College of DuPage Library

The College Experience

College Knowledge for the Community College Student by David Schoem and Lynn Dunlap
LB2343.32 .S34 2011
A road map and tour guide for a successful community college experience and education.

The Community College Experience by Amy Baldwin
LB2343.32 .B24 2013
Covers a range of topics from making the transition into college culture, to practicing active learning and study skills, and preparing for a degree and a career.

The Freshman Survival Guide : Soulful Advice for Studying, Socializing, and Everything in Between by Nora Bradbury-Haehl and Bill McGarvey
LB2343.32 .F74 2011
Tools and accumulated wisdom of hundreds of students, administrators, professors, counselors, and campus ministers to help you take advantage of the options in front of you and make good decisions in the years ahead

College Rules! : How to Study, Survive, and Succeed in College by Sherrie Nist-Olenjnik and Jodi Patrick Holschuh
LB2343.32 .N57 2011
A college survival primer by two college professors shares essential advice and strategies on topics ranging from stress management and test preparation to staying motivated and balancing academics with a social life

Managing Time

Get Organized by Ron Fry
LB1049 .F735 2012
Shows you how to create your ideal study environment by using simple time-management tips to develop to-do lists, daily schedules, monthly calendars, and project boards.

The Time Diet : time management for college survival
by Emily Schwartz
LB2395.4 S35 2012
The Time Diet helps students lead productive, stress-free college lives by helping them classify their activities into "food groups" and choose a "balanced diet" of tasks each day.

Attack Your Day! : Before it Attacks You by Mark Woods and Trapper Woods
HD69.T54 W672 2013
Learn five crucial "activity management" skills and 101 productivity strategies can help you achieve unprecedented levels of effectiveness, as you move relentlessly towards achieving your most important goals in life.

Managing Stress & Anxiety

What to do when college is not the best time of your life by David Leibow
Focuses on issues common to college settings-anxiety and depression, drug and alcohol abuse, laziness and work avoidance, body-image problems, and unhealthy relationships-- detailing coping strategies and professional resources that best respond to each crisis.
RC451.4.S7 L45 2010

College of the Overwhelmed: The Campus Mental Health Crisis and What to Do About It by Richard Kadison, Theresa Foy DiGeronimo
RC451.4.S7 K336 2004
Written for parents, students, college counselors, and administrators, College of the Overwhelmed is a landmark book that explores the stressors that cause so many college students to suffer psychological problems

Lynda.com video courses are made up of a series of instructional videos - you can watch all the videos in the course, or pick and choose topics that fit your needs.

COD students, faculty and staff have free access to Lynda.com - simply register using your @dupage.edu or @cod.edu email address and you will have access to Lynda's vast online library of instructional videos covering a variety of topics such as software training, business and creative skills, and study skills.

For more information about Lynda.com, visit http://www.codlrc.org/lynda

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Time Management Fundamentals Course duration: 2h 51m
Effective time management is an indispensable skill. Best-selling author and business coach Dave Crenshaw lays the theoretical and practical foundations for managing your time and becoming more productive.Learn how to get more done in the shortest time possible and avoid the obstacles and distractions that can get in the way of good time management. Dave gives practical strategies for increasing productivity in three main areas: developing habits to be more organized and reducing clutter in your workspace; staying mentally on task and eliminate the to-dos you have floating in your head; and developing a time budget to get the most done during your workday and focus on your most valuable activities.
Topics include:

• Finding your productivity style and motivation
• Understanding the principles of time management
• Avoiding the pitfalls of multitasking
• Narrowing your gathering points
• Practicing mind-clearing techniques
• Choosing and using calendar software
• Saying no with tact
• Mastering the what, when, where processing system

Managing Time

College Survival Tips: Time Management for Beginners
Many of us don't realize how important time management is. In this video, you will learn ways that will enable you take full advantage of your time.

Transitioning to College - Managing Your Time
In college, there's a lot of freedom. And with so many activities and groups to join, it's important to prioritize and put academics first. Learn how to manage your time by using a planner or scheduling tool -- whether it's on your phone, tablet or an old-school spiral bound planner -- it's important to stay on track, and on time.

Study Guide: Time Management
This 3-minute video from UIPUI shares tips and tricks from students on how to manage time and things done!

Managing Time

Time Management - Stanford University
Time Management Matrix – BYU Idaho

Managing Stress and Anxiety

Study Habits and Test Anxiety - SUNY at Buffalo
Five Finger Relaxation Technique – Emporia State University

Success Strategies

What the Best College Students Do by Ken Bain
LA229 .B24 2012
Doable and inspiring help for students who want to get the most out of college—and every other educational enterprise, too.

Ownership: Accountability by Megan Stone
LB2395 .S758 2014
The Ownership series teaches Students ownership of concepts, so they are more likely to take responsibility for their successes and failures and “own” their learning.

Ownership: Effective Planning by Megan Stone
LB2395.4 .S76 2014
The Ownership series teaches Students ownership of concepts, so they are more likely to take responsibility for their successes and failures and “own” their learning.

100% Student Success by Amy Solomon
LB2343.3 .S664 2012
A comprehensive resource for student academic success.

Choosing Success in Community College and Beyond by Rhonda Atkinson and Debbie Longman
LB2343.32 .A77 2012
By incorporating a decision-making focus into every chapter, Choosing Success in Community College and Beyond emphasizes accountability and conveys to students how important they are in their own success.

Academic Writing

Write it Right: The Secrets of Effective Writing
PE1408 .P423 2012
Covers everyday tasks and academic writing, offering user-friendly advice on how students can make the most of simple, practical methods for tackling essays and longer pieces of work.

How to Write Better Essays
PE1429 .G74 2013
How to: analyze essay questions and break down difficult terms and concepts; brainstorm effectively; evaluate and criticize arguments; express thoughts coherently and develop a personal style of writing; and plan and structure essays from introduction to conclusion.

Improve Your Writing by Ron Fry
LB1047.3 .F796 2012
From selecting a topic and conducting research to developing an outline, writing drafts, proofreading, and more,Improve Your Writing takes you step-by-step through the creation of a successful research paper.

Macmillan Writing Series by Dorothy E. Zamach
The Macmillan Writing Series provides students who have little experience of academic writing with the fundamental tools required including: brainstorming ideas, arranging ideas, writing short and long texts, and sharing the finished product with classmates.
Writing Sentences : The Basics of Writing
PE1408 .Z465 2011
Writing Paragraphs : From Sentence to Paragraph
PE1408 .Z463 2011
Writing Essays : From Paragraph to Essay
PE1408 .Z462 2011
Writing Research Papers : From Essay to Research Paper
PE1406 .Z464 2011

Researching

The Curious Researcher: A Guide to Writing Research Papers by Bruce Ballenger
Reference LB2369 .B246 2012
Offering a wide variety of examples from student and professional writers, this popular guide shows that good research and lively writing do not have to be mutually exclusive. Students are encouraged to find ways to bring their writing to life, even though they are writing with “facts.”

Bookmarks: A Guide to Research and Writing by John Ruszkiewicz, Janice R. Walker, and Michael A. Pemberton
LB2369 .R88 2006
Offers concrete strategies and models to help students select a topic, refine it, and develop it into a full-fledged research hypothesis; find and position sources; use sources in appropriate and responsible ways to further their projects; and document and complete their final projects for print or electronic publication.

Writing Research Papers

McGraw-Hill's Concise Guide to Writing Research Papers by Carol Ellison
LB2369 .E35 2010
The words “research paper” may send a chill down your spine. You're thinking about the hours of research and the days of writing ahead-and that's after wringing your hands about the topic! Never fear, this concise resource will guide you through the process step-by-step and make the experience painless.

Test-Taking

14 Days to Exam Success
LB3051 .B37 2010
A practical guide to effective revision and success in exams, taking the reader through a fourteen-day programme which ensures maximum results in the time available.

Ace Any Test by Ron Fry
LB3060.57 .F79 2012
Ace Any Test offers proven step-by-step strategies you can use in any testing situation, from classroom quizzes to standardized exams.

The Anxious Test-Taker's Guide to Cracking Any Test / by the Staff of The Princeton Review
LB3060.57 .A59 2009
Presenting specific test-taking tips that students can apply to any test--from high school through college--"The Anxious Test-Taker's Guide to Cracking Any Test" provides the philosophy and science behind studying for and taking tests.

Lynda.com video courses are made up of a series of instructional videos - you can watch all the videos in the course, or pick and choose topics that fit your needs.

COD students, faculty and staff have free access to Lynda.com - simply register using your @dupage.edu or @cod.edu email address and you will have access to Lynda's vast online library of instructional videos covering a variety of topics such as software training, business and creative skills, and study skills.

For more information about Lynda.com, visit http://www.codlrc.org/lynda

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College Prep: Writing a Strong Essay Course duration: 1h 54m
Given today's competitive college admissions process, a strong essay is critical. It can be the difference between acceptance and rejection. In this course, writing instructor Leigh Ann Chow covers planning, drafting, editing, and polishing an unforgettable college essay. She explains how the essay is used in determining acceptance and reviews good and bad essay examples. These lessons will not only help improve your chances of getting into a top-choice school, but also make you a better writer once you get there.
Topics include:

• Understanding the essay purpose and audience
• Reviewing common and unusual essay prompts
• Starting with a strong opening statement
• Showing, not telling
• Adhering to word limits
• Organizing the essay
• Varying sentence structure
• Revising the essay
• Communicating sincerity and enthusiasm

Writing Research Papers Course duration: 1h 56m
Have to write a research paper? Learn tips for writing an A+ paper that will wow your professors. In this course, author and Kelley School of Business faculty member Judy Steiner-Williams shows you how to prepare for, and write, polished research papers for high school and college classes. Discover how to brainstorm, select your best ideas, collect and categorize research, and write the paper, while following along with Judy's practical, real-world examples.
Topics include:

• Understanding the different types of research papers
• Researching the topic
• Brainstorming your focus
• Developing a thesis statement
• Writing topic sentences
• Composing a title
• Using a style guide
• Formatting your paper

Academic Writing and Research

General Writing Resources- Purdue University's OWL
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/1/
These OWL resources will help you with the writing process: pre-writing (invention), developing research questions and outlines, composing thesis statements, and proofreading. While the writing process may be different for each person and for each particular assignment, the resources contained in this section follow the general work flow of pre-writing, organizing, and revising. For resources and examples on specific types of writing assignments, please go to our Common Writing Assignments area.

Research and Citation Sources- Purdue University's OWL
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/
These OWL resources will help you conduct research using primary source methods, such as interviews and observations, and secondary source methods, such as books, journals, and the Internet. This area also includes materials on evaluating research sources.

Test Taking

Ace Your Exams: Study Tactics of the Successful Gentleman Scholar
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2012/01/03/ace-your-exams-study-tactics-of...
A humorous but informative guide to studying from the Art of Manliness blog.

Class Participation

Class Participation: Making Contributions that Count
Participating in class doesn’t come easily to everyone. Some students feel comfortable speaking up in class, asserting their ideas and opinions, and taking center stage. Other students find it harder to hold the floor. But if the aim of class discussion is to learn from others and allow them to learn from you, lots of contributions count, including questioning, listening, and responding.

Class Participation: More than Just Raising Your Hand[PDF]
College courses are meant to advance knowledge. Learning on the college level requires that you connect yourself with information and materials and actively participate in class. This tutorial will help you evaluate your own participation and will provide you with tips on how to participate more.

Getting Started: Finding (and Narrowing) a Topic

Have a glimmer of a topic that you'd like to work on? Great! You'll want to work to narrow that topic a bit before you dive into the catalog and databases, or you will be swamped with results. You can try the following strategies to narrow a topic:

• Visit CQ Researcher, a library database that summarizes current events into massive PDFs.
• Gale Virtual Reference Library has wonderful in-depth articles about medicine and the environment
• A Google News search can give you hints about what words to use when searching.
• Check out the New York Times Science section for breaking news.

Finding Articles in Databases

Scientific research can be best found in academic databases. Here are the top two databases to look for information.

Academic Search Complete has a mixture of popular and scholarly articles on a variety of subjects. You'll want to be sure that you're using a source appropriate for class when searching.

Academic OneFile is a great place to find a mixture of scientific and popular articles as well. Just like in Academic Search premier, make sure that you're using a good source for this project while searching.

See the full list of biology databases.

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Evaluating Websites

While you're doing Google searches to either narrow your topic or in order to dig up more information on certain subject, you want to be careful to decide if the information you find is trustworthy.

When it comes to science, nearly everyone has opinions: are we getting enough Vitamin D? What will fracking do for our economy or our groundwater supply? Your job is to evaluate the information you can find through Google and Bing to find the good websites--those written by authors you can trust, with good and up-to-date information.

Authorship: Who created this website? What is their background on the topic? Are they trustworthy?

Bias: Why was the website created? What point of view does the author have? Does that limit the facts they present or how the facts are presented?

Date: How old is the information that is presented? Is it still accurate?

Questions? Check out your professor's guide to evaluating information or the COD Library's guide to evaluating information.

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Class Exercise

Take a moment to look at your website. Is this information trustworthy? How do you know? Be prepared to tell your classmates your opinion.

The Crushing Cost of Climate Change
Cutting Short-Lived Climate Pollutants
US 'Climate Hubs' to Save Farms from Extreme Weather
Wildlife in a Warming World: Confronting the Climate Crisis
Hot Air on Climate Change

MLA Citation Style

Start by heading to the library citation guide.

You can also use NoodleBib to create your citations. Remember to create a personal username and password the first time you log in.

The Purdue OWL website has an excellent MLA guide that will give you common citation formats.

Scientific Paper Structure

The basic structure of a scientific research paper is similar to that of a lab report you'd turn in for class. You'll see most scientific papers broken into the following sections:

• Introduction: includes a literature review
• Methods: describes how the experiment was conducted
• Results: the data retrieved from the experiment
• Discussion: the section that analyzes the data
• Conclusion: restates the importance of the research findings and points toward new directions for research
• Citations: lists all referenced important articles that guided the research

More questions? Check out the Reading Research Articles link on the right.

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Using Bioscience

Your professor has suggested Bioscience as a model for your scientific paper writing. You can find current issues of Bioscience in print in the library or online.

Doing Subject Research

Starting Out: Developing a Topic

One of the most important steps you can take is to narrow your topic by gathering background information. This will suggest research words, important developments in the field, and even important scientists whom you can search for when you're looking for work. You can find this type of information in several ways.

Reference books such as those found in the library will give you a start. For example, check out the following:

• Encyclopedia of Food Science and Technology
• The Gale Virtual Reference Library has the full-text of several encyclopedias that you can search online.
• CQ Researcher, a library database that summarizes current events into massive PDFs.
• Issues and Controversies also does a good job of summarizing current debates.

You can also use Google to give you an idea about keywords and names to use in the databases.

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Adding Detail: Using Databases to Find Articles

Scientific research can be best found in academic databases. Here are the top two databases to look for information.

Science Direct is one of the premier databases to find scientific research. Nearly everything listed here is a scientific research article. Be sure to select "Subscribed Journals" when searching, or you will get a lot of citations without full-text.

Academic Search Complete has a mixture of popular and scholarly articles on a variety of subjects. You'll want to be sure that you're using a source appropriate for class when searching.

See the full list of biology databases.

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Need some help with Citations?

Find directions about how to cite your sources on the library citation guide.

Most databases will have a Cite link that you can also click to get article citations.

Finally, you are welcome to use NoodleBib if you'd like to use a program to create and organize your citations. You must "Create a New Folder" when you use NoodleBIB for the first time. Click on "I am citing a(n):," choose the type of item you are citing, and then fill in the online form. Your bibliography will be formatted for you.