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  • Tips for Writing the Perfect Paper

    Tips for Writing the Perfect Paper

    The perfect paper is a true work of art. It’s perfectly organized and has a clear, structured flow from thesis to conclusion. It has a flawless bibliography and citations, with no spelling or grammar mistakes in sight. It has a title that’s both concise and clever; maybe it even has headings. But that perfect paper can be hard to come by—because it takes a whole lot of work to nail down.

    If you’re in the pursuit of the perfect paper, here are some tips to help you out.

    Use your own words. You may feel the urge to pretty up your sentences with lots of figures of speech and adjectives you dug out of the thesaurus. Don’t. You’d be surprised at how effectively you can get the point across if you just use your own words. Of course, you should be professional and use academic language, but going on in circles just because you want to sound competent will actually make you seem anything but. An embellished paper is not necessarily well written; simpler is better.

    Be specific. Provide historical examples, data sets and any information that you feel will best back up your claims. Specificity provides clarity on your subject, as well as credibility that you actually understand the information you are presenting. A good paper can then connect the facts you present to broader themes in the discipline. Vague statements that don’t have evidence to support them will unfortunately fall flat.

    Cite well. This is specific to research papers: keep a detailed record of what information you got from what source. Make sure you are keeping up with footnotes/endnotes or in-text citations (depending on the required format), and that they fall in line with what is written in your bibliography. This becomes especially crucial once you enter university, because plagiarism is considered a serious academic offence (even if it’s accidental). Keep track of your information and you’ll be in the clear.

    Proofread—repeatedly. No matter how good a writer you are, you should never hand in your first draft as a final copy! Look over your paper not only for spelling and grammar mistakes, but in order to eliminate redundant words, rephrase awkward sentences and overall make your paper flow as seamlessly as possible. You should do this a couple of times until you’re sure what you’ve produced is your best work. Still in doubt? Have a classmate look it over and see if there’s anything you missed.

    Take these tips to heart, put pen to paper and get writing!

  • How to Handle a Fight at Home

    How to Handle a Fight at Home

    Life as a student can be stressful enough—the last thing you need is trouble at home. Unfortunately, family fights are normal every once in a while. It’s undeniably difficult to deal with a strained situation in your home life, but remember that a loud argument is often indicative of a deeper, underlying issue between members of your family. Instead of trying to avoid conflict, it’s best to work out your issues honestly and openly.

    Sometimes a fight at home can be between you and a parent, a sibling, or another relative—or sometimes it can have nothing to do with you altogether. Both situations are tough to deal with. Regardless of the situation, it’s best to stop a fight before it goes too far, and everyone ends up hurt. Consider my advice with an open mind, because it might not apply to all circumstances, but some of these tips may be worth considering the next time you find yourself in the middle of an argument. Here’s some help for handling a fight at home.

    Stay calm. Personally, whenever I am in an argument with my family, I get very emotional, and find it difficult to keep my voice down. From this, I’ve learned the importance of staying calm, even when you’re extremely upset. I cannot stress this enough: if you stay calm, you’ll be able to handle a tough situation easier. Don’t let stress and anger take over.

    Talk it out. Voice your concerns, and be honest. If you’re angry with your mother for not respecting your privacy, or with your brother for always leaving his dirty clothes in your room, tell them how you feel. Be respectful when you give your opinion, though, and make sure everyone has a chance to tell his or her side of the story. But if you let a fight fizzle out without confronting it at the source, you might be in for a repeat.

    Don’t blame yourself. If a fight doesn’t involve you, the best course of action may be to stay out of it altogether. But make sure you understand that if your family is arguing, it’s probably not because of something you did. The members of your family are people too, and it’s normal for them to get frustrated sometimes. Make sure you understand the different reasons a fight can happen—you don’t always have to be responsible.

    Compromise. Not everyone’s going to get what they want from a fight. Sometimes, someone has to back down in order to resolve the conflict (even if that someone is you). Make sure, though, that giving in or getting your way doesn’t become a permanent pattern. Compromise when you have to – and sometimes you’re going to want to.

    Best wishes to all of your families. Stay close.

  • What Does it Mean to Grow Out of Something?

    What Does it Mean to Grow Out of Something?

    As you grow up you may find that things that were previously interesting are no longer interesting to you, or that things that were previously uninteresting are now interesting. When you are at school, at home, in extracurricular activities or hanging out with your friends, there will be things that you may prefer to do at certain times and not at other times. This is normal.

    For example, at school you may find that your favourite subject is math when you are in grade 3 and then you may find that you prefer English when you are in grade 6. At home you may prefer to read books in grade 3, but then in grade 6 you may prefer to watch television. In extracurricular activities, perhaps you enjoyed playing the flute when you were in grade 3 but now you prefer playing the guitar in grade 6. In volunteer activities, you might have enjoyed working at your school’s bake sale and now you prefer volunteering for the Meals on Wheels charity. At your sporting activities you may have found basketball to be the best sport to showcase your athletic skills, but now you prefer playing soccer because you like to be outside. Our friends change, too! You may have had a certain group of friends when you were in grade 3 and then you changed groups or lost or gained a few friends over the three year period.

    Sometimes changes can be the result of learning new information that disallows going back to the former way of seeing things. Change can be scary because we are adapting to new circumstances and experiencing new and different things. This can be good if we learn to have a positive perspective on the change and we decide that we are going to approach the change with a can-do attitude. Sometimes there are so many new things that we are doing that we may find ourselves starting to feel negative because we are feeling that the challenge is too difficult. In these situations, it is best to find things that remind us of what we have done in the past in order to find a balance between the new and old.

    Growing up and growing out of things is normal – we all go through it.  Remember that the past is always there and you are building your future. Have fun with it!

  • Organization for Dummies

    Organization for Dummies

    We all lose things from time to time. It’s understandable, and oftentimes it’s forgivable. Yet it’s when disorganization starts to become a pattern that it can actually start interfering with your life.

    Consider making some organizational improvements to your lifestyle. It takes work, but you’ll be thanking yourself the next time you find yourself in a jam (and the next time you can’t find anything else). Here are some tips to help you stay organized.

    De-clutter. Having to weed your way through clothes and piled-up dishes every time you want to enter your bedroom gets old pretty fast. To maintain a tidy living or work space, clear off surfaces, recycle/throw out what you don’t need anymore, and use cupboards or drawers to put away things that don’t belong. The best way to keep your space organized is to make de-cluttering a habit: take half an hour out of your week to clear up the accumulated mess, and you’ll notice a difference in no time.

    Label. Make sure you know where everything belongs by labeling file folders, drawers, and cabinets. That way, instead of rummaging through a massive pile of miscellaneous stuff, you’ll know where to look for something the next time it gets lost. This is also a good strategy for students who want to stay academically organized (for example, write the date and course code on every note you take, so you can file it away in the correct—and maybe colour-coded—folder at the end of the day).

    Trace your steps. Cell phones, bobby pins, house keys… If there are certain things you put down and just seem to never be able to find again, make it a point to put them in the same place each time. You can keep a list of “drop zones” (typical spots where you tend to leave things) so you know where to look the next time you absentmindedly put something down.

    Keep a “junk” drawer. This may seem counterintuitive, but when you’re in a rush, what can you do? There’s nothing wrong with tucking things away momentarily, to be revisited later—as long as you have one distinct place where you know you can find them again. The flip side to that, though, is that you have to clean out that junk drawer every once in a while. Once you get home and you have some time, make sure everything’s back in its proper place.

    Plan ahead. Before you go to bed, be proactive or “pre-organized”: try to get a jump-start on your morning routine. If you know you’re going to be up early the next morning, for example, you can prepare a lunch, pack your bag in advance, and set out the important things you’ll need (like your bus pass) in plain view, ready for you to grab on your way out the door. A little planning can save you a lot of scrambling!

  • The Importance of Being Early: Punctuality and You

    The Importance of Being Early: Punctuality and You

    Coming from a person who is predictably early, lateness can be incredibly unprofessional. I’m not just talking job interviews—this applies to meeting friends for coffee, extra-curricular meetings, and pretty much anything you sign up for. If you make a habit of being on time, it shows that you respect the commitments you’re making. In turn, people are going to respect you.

    Lateness can also have repercussions, especially in a professional environment. Showing up late to meetings or handing in projects days past the deadline sends the message that you don’t care about your job. When it comes time for a promotion or bonus, that reputation isn’t going to play well with your boss. Moreover, there are some things you just can’t hand in late—projects that meet urgent deadlines, or collaborative projects in which co-workers depend on one another to do their jobs. If you can’t fulfill those kinds of expectations, expect reprimand. Unfortunately, in fact, you might lose that job altogether.

    That’s why it’s so important to be early. The benefits of punctuality (developing a good reputation and avoiding some serious repercussions) far outweigh the drawbacks (getting up a little earlier in the morning). That being said, some people have trouble with punctuality, so it’s important to develop strategies that can help you be on time. If you get an early start on those habits—ha!—it will save you a lot of trouble in the long run.

    If you need help being on time, here are some general tips.

    1)      Do the math. Figure out how long it takes you to get ready in the morning, how long your bus ride is, etc. As a general rule, you should add 10-15 minutes of extra time for external variables, like traffic. According to that formula, set your alarm.

    2)      Have a game plan. If you can take 5 minutes the night before to lay out exactly where you have to be (and when), your routine will run more smoothly in the morning. You can also “cheat” by doing some things the night before, like laying out your outfit or packing your lunch.

    3)      Call ahead. If something does happen to hold you up, make sure you give as much notice as possible. That way, the person you’re meeting—a friend, a coworker, an employer—can be prepared for a 10- or 20-minute delay, and adjust their schedule accordingly.

    4)      Trick yourself (for a good cause). The classic strategy is setting your watch 10 minutes early: even if you plan your day perfectly and everything goes right, you’ll have some wiggle room. Another way to do this is overestimate how long it’s going to take you to do things. It’s better to have extra time than no time at all.

  • University Mythbusters

    University Mythbusters

    We get the majority of our information about universities from family and friends, the media, and (if you’re in upper years in high school) even the universities themselves. These sources can provide a lot of useful information, but take them with a grain of salt: you won’t know what it’s like until you actually get there.

    If you’re curious about what university might actually be like, take the following information into account. Here are some common university myths, debunked by an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto.

    University is a non-stop party.

    We’ve all seen college movies with ridiculous frat parties, campus-wide parades, and non-stop (and underage) drinking. Don’t be fooled by that image (or the image many schools try to solidify during orientation week). It’s important to have fun, but you shouldn’t do so at the expense of your education. Plus, chances are, by mid-semester you’re going to be faced with too steep a workload to be going out every night.

    If you did well in high school, you’ll do well in university.

    For most students, university classes are much more difficult than their high school counterparts. The expectations are higher, the assignments are more difficult, and sometimes even the marking can throw you off. That being said, high school students that do become successful university students likely adjust well because of the skills they picked up along the way—time management, independence, resourcefulness, etc. Focus on developing those skills before you get here.

    It’s impossible (or at least mind-blowingly difficult) to do well.

    It’s true that expectations in university are high, and to be fair, some programs are more difficult or demanding than others. However, if you develop a solid routine (frequent study sessions, a good sleep schedule, planning in advance for due dates), and pay attention to what’s asked of you, your grades are bound to go up. It may be more difficult to handle than what you’re used to, but work hard at developing good habits and you’ll be set for the whole year.

    You have to have a concrete plan for your future.

    It’s good to keep some long-term goals in mind, but you shouldn’t go into your first year of university with a rigid conception of what life is going to be like after you graduate. A lot of students end up changing their majors or pursuing other studies after they finish their degrees. This isn’t a bad thing at all: university is a place for you to discover your strengths and weaknesses, as well as what you’re really passionate about. Don’t be discouraged if it takes you a little bit longer to come to those conclusions.

    Remember that regardless of what you hear, university is what you make it. Don’t feel the need to fit the image of the stereotypical student (whatever that may look like to you). Come to university with an open mind, and be prepared to work hard: you’ll find your place in no time.

  • Self-Advocacy for Students with Learning Disabilities

    Self-Advocacy for Students with Learning Disabilities

    There may be times when you’ll need extra assistance or special adaptations in high school, college, or at a job. When you were young, your parents or care-giver likely worked with teachers and other school personnel to develop a plan for your success. However, as an adult you will have learn to be your own advocate. It is important, therefore, to learn self-advocacy early on. Let’s get started!

    The following are steps you can take to help get ready for the transition into adulthood:

    1) Get to know your LD.
    Learn about your diagnosis. Ask yourself: How does my LD impact my learning? Are there specific things my teacher or parents have done that work best for me (did visual cues or having a note taker or even taping classes help with my learning)? Understanding your own LD and what accommodations have worked for you in the past will help you in college and in the workplace and will ultimately help you be successful.

    2) Think about your (big and small) goals for the future.
    What do you want to accomplish in your life? Do you want to go to college or are you planning to go directly to work? Do you know what career you would like to pursue? Write down your goals, and make sure to break it down into the smaller steps that will help you reach your bigger goals.

    3) If you are having problems, meet with your teachers.
    Becoming an advocate for yourself means you will need take initiative to solve problems. If you find yourself having problems keeping up or your grades are slipping, ask your teacher to meet with you after class to discuss your concerns and help you find solutions.

    4) Get to know your strengths and weaknesses.
    Understanding your strengths will help you work on your goals and may even help in determining your career choice. The point of understanding your weaknesses is not to highlight all of your faults (and we all have them), but is instead meant to understand which areas of your life need more attention or where you may need more assistance.

  • Residence & Campus Accessibility

    RESIDENCE ACCESSIBILITY
    Most residence buildings offer accommodations to students with disabilities or other special needs. During the residence application process, there is often a Special Needs Form that students can complete and submit with their residence application. Residence accommodations may include:

    • Wheelchair accessible room and bathroom
    • Visual fire alarms
    • Carpet-free rooms
    • Extra-long beds

    Universities and colleges will generally do their best to accommodate for the needs of students with disabilities or other special needs. However, it is important to note that residences are high-density living environments, and it can be difficult to accommodate for all special needs, particularly for students with environmental health concerns.

    For specific information about accommodations in residence, students should contact the housing department at their college or university.

    CAMPUS ACCESSIBILITY
    Campus buildings are required to have accessible entrances, washrooms, and parking available. Some campuses may provide detailed information about accessibility online, whereas other schools may not have a map showing all accessible features. For specific information regarding campus accessibility, students should contact the Office for Students with Disabilities.

    TRANSIT
    Many schools provide students with a transit pass through fees included in tuition. Most cities offer accessible buses on their regular routes, or they have options for riders that have other accessibility needs.

  • School vs. Life

    School vs. Life

    When you  make the move to junior high and high school, everyone seems to think that there is no way to balance both having a social life and excelling in you academics. However, there is always a way – as long as there is a will!

    The way I see it, you need to earn your breaks, vacations and time off; That is what used to drive me to finish up my last essays and my final projects. I would look at the calendar and mutter to myself, “It’s almost March Break – I got to work hard now so that I can fully enjoy my time off school”. Then I would put all of my effort into my work until the very last class and forget about (almost) everything! Essentially, you want to be able to relax during your breaks and long weekends, so you just have to think of this as a “crunch time”.  Even now, in university, I do this to myself – I work and study hard and once I finish the exam, I shop! Sounds odd to some people, but I call it a “Celebratory Spree Day”, the day when I get to relax after pushing myself to study so hard for my exam period.

    One can also practice time management by planning when you will study and setting aside a few hours for fun with friends, too. For example, give yourself some hours to hang out with your friends before heading home to finish assignments and study.  It’s possible to have great academic standing and a social life, you just need to have the determination and the planning.

    Always remember to enjoy life!

  • Reasons to Use Kids Help Phone

    Reasons to Use Kids Help Phone

    Kids Help Phone is a free, anonymous resource that is there for you 24/7. Its purpose is to give young people someone to talk to when they feel they have no one who will listen to them. It is important to know that there are people who care and want to help you with any problems you may have. Kids Help Phone has many uses – here are just a few.

    1) You need an objective opinion or want to ask questions anonymously.
    If you need to talk with someone who will listen to what you’re going through, and you don’t trust or want to speak to friends or family, then the Kids Help Phone is a great resource for you. Sometimes you don’t want the people closest to you to know what it is that you are feeling or thinking about. It may be because of a fear of losing their respect or simply of changing the image that they have of you. Whatever your reason, speaking with someone who is trained and knowledgeable on how to handle the information you will share with them is often a good option. When you call the Kids Help Phone you can rest assured that the information will remain confidential, unless it involves information that must be reported to the police (such as reporting a threat to your own or someone else’s life).

    2) You are undergoing a traumatic period in your life and would like support.
    Sometimes we suffer because of life’s circumstances, and in this case it is really important to talk with people about what you are going through. You may not want to talk with friends or family because you feel they may not understand, but with Kids Help Phone you can talk to a person who has been trained in dealing with emotional crises. They will be able to talk to you about relationships, sexuality, drugs and alcohol, eating disorders or anything else that you feel is affecting you.

    3) You want to speak with someone who will listen to you.
    Often in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, there is so much going on that we can feel ignored or that we don’t matter. It can be very hard to find someone who will just listen to what it is that you are going through. The time rarely comes up where you feel it is okay to pour out your soul, and because of this you can be left with some important issues bubbling just under the surface. It is important to “vent” and to talk about your life and what sorts of challenges you are facing.

    4) You need to report an incident.
    If you don’t feel comfortable speaking directly to the police or don’t know what to do after an incident, the people at Kids Help Phone will listen and help you to deal with the situation. This can range from bullying, an incident of physical or sexual abuse or a crime like theft.

    5) You are in a crisis and need to talk to someone as soon as possible.
    If you are feeling that you are in a crisis and are having thoughts of suicide, a counsellor at the Kids Help Phone will be a great person for you to speak with. They can help to “talk out” your problem and ensure that you get the assistance you require. Remember that you are never alone! Suicide is not the answer. Reach out to someone at Kids Help Phone and they will be there for you when you feel no one else is.