Remember: WRAP IT!

Wonder about your topic. Link up with your sources. Investigate!: I mean READ and DIG into your sources. Produce: Time to write or record IT! Did you demonstrate Intelligent Thinking in your final product? Adjust, revise and assess to make it better. The OWL Purdue writing lab-linked on the picture at the left has other resources to start almost any writing project.

Alabama Virtual Library has quality journals, books, encyclopedias and other research materials. Don't just Google it and call it good. Use AVL and/or Google Scholar to get to the real deal and cut out the fluff. Click on High School on the AVL website and choose the source that best fits your topic. Don't forget that your textbook, library books and live experts in your subject are sources too!

Get organized and take notes. Use notecards or Google Docs, whatever you like (or your teacher assigns). You don't have to read the WHOLE book/website. Use the glossaries, timelines/chronologies, indexes and tables of contents in your sources to help you find what you need to read. You can read just a chapter or a few pages. Be sure to synthesize the information using your own words. Save direct quotes for powerfully worded phrases. The Owl Purdue Writing Lab has some great ideas...Click on the image at the left to go there.

Start early and give yourself plenty of time. Look over your notes. Group similar research notes together. Determine 2 or 3 topics that seem to describe the groups. These topics can become the subjects of your 3 body paragraphs. Watch this video at the left for an example.

Assess your work. Have someone read it who can give you CONSTRUCTIVE not just critical feedback. Revise if needed. Actually, revise even if it is not needed. Make your writing concise, logically organized, active-voiced and free from grammatical and spelling errors. See the OWL Purdue Writing Lab resources linked at the image to the left for more information.

Mrs. Peel is coordinating tutoring at RCHS. If you need extra help, talk with Mrs. Peel to get a tutor or schedule extra time with your teacher. If neither of these works, HomeworkAlabama.org is a free service, take advantage of it anytime you need homework help. Click the image to the left to get started.