Write to Impress: Impressing Your Professor

One of the best things anybody can do in any class where essays are involved is to really get to know the professor. A good understanding of what your professor expects in your writing will serve as a compass, leading you through the time consuming writing process steadily and unwaveringly. But how do you acquire this understanding? It is very important that you take advantage of your professor’s office hours. If there are no office hours, then try to meet with him or her after class.

Almost universally, your professor will do what he or she can to help you with your writing, offering valuable suggestions for tweaks and edits. Pay close attention to your professor’s suggestions, as these are indicative of their overall preferences for written work. Professors love it when students show an interest in their class beyond merely showing up and doing the work. When you show up for office hours it makes them think “hey, this kid really works hard, and really wants a good grade”. So beyond being a great way to actually get much needed help, talking to your professor outside of class is likely to affect your grade in a positive way just through psychology.

It is such an effective strategy, in fact, that many students who don’t really need help on their essays “play the game” and show up anyway. We’ll let you decide whether they’re shameless brown-nosers or just savvy grade-hounds. All we know is that they get better grades than those who are “too cool for school.” Your professors are generally the altruistic, liberal type, and it gives them warm fuzzies when they think they’re guiding and helping students. So take advantage of them by any and all means!

Finding a Voice

This falls under the category of “style”, but its magnitude of importance warrants a category unto itself. It doesn’t require much description, however, because it is pretty much self-explanatory. You want to have a distinct voice in your writing. No matter what the topic is, you are telling a story. Write it like you speak it. Be sure that your word choice reflects your own semantic preferences. Make it entertaining to the reader. A writer’s work can sound humorous, serious, or lugubrious without the content being explicitly any one of those things. Do not forget to convey your voice in a way that is readable and grammatically correct. And, while accurately rendered idioms and colloquial witticisms will give your paper that much-sought-after feeling of authentic rusticity, please use them sparingly. Save your comprehensive mastery of dialects and folk-speech for poems, short stories, and novels.

This guest post was written by Maggie Warren. If you’re ready to impress your professor and get more tips on how to write an essay without feeling stuck or confused, visit her website to download her ebook.

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Friends of CB: Sexy Fly By

For the next five days, Hipmunk has a contest where they are giving away free plan tickets to bring you home for Thanksgiving. As of right now there are only 59 entries so chances are high to win! Enter the contest

Adobe just announced the winners to their Imagination Challenge. Check out the awesome works that won $10,000

MTV True Life is looking for people to interview for two different episodes: “I’m Breaking Up with my Best Friend” and “I’m Addicted to Marijuana”. If you have any experience with either case and want to be interviewed, contact them at tlbestfriend@gmail.com or TLmarijuana@gmail.com, respectively.

The Institute of HeartMath has a bunch of free tips and a $13 complete De-Stress Handbook available on their website. Find out facts like how the human body doesn’t discriminate between a big stressful event and a little one and help yourself do better in school. Get a bunch of free tips

Blades Magazine reports that a young couple jumped out a an airplane naked and proceeded to have intercourse while skydiving. See the video (NSFW)

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Five Mobile Apps Every College Student Needs

College is one of those paramount times in an individual’s life. Distinctly designating the time between adolescence and adulthood, there are many things that take place in college (some of which we never wish to visit again) to mold us into the responsible adults we will once become. Of course, while our time in college certainly is all of these grand things, it is also just another four years of school, another introduction to new people, and another new living situation. No doubt, however, college is most definitely a time of major transition and major self evaluation.

For most, this is the first time that students must manage their studies completely on their own, supervise their own finances, and monitor their own well-being without their parents’ watchful eye. These new challenges can be very difficult to adjust to for a new student. Thankfully, with today’s tech savvy society, there are numerous applications, tools, and gadgets to help us master every aspect of our lives. These five mobile applications can help college students better handle some of the new challenges and responsibilities they will encounter in the academic and adult world.

Dropbox

This mobile app is perfect for the busy college student. Dropbox allows you to safely store up to 2 gigs of all of your important files, documents, and data from your computer right within the application. There is nothing more aggravating or devastating than losing your hard work because of computer error. Dropbox is essentially just an external hard drive that operates in the cloud. So, you can upload any file or document you might need and then access it from any device anywhere that has internet. College students can use this app to take homework, papers, or assignments with them on the go.

Evernote

This mobile application allows you to take detailed notes and save them right in the palm of your hand. With the slogan “remember everything,” Evernote does just that. You can snap photos and save them in your Evernote account, jot down notes in the application, store contacts, keep your calendar here, and much more. Evernote is particularly useful for students because it is quick and easy to use. If you are sitting on the bus and you come up with the perfect thesis for that term paper or finally solve that math problem, Evernote is the perfect device to save that thought in.

Share Your Board

This award-winning application allows students to take a clear picture of a whiteboard, will adjust the image so that it is perfectly clear and legible, and then lets you share that photo with your friends and classmates. This is a wonderful way for college students to collaborate on their work and share notes from classes that might have been missed. While this app is beautifully simple, it is nonetheless extraordinarily useful.

CourseSmart

CourseSmart is a wonderful mobile app that allows students to find and store text books on their mobile devices. College textbooks can be labor some to lug around and are endlessly expensive. CourseSmart can help you save on some of the costs of purchasing a textbook for a semester long class. Furthermore, storing the book on your phone or iPad makes carrying your textbooks around much simpler. CourseSmart does not offer all textbooks needed by students, but the library is widening every day. CourseSmart also offers several different study tools and programs to help students make the most of their study time.

Mint

Finances are always a concern for young students. With impending college debt, no regular income, constant food expenses, and an inevitable alcohol budget that gets stretched each week, most college students can use any assistance they can get with their money management. Mint is one of the best personal finance apps on the market. With Mint, keep track of all of your financial accounts together in one place, categorize your transactions, create a budget, and make saving goals that it will help you stick to.

This guest post is contributed by Lauren Bailey. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: blauren99@gmail.com.

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Is Online Learning an Effective Way of getting Educated?

Online learning without a doubt has come across as one of the most feasible alternative to traditional schooling. Now, the question that pings in everybody’s mind include is online learning an effective way of getting educated? With the focus of learning shifting from traditional schooling to distance learning, the questions certainly hold significance. Let me assure that this particular form of learning carries an equal weight to the traditional learning mode provided you meet certain conditions.

  • Prior to, discussing the advantages of distance learning, which witnessed a focus shift by going online, let me focus on the certain preconditions that offer it an acceptance in the present age –
  • The accreditation of the institute is very important, as it makes certifies your degree with recognition.

The accreditation of the course is also important alongside the institute.

A degree obtained online from a non-accredited institute holds no value and does not help in increasing your marketability. Therefore, if you would like to walk the road of effective education via online, make sure that your institute is globally accepted and recognized in the corporate world.

Coming back to the benefits, the turn of events in recent times focusing upon distance learning has led to such worldwide acceptance of the learning mode. Learning via distance that until sometime back relied upon postal services suddenly went online riding high on the successful inventions of information and communication technology. The online venture of education conveniently replaced the traditional classroom setting in the online virtual world. Classes are now held over the internet coupled with various tech tools that simplifies information exchange and communication.

Now, while answering the question what made this learning effective, my mind only tends to focus upon the blend of accessibility, convenience, and flexibility. It is considered to have created magic in favor of distance learning, which now has conveniently moved onto becoming net-based learning. Here is a look at some of the advantages that works in making it a viable alternative to traditional learning –

  • It delivers self-paced learning with the module designed in one’s own convenience
  • Balancing work or other family related commitments is easier in this learning mode
  • It enhances better learning experience ensuring rich communication and interactivity in class
  • The learning schedule is flexible that ensures an attendance to the class anytime anywhere

Distance learning in the present age of net-based learning is known to enhance productivity and motivation among students, as it blends visualization in the learning experience. Since, this is the age of professionalism and the demand is on career-oriented individuals, leveraging your skills alongside the existing knowledge always works in favor of the professionals and students on the run. In this line, you can conveniently say that online learning is an effective way of getting educated. Online education for many, if earned from a recognized institute increases the marketability thus building a strong sale bale profile in the corporate world.

For further references onto the subject, you can refer to the Wikipedia page on distance education detailing on the aspects of this flexible learning mode.

AUTHOR BIO – Melissa Spears holds an interest in producing thought-provoking information based content on various educational topics. Here she focuses on distance learning and the effectiveness of online education.

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How To Avoid Colds and the Flu

Photo by Lance McCord

Living arrangements in college can be pretty awesome: sharing dorms or apartments with friends means always having a buddy around for a Lost marathon, power hour, or last minute pizza party. However, living in close quarters with other people also means that your chances of catching a cold or other bug are greatly increased. In order to stay healthy while in college, try following these tips:

1. Get plenty of sleep

Sleep deprivation lowers your immune system, i.e. your body’s natural defenses against illness. Make sure you are getting at least 8 hours of sleep a night, or take naps during the day if you miss a couple hours.

2. Keep hydrated

Drinking lots of water helps keep your nasal passages moist—kind of gross, but it’s important in warding off fevers, which tend to dry you out.

3. Eat a healthy diet

Eating wholesome foods helps increase your metabolism, which also amps up your immune system. Try eating plenty of whole grains, lean protein, and vegetables and fruits for maximum benefit.

4. Stock up on vitamin C and zinc

You may have heard this one before. Both vitamin C and zinc have been shown to increase the body’s immune system, so try to be sure you’re getting your RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance) of both. For vitamin C, this means a couple of servings of vitamin c rich foods a day (such as a glass of orange juice, some strawberries, etc.) and, for zinc, a serving of red meat, legumes, or seeds.

5. Don’t share food/straws if you can help it

You might feel a little mean not letting your wheezing friend take a sip of your Diet Coke, but it is in your best interest. Saliva is one of the most common mediums for virus transmission, so try not to share utensils, cups, or other dishes with your friends, especially during the colder months.

Follow these five tips and you may just avoid those cold and flu bugs this winter. After all, who wants to be sick in bed on a Saturday night?

This guest post was contributed by Kay Ehni of All Treatment.

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