Product Description

This STUDY SMART reference guide series, designed for students from junior high school through lifelong learning programs, teaches skills for research and note-taking, presents strategies for test-taking and studying, provides exercises to improve spelling, grammar, and vocabulary, and reveals secrets for putting these skills together in great essays.

There are proper ways to research a paper...and there are the ways most students do it: laboriously, tediously, and inefficiently. Here are the techniques and shortcuts that the pros use. They will enable students to find their way to the best resources for their own projects.

From preparing the preliminary outline, work file, and bibiliography, Research Shortcuts proceeds to using the appropriate resource guides, as well as modern aids to research. It also discusses shortcuts that reach the experts: writing letters that get questions answered, and making face-to-face (or telephone) interviews pay off.

A final section is devoted to using the research data: first drafts, choosing specific quotes wisely, paraphrasing, and final drafts. "Many of the suggestions . . . should be learned at a young age and students would do well to peruse these books. . . . The discussion of resources, a brief overview of a library's organization, interviewing, use of the telephone-all these and more might suggest ways for students to go about research for their assignments."- Kliatt

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #860259 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 136 pages

Review
Effectively guides in 108 pages of clear and concise tips. Quick and easy read [for] all writers, new or experienced. -- NACADA Journal, Issue 25, 2005

Excellent practical advice on mapping out research, gathering information, and writing up the paper. Highly useful. -- Dissemination Network for Adult Educators

Presented in a concise manner and with ample examples.... Excellent suggestions...Recommended. -- Library Journal

These suggestions...should be learned young. Discussions of resources, library's organization, interviewing, use of the telephone—all these and more. -- Kliatt

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Updated and revised edition

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Here's what one teacher said
NACADA Journal Book Reviews Issue 25(2)
Research Shortcuts. (rev. 2003). Judi Kesselman-Turkel and Franklynn P. Peterson.
Review By: Sharon Baffa Keeling, Academic Advisor,
Departments of Political Science and Sociology/Anthropology
Western Illinois University, Macomb

The authors of Research Shortcuts effectively guide the reader from preliminary research to final draft in 108 pages of clear and concise tips. Although intended for a student audience, this quick and easy read will appeal to all writers, new or experienced. Prolific authors themselves, Kesselman-Turkel and Peterson promise to deliver ".techniques and shortcuts that years of research time have taught us, so that you can find your way like a pro to the best and fastest resources for your own projects" (p.viii). They succeed indeed.

The 38 shortcuts contained in this book are divided into five sections that serve as an outline for completing a research and writing project. The authors emphasize the importance of organizing research to maximize efforts and provide a formula for estimating the reasonable number of hours necessary to research and write. They stress the time saving quality of careful note taking and furnish illustrations of the detailed bibliography forms they use in their own research. Note: these forms would be more useful if they were camera ready so they could be copied directly from the book. Additionally, the authors introduce interview techniques that novice researchers may overlook and provide detailed tips for successful face-to-face and telephone interviews. A warning to the reader is needed here. The authors assert that it is acceptable to tape record a phone interview with the consent of one party to the conversation. However, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Website informs readers that Federal law allowing for "one-party consent" recordings has been strengthened by some states. Thus, prudent researchers should always ask permission before taping a telephone interview.

Research Shortcuts is a book advisors can easily recommend to all students, and especially to those who are inexperienced writers still developing a voice and writing style. This is not a daunting read and it offers sound advice: follow an outline, stay organized, research with a clear purpose, and, finally, write. Affordably priced at $6.95, this is a resource students can use repeatedly for all types of research.

38 shortcuts presented concisely and with ample examples
Tells how to take notes and physically organize research material. Gives excellent suggestions for source materials and methods for utilizing them. Explains the art of deciding exactly what needs to be researched. Gives instructions for interviewing, using surveys and developing rough and first drafts. Useful for anyone doing research.