For more information, please contact Diane Kendall at 713-467-8686 or email us: csoft@childsoftpress.com.

How to Write a "Paperless" Paper - Now Online

Learning how to do research has always been a challenge for young knowledge navigators-but it's even harder these days. Searching for viable text and media sources amid the glut of information available on the Internet (as well as in books), taking electronic notes (while avoiding plagiarizing), and keeping everything organized are tasks that take on a Herculean twist in the Information Age.

To combat the possibility of becoming overwhelmed, middle school students need a course and/or a reference on how to write a "paperless" paper. Such help is now available-online. Writing a Paperless Paper-A Student Guide to Electronic Study Skills takes students through a step-by-step process for writing a "paperless" paper. It was written and designed by James Lengel, Boston University College of Communications professor, and author of many online courses including Apple Computer's offering for teachers. Attention is given to learning how to organize and pre-plan a project; harvest, inspect, and analyze sources; take electronic notes; avoid plagiarism; cite electronic sources; and think, write, edit, and publish-on paper or electronically. Short exercises follow each section, and a teacher's guide on how to use this course/reference is also available-all online.

Sample screen shots are included with this press release. You can also review the course for yourself at: www.lengel.net/pp. The password for the site is: csp.

Subscriptions that can be accessed at school or by students at home are sold by site license for $50 a year. Individual subscription rates are available upon request. Contact Children's Software Press for more information on this invaluable resource for middle schoolers and their teachers and librarians.

Children's Software Press (CSP), based in Houston, Texas, was formed in 1992 with a straightforward mission -- to provide parents, teachers and school administrators with timely, succinct and unbiased information on educational software and technology issues for kids aged 2 to 18. For 10 years it published a quarterly and then bi-monthly newsletter in conjunction with The Center for Technology and School Change at Teachers College, Columbia University (for 6 years) and then went independent. In the fall of 2001 it suspended publication of the newsletter in order to spend more time on it's popular Booklet Series started in 1997. Inexpensively priced for workshops, family technology nights at schools and for classroom use, there are 14 titles in this popular series and more on the way. Sample topics include A Student Guide to Citing Electronic Resources (sold 25,000 copies), Writing a Paperless Paper, and I Did It on the Computer: Book Reports. CSP also has a feature article every week on the Power To Learn (www.powertolearn.com) website.