Help in writing a research paper...

my "writing tips" page
general guidelines and info from the Quincy Public Schools website.
examples of how to cite sources from Mt. Ararat High School.

there ae some cool tools to help you with your research. I mean, yeah, I like newspaper and magazines BUT some of the same content is available online, and this IS the 21^st century! Here are some links to internet tools to help you research for this class and beyond:

First of all, remember to use your iGoogle account account for bookmarks, documents, and notebooks accessible from any computer, home, ECA, or Aunt Bertha's . Don't have one? Good grief, why not??

• Diigo.com lets you mark up your web pages with highlighting and sticky notes, accessible from any computer (or even an iPhone, if you are fortunate enough to have one)! There's a nice explanatory video link on their page and other links to help you get started.

FIREFOX EXTENSIONS (great tools for use with the Firefox browser).

• Zotero: an easy-to-use Firefox extension (add-on) to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources.

• Notefish: another easy way to save, organize and share snippets of internet web pages that you find. You can customize the resulting notes by moving them around, changing their colors, and organizing them into sections.

• The Diigo add-on for Firefox works with Diigo, above.

Links for study, review, Regents prep, & research:

Please note: the links below cannot be endorsed by me or ECA. Obviously, they are worth looking into, but like any good historian, be alert to the authors' biases. There is usually more than one side to any story! (Prov. 18:17)

American History with Mr. Burnett – Contains a wealth of links for research and further study. May also help with review.
Digital History – A huge U.S. History website containing a chronology, interactive timeline, glossaries, primary sources, and much more.
The History Channel – The TV network brought to the internet. Usually quite reliable.
HS Hub History pages – an excellent resource for information AND review.
Mr. Babbie's Key Concepts Glossary – Explain concepts, court cases, events, terms, etc. Links everywhere!
National Archive Records Administration – a BIG site providing access to original documents, records of Congress, the Presidential libraries, and much more. Searchable.
Regents Prep – the name says it all. For preparing for ANY Regents test.
The Study Shack – try it, you may like it. Flashcards, Matching, and study tables for study, review, and learning more.
U.S. History.org – Try it, you may like it.
Yahoo History – I don't know about this one either, but i bookmarked it! :-)

Primary Sources: Primary sources are "leftovers" from the past; by looking at them we get as close as possible to what actually happened during an historical event or time period. Primary sources include diaries, journals, speeches, interviews, letters, memos, manuscripts and other papers; published materials (books, magazine and journal articles, newspaper articles) written at the time of a particular event; photographs, audio recordings, moving pictures, or video recordings. For our purposes, a transcription or a copy will do; this includes such things as microfilm from the library, .jpg's and transcriptions from reliable internet sites, family diaries, and interviews with senior citizens. More info from the UC Berkeley Library.

Some sites for primary sources:

Another way to find primary sources is to search Google or another search engine using the words "primary sources" plus your subject.
AND NOW...you can access full issues of magazines and newspapers from the comfort of your home.

About the Regents...

The Regents exam is comprised of three parts: multiple choice questions covering various content, a series of document based questions (DBQ's) consisting of interpretation of several documents plus essay writing, and a thematic essay focusing on a major historical theme studied throughout the course. Passing is 65; the ability to produce a well-written essay is critical to the Regents exams in U.S. History & Government and World Geography, as well as in English!