Thursday, 31 March 2016

Have You Seen Lynda?

Have You Seen Lynda?



*As of last November, NIU provides all students, staff, and faculty with this service. You can read DoIT’s introductory write up here.
 
Today’s blog post intends to “introduce” you to Lynda.com, in case you haven’t tried this tool.

Basically, Lynda.com is pretty cool. Here’s how it works.

You log in with your student or employee ID and its corresponding password. You get to Lynda.com either through NIU’s A-Z link or by typing http://go.niu.edu/lynda in your browser’s address bar.

This site contains many video tutorials. Most are mini-courses, taking an hour to several hours to complete, but each course is broken up into minutes-sized segments. You do not need to view an entire course. Each course includes a transcript and exercise files, should you wish to practice a specific task. And Lynda.com keeps track of your viewing history and place.

I suggest that you start by hovering over the library button on the top banner next to the Lynda.com name, and browse the larger categories of Business, Design, Education and Elearning, Photography, Video, Web, etc. Each of these categories breaks down into specific topics and applicable software tutorials. If you click on the library button, you will get an A – Z listing of the larger categories’ subtopics and the number of tutorials available for each.

Within the subtopics, you can select specific applicable software tutorials or a specific author to see all of his/her videos. You also choose a skill level from Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Appropriate for all.

How can Lynda.com help with a thesis or dissertation?

Well, it can’t—not directly. However, most of us are preparing our documents in Word. 
The Thesis Office receives a lot of formatting questions for Word, but we find that students have different versions of Word running through different operating systems on computers that are purchased from all over the world; these often have unusual default settings. Add Word’s styles and hidden formatting into that mix, and sometimes, it’s hard to untangle what is going on in a document.

Also, Lynda.com is available twenty-four hours; while we try to respond to any inquiry quickly, we can’t always help you right when you’d like. 

So we want to direct you to the 59 Word Processing courses containing 2647 video tutorials on Lynda.com.  

Don’t be overwhelmed with those numbers; you can search for specific tutorials on any issue. For instance, I searched: “inserting page breaks in Word 2013,” and though I received two thousand results, I could see quickly that the top five were most applicable. You may want to look through some of the various courses’ tables of contents just to get ideas about how to phrase your searches too.

There is more to Lynda.com; I’ve only begun to explore the site. Our office will provide you with updates as we discover any helpful tips.

Have fun exploring Lynda.com, and feel free to post a reply on this blog post or on Facebook if you have found or find anything helpful there.We'd love to hear from you.

Wednesday, 23 March 2016

Common Mistakes within a Research Paper

Common Mistakes within a Research Paper

Research scholars are dedicated to the pursuit and dissemination of scientific knowledge, but they may not be able to

express their ideas and thoughts effectively. It is understandable that they might make mistakes in their research papers, but prominent journals have strict standards.

 Publishers will reject any submissions containing errors, regardless of the content.

Here are some of the more common mistakes editors often find in unedited research papers:

Overexposure in title pages
Some research scholars placed too much emphasis on the title page, in hopes of attracting readership. They end up including too much unnecessary

information, or information that should come later within the document. Ideally, your title page should only consist of the following information:

(a) Title of research paper
(b) Course information
(c) Author’s name
(d) Date

Inconsistent fonts
Perhaps due to the research scholar’s carelessness, some research papers contain inconsistent use of fonts. This gives the publishers a negative

impression, resulting in rejection of your submission, and the wasting of your time and efforts. Research writers should also pay more attention to the font’s readability, instead of its fancy designs. That being said, most established

journals have their own formatting requirements, including the fonts and sizes they accept in submissions. Professional editors are familiar with the different

standards of various publishers, and will edit your research paper accordingly to your intended publication’s guidelines.

Dull introduction
A research paper’s introduction must be able to capture the readers’ attention and interests. However, some research scholars find it difficult to express

 themselves effectively. Professional editors, on the other hand, understand the readers’ expectations. They will help polish your introduction, making it

crisp and offering just enough information to encourage further reading.

Incomplete referencing
To prevent accusation of plagiarism, a writer must always correctly reference their data and resources. It will also lend credibility to your written content.

Writing the perfect research paper is an overwhelming task, so it is always best to seek professional help. OnLine English is one of the best research

paper editing service providers within the industry, having served satisfied clients worldwide for over twenty years. With our affordable rates and

experienced experts, we guarantee you the best quality research paper editing services. Hire us today!

Tuesday, 22 March 2016

Easy Steps within the Document Editing Process

Easy Steps within the Document Editing Process

Readers and publishers appreciate well-written and properly-framed articles. However, some researchers neglect to have their document edited professionally, focusing solely on meeting the deadline. In doing so, you risk having your submission rejected. To ensure that your document’s quality and adherence to the publisher’s standards, you must hire a professional editing service provider to review your document before submission.

Editing is more than just rereading your written work. It is a challenging task best left for the experts. Listed below are the general steps involved within a document editing process.

Editing content

First, the professional editor reviews the content. The editor determines if the information within your content is well supported and structurally organized. The author’s message must be clear and easy to understand, and the editor will ensure it is conveyed in a reader-friendly manner. The professional editor assigned to your document is also an expert in your content’s subject, and will offer advice on improving your presentation.

Correct language

After reviewing the content, the professional editor will then check your document’s language. The editor will carefully scrutinize every word and sentence, rectifying every grammatical error upon detection. Then the document will be reread, ensuring that no mistakes are overlooked. This step is especially helpful for authors who speak English as a second language, as the professional editor will help ensure that the author’s message is presented properly.

Proofreading

The final step of a professional document editing process is the proofreading. The editor will inspect the changes and revisions made previously, and check to ensure nothing was overlooked. The document’s format and typographical aspects are also reviewed, ensuring that the submission fulfils the intended publisher’s strict requirements. The content is given one last reading, and will be returned to the author once the editor makes sure everything meets the quality standards.


It is crucial that you hire an editing company which follows the above steps. At OnLine English, we employ expert editors who are native English speakers, and who excel in their chosen subject field. Having served satisfied clients worldwide for more than twenty years, we guarantee you the best quality services. Hire us today for all your document editing needs!

Monday, 21 March 2016

MBA Dissertation Elucidation

MBA Dissertation Elucidation

MBA dissertations ought to also contain an appendix and resources section in which the student sites his or her references, charts, photographs and other significant in sequence that he or she used.

An MBA dissertation is dissimilar than a dissertation that a student would write as part of a PhD. program. A graduate program dissertation, such as an MBA dissertation, is written so that a student can graduate from graduate school. On the other hand, when people normally submit to dissertations, they are referring to the dissertations that PhD. students inscribe.

Dissertations that PhD. students write are extremely in detail and long formal educational documents that a student writes after a long phase of research, which is regularly months or years. Dissertations often launch a student's career and give out as serious documents in a person's career. Therefore, MBA dissertations are often minor works than dissertations that a student will write for a PhD. program.

Wednesday, 16 March 2016

Open Access: A Philosophy and a Publishing Format

Open Access: A Philosophy and a Publishing Format

This year Open Access week will be celebrated October 19 through October 25, 2015.


For those of you who are unfamiliar with the above graphic, it is the official Open Access logo, originally designed by the Public Library of Science.

Even though there are no scheduled events this year about Open Access on the NIU campuses, I believe that it is important to compose a brief entry about the philosophy behind Open Access.  You may not believe this issue is applicable to you, your field of study, or your research topic; however, I assure you that nothing could be further from the truth. Remember, after you have successfully defended your thesis or dissertation, the next step is to submit your written work to our office via ProQuest. During this submission process, you will have to choose a publication option for your academic work: traditional or Open Access. Many opt for traditional publication if for no other reason than the fact that it costs you nothing, whereas opting for Open Access publishing does involve a $90 fee. 

Open Access simply means unrestrained access to research -- peer-reviewed and non peer-reviewed research articles, conference papers, theses, book chapters, and dissertations. Much of this research is not available in its entirety to the public. You may come across an article abstract or a preview of a scholarly work thanks to an Internet search, but this is not unrestrained access to the entirety of that scholarly work.

A large number of researchers and scholars receive funding -- some of it via government grants -- to conduct research in their field. Once these academics have collected their data, they publish their findings in scholarly journals. The problem is that access to these scholarly journals may be guaranteed exclusively through individual subscriptions to the journal or through pay subscription services online. In other words, this scholarly research, some of which has been funded by government grants -- i.e. your tax dollars -- is locked behind a paywall. People who subscribe to the Open Access philosophy take issue with this and rightly so.  

These online subscription services might not be an issue for students and academics if they happen to be affiliated with a college or university that has allocated funds for the school library to pay for these subscription services. After all, what lay person is going to devote their time to reading some graduate student's monograph? Then again, people who believe in Open Access make the rather compelling argument that many schools -- across the United States and in under-developed countries -- might not have the funds to pay for library subscription services. Another scenario might be that a college or university has limited funds that allows it to subscribe to some scholarly journals or some subscription databases, but not all of them. In these two examples, this means that future generations of academics will have a hole in their education due to the fact that they will not have access to certain texts. The common retort to this argument is that students and researchers can request materials through interlibrary loan. The problem with this is that an article requested by interlibrary loan might have to be photocopied and sent by post, or it might be scanned and sent via email. Then again, the request might not even be fulfilled. If the literature can be shared, however, time might be an issue for the student or researcher who made the request. Open Access can ensure reliable quick access to research. 

The one scenario in support of Open Access that I do happen to find rather compelling is this: outbreaks of deadly viruses.  When a community of scientists and academics can share their work through Open Access, this guarantees the ability to stay on top of recent findings in the medical field. Thanks to Open Access, a doctor in Africa will be able to learn about an alternative form of treatment discovered in Europe that may prove to be more efficient treating patients suffering from some exotic virus in his part of the globe. This doctor can then build on the European research that he was able to access quickly and easily. 

Elizabeth Marincola discusses how science might be advanced with Open Access publishing in her TED MED Talk:





Then again, who is to say that a lay person is not interested in reading the most recent research having to do with green energy? Or Astronomy? Or Physics? If you are earning your PhD in education, there may be legions of grade school and high school educators across the globe who are curious about successful teaching strategies that they might implement in their own classrooms. They might even wish to keep up to date with recent research related to their subject fields. If the research has been done, many people are asking the question: why can it not be made available to everyone, free of charge, via Open Access? 

There is a great deal more that I could write about with regards to Open Access. For instance, there are two categories of Open Access: gratis and libre. There is "green" access and "gold" access when it comes to making your work available through Open Access publishing. There is even some controversy amongst Open Access devotees when it comes to Creative Commons copyright, which is  associated with libre Open Access. There is also the history of Open Access, tracing its founding principles back to the Budapest Open Access Initiative in 2002.

For now, I simply wanted to introduce you to the philosophy behind Open Access with the intention of inspiring you to consider whether or not you should make your own thesis or dissertation available via Open Access. You may have noticed that a number of the scenarios I have described here relate to the sciences. This is not to suggest that Open Access does not apply to the humanities as well.

In the meantime, if you have questions about the Open Access philosophy or Open Access publication options, keep an eye out for future blog entries or feel free to contact our office  directly (thesis@niu.edu). You can read up on the topic a bit more by checking out PLOS.org and SPARC. I've also taken the liberty of posting a link to a fun video from PhD Comics that is a fairly detailed explanation of Open Access. As always, please feel free to share your thoughts about Open Access in a comment, or post about it on our Facebook group page.

Tuesday, 15 March 2016

MBA Dissertation

MBA Dissertation

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