellectual impotence of physiological psychologists. "I wouldn't say they're stupid. It's just that they don't know how to think so they hide behind precision equipment and methodology." As impeccable as their canned methods are in self-containment, the veracity of their conclusions also depends on the formulation of theory, hypotheses, and the interpretation of data. Ehrenfels maintains that these academics use their labs as a pulpit from which to voice their aversion to dreams. "Using readings of brain activity to adjudicate intentionality in dreams is the modern equivalent of phrenology. We're reading neurotransmitters like tealeaves. The only difference is that they interpret for the sake of opposing interpretation. Or it's like using a microscope to understand a tornado. In its streamlined form, Science cannot settle the matter of meaning. But that does not stop us from going through the motions and drawing our preconceived conclusions. Surely, if we limit Science, we limit the purpose to which it can ultimately ascribe dreams. " He reminds us that psychologists cannot throw human experience out the window and then call themselves "empiricists." At some point in the history of Psychology, the rules for observation and data recording have become so severe as to ensure rigor at the expense of relevance -- precision and parsimony at the price of authenticity - unassailability at the expense of substance -- efficiency at the price of sufficiency. And Ehrenfels is quite sure that when the public reads Fireflies, it will understand how these oppressive scientific imperatives originated not in nature or on Mount Sinai, but in the dubious psyche of scientists.
Consequently, our university psychology departments have deteriorated into trade schools where students are indoctrinated into a political system by narrow and inflexible professors who use education as an instrument of cloning. "They act like the parents who want their children to live out their dreams for them. This makes sense when you consider that the Game of Science is stacked in such a way as to preclude answers within the individual lifespan." This is a place of (1) anti-intellectual prejudice, (2) self-serving career ambitions, and (3) arbitrary social conventions without equal in this nation. Sadly, our professors and students are in the business of building vitas and public personas - but not knowledge. Professionalism has replaced - and become confused for - scholarship - careers replace vocations - and vapid texts and trade publications replace books.
While this educational conundrum seems "academic" in that the private sector and the public relies little -- if at all -- upon psychological research, Ehrenfels reminds us that our mental health practitioners are trained in the university environment. If the system continues to undermine individual responsibility and freedom - not to mention intelligence - the members of future generations of academics and mental health professionals will become increasingly reliant on the policies and procedures of some central authority like the American Psychological Association. At stake here is mental health, but more importantly, human nature itself. While from time to time, some research is published with limited utilitarian value, by and large there is no place in this profession to survey the structure, dynamics, and development of the psyche - not in clinical psychology and not in research psychology.
As a victim of a profession greater than the sum of its chicanery - artificial policies and practices designed to divert the professionals themselves from their own impotence and impurity, Ehrenfels wrote Fireflies to free the human spirit from the ivory dungeon. "If the academics refuse to study human nature, they should admit as much and release it into the custody of another class of professionals. Instead, the psychologists attempt to destroy it, denying and distorting it at every turn, in the fear others may find meaning and value in what they discard. Until such time, their careers will live on like coma patients on life support -- in need of apparatus to survive. What are the hallways of academe but a smoke-filled labyrinth of mirrors? What is Psychology to human nature but a red herring in the mouth of an albatross?"
But will Ehrenfels be able to prove it? In a country desensitized by scandal - in a country that has sensationalized the smoking gun - how can he prove bankruptcy without billing statements and fraudulence without forensics? - where murder is committed without weapon and pollution without chemical. When I discussed the standard to which his testimony will be held, he smiled sardonically, and I just knew he was remembering the evidence his professors needed to place him on probation. "Academics love to preach evidence, and the clinicians love to preach ethics, and yet having slandered me in faculty evaluation meetings on flimsy and whimsy evidence, they will demand of me now nothing less than a noisy Geiger counter to trace even the faintest doubt." His evidence is his traumatic experience, and when they move to dismiss his life as anecdotal, he will remind them that their disdain for human life disqualifies their claim to psychology.
So join Ehrenfels as he remembers the innocence of four graduate students whose names have been changed to protect those who destroyed it: (1) "Anton Mason," for aligning himself with the name of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung; (2) "Aniela Mason", for sharing his name; (3) Matthew Sykes, for thinking independently and for his symbiosis with his subject matter; and (4) Angela Jewell, for requesting accommodations for her visual disability. The first book of its kind written by an insider, Fireflies delves into this dehumanization as it played out in the real-life political embattlement of four graduate students whose inherent interest in the psyche conflict with requirements for a career in Psychology.
More than just a collection of student horror stories, Fireflies illuminates the consequences of professional attitudes on the study of human nature and, more critically, exposes a chilling vision of the field's impact on humanity itself. Toward this end, Fireflies incorporates real dreams and synchronistic events from the author's incomparable fifteen-year diary to create a credible thriller and incredible journey. Dream interpretations and dream research allowed Ehrenfels to delve deeply into what it means to be human and into the culture of careerism and consensus that beleaguer the study of human nature.
Fictional elements are incorporated into the last third of the book to entertain readers with a penchant for action and mystery and to provide a suspenseful, fast-paced conclusion. More than wanting to appeal to a diverse audience, Ehrenfels wanted his message to meet each member of his audience on a broader front. For this reason, he incorporated into the making of Fireflies devices that appeal to each of Jung's phases of perception. For the sensation-oriented readers, Ehrenfels delivers the dramatic facts of his embattlement. For the intuition-oriented readers, there is symbol - and by that I mean the dreams and synchronistic events -- tools by which Ehrenfels makes plain to his readers the significance of these facts for humanity and for the study of human nature. For the feeling-oriented readers, there is fiction and drama that underscore the fact in a way the fact cannot underscore itself - expressively, placing the fact on an emotional plane. For the thinking-oriented readers, there is theory, and in his own theories of human nature, Ehrenfels offers explanations for this inhumanity, placing the fact on an intellectual and interpretative level that demonstrates how the student-victims not only understand psychology better than their teachers but how they understand the teachers better than the teachers understand themselves. More than any standard thriller, Fireflies boasts twists in plot that educate readers about the structure, dynamics, and current social context of the human spirit. By its end, the book intertwines fact, symbol, theory, and fiction to capture and expose the forces that profane the inherent beauty of human nature. He invites you to wander the halls of academe and to make a choice: "who is the public health risk here - JW Ehrenfels or psychology?"
"In this solid earth do I build the foundation for my house. At present I have no house to show, but if only the professionals would let you into their house would you see it has no foundation. And some day soon, it will wash away or collapse under its own weight. Unlike the academics I have nothing bold to claim, but then I have nothing to hide either." As an apostate from academia, Ehrenfels hopes the book will be an apocryphal blight on Textbook Psychology. Ehrenfels does not view the book as a career change, because he does not consider himself a professional author. And while more elegant and polished writers than Ehrenfels can be found, I doubt that there exists a vision as spiritually fulfilling and intellectually titillating as the one that unfolds in Fireflies. An extension of the purpose for which he believes he was put on this earth, Fireflies subsumes under his singular vision no less than all the superlative dreams, experiences, wisdom, and imagination across his thirty-year career as a human being. Ehrenfels seems to have realized in writing this book how much his life originated in Something outside itself - in Something to which it will one day return greater than the mass of its material. Ehrenfels tells me -- and I quote - "I have failed if I did not help you -- my reader -- to seize an obscure glimpse of this transcendental contribution to your life. Welcome to the tension between scholarship and professionalism -- calling and career -- human nature and scientific law. Welcome to Fireflies in the Shadow of the Sun."
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Good writing is mainly based on close interrelation writer-reader where reader is to be the primary person. This reader-oriented approach breaks down some strict rules which usually cut down writer's freedom and fresh ideas in writing. However, the general knowledge of structure, content, style, referencing, spelling and grammar are still very important.
An essay content is the primary step to start writing. Usually work comprises ideas statement, problem question and its definition and author's arguments for this question. The statement and problem mainly come from available resources: books, reviews, journals, magazines which can be easily found in libraries and electronic sources. When a writer gathers all needed materials his next step is to construct an appropriate scheme which is usually called a plan or outlines. Both composing and structure are aimed to produce qualitative link of chains which are closely connected and reflect the initial statement. Thus, essay structure consists of three parts: introduction (beginning), body (middle) and conclusion (end) which must have smooth transitions between each other.
Introduction must clearly show the subject and its back ground in order to explain a reader what you are going to write about. Sometimes questions are of great help to set up your subject clearly. Many instructions recommend such sort of questions: What is the important thing for your reader to consider? What can your reader learn? According to the reader-oriented viewpoint it is necessary to explain all the terms that a writer is going to use because some of them are difficult to understand by a reader. The subject appointed in introduction must be developed in the main part - body.
The classic guides demand three paragraphs of the body. This number should vary because paragraph is not a structural part but a writer's completed thought which is included into the whole subject. The aim to complete your whole idea or statement may demand different sizes and even numbers of paragraphs. Thus, the only thing that should not be neglected is a sentences completion and logic interaction between them. One of the most valuable and reliable things to not loose logic link is avoiding long and complicated sentences.
Conclusions are aimed to: 1) summarize all previous information; 2) sum up and point out the most important things; 3) introduce a new question or idea for further researches. Successful combination of summary and closure with new suggestions is considered to be 'the very best endings'. Summarizing helps to emphasize the most important argument and therefore, to identify gaps or uncertain arguments in the subject. This identification of problem opens new direction for further research. The new fresh ideas can be expressed by questions which a writer sets in the last sentences of his work.
The students' essays are usually assigned with necessary styles. They can be MLA, Harvard, APA or any other styles which are widely used in modern writing. They vary in citation and reference presentation but these differences are easily available in Internet resources. Different styles and assignments can bring some variations into structure, grammar usage, syntax and morphological features. The only thing that should not be omitted is the whole picture of completed and easy understandable work.
It is a very good idea to remind your reader why you write this work and what it is about. Although the statement remains the same, the conclusion should develop it. According to the body content, which can approve or deny the statement in the introduction, the conclusion statement either confirms or opposes to the introduction. Certainly, conclusion, which is contradictory to introduction, draws larger interest because of intrigue. This intrigue encourages reader and involves him in further research.
A master's thesis in the United States is conferred on students who have gone beyond the requirements of an undergraduate course and demonstrated scholarship and advanced knowledge of their field of academic study. Whether the degree is a Master of Arts or a Master of Science, one of the ways candidates are often expected to show their understanding of the subject matter is by submitting a thesis or dissertation.
Every university or college, and within those institutions every faculty, has its own specific criteria for assessing and passing - or failing - master thesis. Length, format and content may vary, within certain general limits; but the keys to success in creating a master's thesis remain more or less consistent.
The key words to bear in mind are content, citations and style. All are equally important: the thesis must express the candidate's understanding of the subject matter; must do so with precision and clarity; and must also do so in the format required, first by the candidate's individual supervisor, and ultimately by the examiners. Let's look at these in turn.
First, content. A master's candidate, having chosen a topic within the applicable field of study, usually with the advice of his or her individual supervisor, needs to develop relevant, engaging and novel content with respect to that topic. Different fields of study have different requirements. Candidates in some fields will need to conduct original research - surveys, interviews, field research or finding and reading original documents. In other fields it will be enough to develop and express original and interesting views on relevant material. In almost every case, the candidate will need to demonstrate familiarity with existing opinions on the same topic - usually through what is called a literature review: a referenced summary of what other scholars have said about the topic of the thesis.
It is important to gather as much information and material as possible. Whatever the required length of the thesis (and this can vary greatly), it is much easier to for a candidate to produce several thousand words when there is plenty of information to convey. As for citations, best practice is carefully to note citations to books, papers, articles or websites while developing the material for the thesis. Much better to pause and make a careful record of author, source, date, and any other necessary information while you are working on it, than go back and try to recover it later. It is easy to underestimate the amount of time required to compose an adequate reference section for the thesis, and much effort is saved by capturing the data during the research phase.
It is also very easy to underestimate the time and effort involved in conforming the text of the thesis to the specific demands of the examiners. Institutions have different requirements as to style - Chicago, for example, of APA - and in every case there are very precise expectations, not only as to formatting of pages and text, but also with respect to citations. Smart candidates know the details in advance, and are always conforming their writing and their references to what the end product requires. This approach saves an enormous amount of time.
Content, citations and style. Successful completion of a master's thesis depends on developing something to say, while constantly paying attention to how it will be said.
Mike Shane is a self-made entrepreneur, a well known writer and consultant. His area of writing includes master thesis, dissertations, articles, and books. Every year he publishes a list of master's thesis, books and dissertations.
Say you've prepared your e-learning content and are ready to upload it to an LMS for in-house distribution or outside syndication. To ensure its success on the marketplace or within your organization, follow a few simple guidelines.
Strong e-learning material is based on your own subject matter expertise and personal experience. And since there are an endless variety of courseware subjects, learners and contexts, not every guideline will necessarily apply to your LMS course. That said, one crucial element of a successful e-learning course is early communication with students. This includes pre-course basic training on how to use the LMS and other online tools, as well as how to navigate the online course itself. If collaborative tools like wikis or discussion boards are involved, clearly indicate how you'd like students to participate.
Guide students in course navigation through the use of videos. Take advantage of the easy-to-use video creation tools that LMSs often offer. Video tours are a great way to walk your students through their new virtual learning environment and make them feel comfortable.
The three basic aspects of communication are speech, gesture, and visuals. The online combination of these three elements helps recreate the natural ways people work in groups when they are physically present together. Utilizing these three elements--particularly the emotional signals of voice and tone--allows you to create a sense of trust and comfort for your students.
Another key to successful communication with students--which will ensure their ease of use and comfort with the online course--is the creation of a course outline or syllabus. A syllabus provides a space for you to break down and explain the course expectations and objectives for learners, and should be presented before any actual learning begins.
Particularly for the comfort of first-time e-learners, it's critical for them to understand as early as possible what to expect from a course.
A syllabus should include a few pieces of information about the online course. It should provide the instructor's email, office and/or phone number; the course date, length, and expected involvement; textbooks and other learning materials required; an outline of the LMS and course format and explanation of navigational features; a description of the course content; an assessment and project schedule; an overall evaluation plan; expectations related to student participation; and an outline of how learners are intended to interact using wikis, discussion boards, and other Web 2.0 tools.
In the course outline, advise learners to familiarize themselves with the LMS and the different kinds of information that can be found in each section of the course. Remind them that they will have to check it regularly for course updates and assignments. Be as specific as possible, describing in full detail the solutions for and consequences of missed classes or homework assignments, how students will be graded, class meeting times (if there are any), and any suggestions you can offer them.
Another useful function of the course outline or syllabus is to outline to learners the plagiarism policy. Although most people vaguely understand that plagiarism is wrong or not allowed, some may still be unsure about what exactly counts as plagiarism. And even though intentional plagiarism is more common, instances of accidental or uninformed plagiarism also occur and with your help, are quite preventable. Many learners are simply may not aware of the correct way to cite the sources they'd like to reference.
Along with your syllabus, attach a citation guide that tells how to cite articles, web pages, books, and other published information. MLA/APA style citation guides are easy to find online.
With the help of videos and a well-developed syllabus, you can help students feel secure and confident navigating their e-learning course and the learning management system. Help them feel at home in their online learning environment by quickly and clearly to establishing the features, scope, and tone of your e-learning course. Doing so will also help prevent any potential confusion or miscommunication, and create a harmonious learning and instructing experience for everyone.
Public schools can now use Coggno's learning management system for free. Create your free account now, visit Coggno at http://www.coggno.com/lms Call or visit:
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