(written by rising STAR, Meryssa)

Hey Readers! Its Meryssa again!

These past few weeks have been crazy! At my school we just finished finals and next thing I know I have all this new stuff to do. It got me thinking about all the work that we are going to be expected to do in college. I started thinking what kind of study habits and writing skills I can be building now to help when I get to college.

Well in the next few weeks, those of you who are juniors like me are probably gearing up to write your “junior research paper”. Thankfully, I think I am a little less stressed then some of the other students in my school and that is because I have gotten to choose my own topic. So here are some tips that can help us write our “Junior Research Paper” AND help us prepare for writing college papers. First, don’t pick a limiting subject. For example if you are doing a report on cars, don’t just pick one make of car, instead pick a bunch of cars that are made by the same company. This will give you more material to write a ten page paper. Next, use more than one type of source when doing your research so you can get different types of information. For example, use a few different web sites, Google is a lifesaver when it comes to looking up web sites for your topic (NOTE: Don’t use Wikipedia because most teachers will not allow this as a valuable source because anyone can put anything on that web site). After searching for web sites, look for books, magazines or journals on your topic which librarians will gladly help you find. My teacher even suggested using songs as a source if we could find one that was about our topic. Basically, use multiple resources and get creative with them - just make sure you get them approved by your teacher because not all teachers are going to let you use the same sources. Lastly, DON’T PROCRASTINATE!  Set aside a little bit of time each day to do something related to your paper. Whether you are at the library, online looking for information, or interviewing people as a source, just do a little something on your project every day – it makes the project that much more manageable.

Also NHHEAF is hosting Destination College, a college convention just for high school juniors.  It is going to be lots of fun at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, NH from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Besides sessions on topics related to college, there is a College Fair with admissions representatives from NH’s colleges and universities.  So this is a great way for you to find out what colleges are out there that offer what you want to major in. Register today at www.destinationcollege.org. 

Hope to see you there,

Meryssa