Research Tips

I understand very well why students tend to do their research online. I do a lot of it myself. It's both time-efficient, environmentally friendly, and often cheaper (no money spent on gasoline or parking fees!) but sometimes the sources you want or need to consult aren't available online!

For instance, the Dallas Morning News and New York Times historical archives are both available through the college library database link (and I encourage you to make use of both), but the Dallas Times-Herald, which began publishing in the 1880s and didn't stop until the early 1990s, is a very good source that is currently only available on microfilm (I believe that the Dallas, Richardson, Garland, and Plano libraries all have the Times-Herald on microfilm). The old Dallas Dispatch is likewise only available on microfilm (at the Downtown Dallas Public Library, seventh floor).

Likewise, there may be other primary sources that are only available on microfilm. Or it may be that the information you need is in an actual book! Don't be afraid to leave your computer and go to a library!

I also like to visit the places I'm writing about, even if they have changed. I find that it often helps me to get a "sense of place" that you can't get from a computer, a book, or even a photograph. I encourage you to do the same (while at the same time exercising reasonable caution if conditions warrant it).

Students who demonstrate resourcefulness and the willingness to go "the extra mile" to find the information they need to make their paper the best it can be are the students most likely to get the best grades!

Writing a better paper.

• First of all: Follow the formatting requirements to the letter! Fancy fonts and full color cover sheets won't earn you a better grade; in fact, they are liable to do the opposite!

• Use the "Spell Check" and "Grammar Check" functions of MS Word (or whatever software you use). They are there to help you! Get your money's worth! Also try using the Thesaurus function also to avoid repeating the same word over and over and over and over again!

• Winston Churchill once joked, "Ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put!" But seriously, ending a sentence with a preposition (for example, with the word "of") is considered bad from.

• Here's an example: "Where was he at?" In this case, "at" is redundant (i.e., not necessary). This is better: "Where was he?"
• Here's another example: "They wanted to know what stuff he was made of." This is better: "They wanted to know of what stuff he was made."

• Watch out for redundant words!

• "Free gift." What other kind is there? If it's not free, it's not a gift. Just say "gift."
• "Rio Grande River." Rio is Spanish for river so what you are saying is "River Grande River." Just say "Rio Grande."
• "PIN number." PIN is an acronym for "Personal Identification Number," so when you say "PIN number" you're saying "Personal Identification Number Number."
• It's the same with "ATM machine." Can you guess what the "M" in "ATM" stands for?

• Watch out for words that aren't the same as they might sound to you. It's "would have" or "could have," not "would of" or "could of."

• "Their" is a posessive pronoun. "There" is a place.

• "Brake" is what stops a car. "Break" means to when you do something to an object so it requires repair or when you temporarily suspend work, like taking a 15-minute "coffee break."

• In a historical research paper, stay away from contractions. For example, write "cannot" instead of "can't," or "it is" instead of "it's."

• Use the active voice in your sentences, not the passive. Here is an example:

• Passive: "The nearby cabin was built of cedar logs before 1850, by Kentuckian Gideon Pemberton."
• Active: "Kentuckian Gideon Pemberton built the nearby cedar log cabin in 1850."