From the category archives:

Paper success

The Basics Of Editing In College, 5 Step Guide On How To Edit A College Paper

March 11, 2010

I just finished editing my buddy Stefan Knapen’s free ebook he’s giving away. For a guy who learned English from watching ‘Friends’ episodes I’m thoroughly impressed that he runs a completely English blog on study hacks. As I was editing I thought I’d quickly share with you the fundamentals of editing college papers or any paper for that matter.

1: Before you start:

Before you even start, make sure you know what you’re writing about or editing. I can edit a social science paper in less than 5 minutes (correcting thousands of undergrads papers will give you superhuman editing skills!).  Editing a paper on mathematics or chemistry on the other hand is a much slower process. I’m not saying that you couldn’t edit a paper on a subject you’re not familiar with but it is much easier/faster if you do know the content. This brings me to my second point; make sure you have enough time to do the job. Many students don’t give themselves enough time at the end of the day to properly edit before they have to submit their paper. Editing is the most overlooked step in paper writing but crucial to secure a top grade.

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Super Friday Study Break: My 1 dollar Success Offer

December 6, 2009

Hello everybody, I’ll make this really short. The video above explains what the offer is about. More or less you click on the link above, I give you a half hour of tutoring no strings attached. This gives me enough time to set up an A+ study schedule for a paper, exam or a reading schedule for a single class.

This offer is gone once I fill up my 50 spots. I have 50 tutoring spots, not 500, not 5000… 50! So I’d highly suggest you click on the link and sign up now. If you don’t like it I’ll just send you you’re buck back.

EDIT: I just put this up and 10 spots just went in like an hour, soooo I’d suggest you click on it right now.

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Persuasive Paper Writing

August 27, 2009

Online Tutoring programHello Fellow Students

Today I’d like to talk about how to write persuasively in assignments and papers.  Most of you probably believe that if you simply invest the time in your paper that your professor or TA will automatically be persuaded into giving you an A, nothing could be farther from the truth.  Many students have talked to me as a tutor in the vta method or when I was a teaching assistant and asked me why their papers weren’t getting their desired marks.  If the writing was good, the form was good, the research was good, but the paper was boring, you’re doomed to failure.

Persuasive paper writing is somewhat counterintuitive in the university setting as less is usually more.  Let me explain.  Let’s say you want to start writing a persuasive research paper.  If you get all your research together, do all your analysis, get a good outline together and write a technically correct paper you will ‘technically’ have an A+ paper on your hands.  However, persuasive paper writing has nothing to do with the paper being write and much more to do with the paper convincing the reader that it is right.  Here are some quick tips on how to make your paper more persuasive.

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Finding the Right Focus in Paper Writing

August 20, 2009

brown-pen-paperI think quite a lot of you have this problem as it’s a major trend with my students; lack of focus in paper writing.  I’m not talking about procrastination; I’m talking about writing a paper and not having the focus to see the paper in your minds eye from beginning to end.

For anyone who has been able to accomplish this clear foresight, you’ll agree it’s incredibly useful to produce both a high quality and efficiently written paper. Once I get into a focused paper writing mode I can usually write 10 pages an hour without much difficulty and revisions.  There are 5 important keys that I teach to my students in my online tutoring program and I’d like to pass on a simple overview of those 5 keys for you now.

Research foresight

If you’ve read some of my articles you’d know that I am a true believer in the ‘paper pre-launch check list.’  Not only will this give you the proper focus for your paper but it will also allow you to lay everything out in a single place and enable you to take a snapshot of your paper in its entirety.  Instead of going through the entire launch process here, you can sign up for my newsletter on academic study skills and get the full course component automatically emailed to you.

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Michelle Obama: The Future of Education for Women

August 6, 2009
Michelle as a teenager

Michelle as a teenager

Hello Fellow Students

I recently watched the Ted Talk with Michelle Obama who was speaking about the future of education for women.  The part of the speech that impacted me the most which I believe transcends sex is her description of her study habits.

She quote “never cut class” and “liked getting A’s” and thought that “being smart was cooler than anything in the world.”  What an interesting concept!

Now even though my book is called “Study 30 Minutes A Day and Get A 4.0 GPA” I’m still a proponent of Michelle’s standpoint of education.  I get a LOT of flack from people who don’t agree with the title of the book.  But, once I explain to them that I teach students learning techniques rather than studying techniques and that I suggest to my students to take a class they might fail to expand their learning, they usually understand.

Learning and effective study skills is in my opinion the most important skill you can teach students, unfortunately many of the students I encounter lack the basic study skills necessary to think critically, or even think regularly lol.

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What happens when you plagiarize in College

July 9, 2009

PlagarismI came across a wonderful little website ‘flashpapers,’ I would link to it in the post but I don’t want to be connected with them in any way.  This website claims it will give you a fully customized paper just in time for finals!

I’m sure this is an expanding market, where teams of highly educated outsourced third world employee’s labour away to give Johnny or Lucy a paper just in time for finals.  But, the risk of being charged with plagiarism or academic fraud far outweighs the gains.  I’ve been offered extravagant amounts of money to write papers and pass students as a teaching assistant and lecturer.  In my college tutoring business I’ve also been offered money from my own students to just ’solve their paper problem’.  Each time I’ve refused, first because it is fundamentally wrong and second because of the possible ramifications.

What happens when you are caught cheating

Although I’m sure most university students all get that flyer at the beginning of the semester outlining what plagiarism is and why it’s wrong, the majority of students don’t actually know what happens to you if you are caught plagiarizing.  I’ll start by defining how plagiarism is confirmed.  Other than using software which can scan papers for plagiarized content which is illegal in some schools, there are three steps.

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Does Gaba Work?

July 4, 2009

chanelle-sladics-at-winter-x-holding-the-new-jones-gaba-drinkHello Fellow Students!

I just got a case of Gaba Tea drink from the Jones Soda company.  They wanted me to test out their drink supplement for students and I’ve performed my own experiment with amazing results.

Gaba Research

Gaba is a “naturally produced amino acid and is one of the key neurotransmitters in the regulation of proper brain functionality; it helps to increase the production of alpha brain waves, known to enhance focus + clarity.  At the same time it decreases beta brain waves, which are linked to nervousness and scattered thoughts.” (Jones Gaba).

Now I’m usually quite skeptical about new supplements for increased brain power as usually 90% of them are simply packed with sugar (cough red bull) and get you so hopped up on sugar that you feel amazing regardless of what else is in there.  From my research on gaba however, I’ve found quite a bit of research that both refutes and confirms gaba as a study tool.  In my search to see documented proof of the advantages of Gaba the people at Jones Gaba sent me some research data that for me is still in my opinion only exploratory but I’ll let you guys be the judge.

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General Tips for Academic Success: Where’s the “ANY” Key?

June 15, 2009
D,oh, sometimes I'm so concerned with advanced methods, I forget the basics

D,oh, sometimes I'm so concerned with advanced methods, I forget the basics

I’ve unfortunately committed one of the cardinal sins of critical thinking….

I can’t believe I haven’t addressed this earlier but unfortunately I sometimes don’t see the forest for the trees.

I got an email from a student today, she asked me for some ‘general tips for academic success’. I was just about to throw her an email saying “well, uhh… why don’t you just check out the ENTIRE BLOG, WEBSITE and BOOK!

But I then took a look around the blog and realized I haven’t actually given any of you the basic tips for academic success! I suppose I’ve always just thought that anyone who wanted that info should just check out the VTA Method and consult an online tutor. But I want this blog to be a resource for any student, not just ones that have bought my program (although it’s awesome).

So with that in mind I’m going to start a recurring series of the general tips for academic success. Here is what I’m planning on talking about:

General college study tips

Exam study tips

How to study for finals

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The Superman Breakfast!

May 28, 2009

Hello Fellow Students.

I Kinda Like the "Popeye Breakfast" but Meh

I Kinda Like the "Popeye Breakfast" but Meh

 

I got called out for my breakfast choices so I decided today to show you exactly what I eat for breakfast.  It’s good tasting and good for you.  For all you naysayers who think that you don’t have time for breakfast before class, this should shut you all up.  It took me 4 minutes to cook my breakfast on the video and I can usually do it in three.  So I suggest you all try this as an experiment at least for a week and see what kind of chances you see in your mind, body and mood.

The Components of the Superman Breakfast

- Approximately half a dozen egg whites with one full egg for flavor

- Fresh Baby Spinach, prewashed.

- Salsa or Tabbouleh.  Both excellent options.  The Tabbouleh has more nutrients but is higher in fat, the Salsa is lower in nutrients but higher in fat so go your own way with this one

- Crap loads of water

Cost of the Superman Breakfast

The egg whites cost me 3.29 per liter which works out to approximately .65 with the whole egg

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