Software – Page 2

MLA Format: MLA Writing Resources

The following researched links are considered to be among the very best that the Web has to offer in the various specialty areas covered.

In addition to MLA-related links I have also included a number of general writing resources related to various forms of academic writing such as papers and essays.

MLA Information and Resources
The following are links to other resources on the Web that will be useful to anyone working on papers that require MLA documentation style guidelines:

Modern Language Association of America – The official home page of the organization responsible for the MLA documentation style, with links to the MLA Handbook and Manual.

OWL (Online OWL Writing Lab) – Purdue University’s extensive OWL Web site about writing has a section dedicated to MLA style formatting.

Guide for Writing Research Papers based on MLA Documentation – Has been developed by Capital Community College of Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.A.

Writing A Bibliography: MLA Style – Honolulu Community College in Hawaii, U.S.A. has put together a concise and very useful online guide to using MLA style.

MLA Style Guide – This quick reference MLA style site contains good examples, and is maintained by the library at the University of Southern Mississippi, U.S.A.

MLA Software

RFW’s Paper Wizard for MLA and APA is powerful software that automatically formats your MLA and/or APA papers for you. Paper Wizard integrates with Microsoft Word and becomes a part of it. It even has a built-in grammar-speller checker! If your paper is due soon, RFW Paper Wizard will save the day.

Writing Assistance – College Admission Documents

Instant Recommendation Letter Kit is a one-stop information source for writing all types of letters of recommendation for both employment and college admission purposes. In addition to recommendation letter sample templates, the Kit also contains a chapter on how to write college admission essays, including a number of essay templates. The Kit also contains a special “Buyers Guide” that reviews the top sites on the Net that offer online writing services related to college admission essays and letters of recommendation. A great source for college admission help.

Instant College Admission Essay Kit is a low-cost solution to the high cost of developing application essays and personal statements for admission to college and university programs: undergraduate, graduate, MBA, law, and medicine. This unique essay writing toolkit is packed full of advice, tips, pointers, and “hands-on” tools designed to fast-track the essay development and writing process. It includes 49 full-length real-life essay templates (MS-Word) that can be downloaded into your word processing program. If you’re looking for a cost-effective alternative or supplement to the expensive essay preparation services, this Kit is definitely worth checking out.

Emergency Help! – Research Papers and Exams

Research Assistance maintains an inventory of more than 25,000 research reports covering thousands of subjects. Most are available for immediate download. The service claims to be the best single research source in America. If your subject isn’t covered in their archives, they will do custom research and writing for you. A valuable research resource.

Online Research Tools

To help people conduct detailed and reliable research for their projects and papers, a number of specialized research tools/sites have been developed. Links to some of these online research resources are listed below:

Wikipedia.org – Wikipedia is arguably the quickest way to find high quality info on just about anything. It is maintained by volunteers and anyone can contribute, so be sure to cross-check any important facts with another source, just to be sure.

iTools! Internet Tools – Offers a suite of online search tools in support of both general and language-related research.

Library Resources on the Net – Maintained by Jack Lynch of Rutgers University, this is a good source for anyone conducting literary research.

Book Summary Sample

As I stated previously, quality book summaries are valuable tools if you are a business person or student trying to absorb a lot of material in these days of information overload.

I have to admit that I was truly impressed when I discovered getAbstract book summaries. These are the most well-organized, well-written, well-presented book summaries that I have ever seen. Each getAbstract book summary is five pages long, and they all follow a standardized format which includes a cover page with “Take-Away Points” and a four category rating scale; Overall, Applicability, Innovation, and Style.

Below is a typical example of a getAbstract web page. Lots of choices, and help to quickly find what you’re looking for!

Beware of Automatic Letter Generators

If you’ve spent any time online looking for letter writing help you have no doubt come across a number of software programs that reputedly “automatically generate” various types of letters.

There are two (2) typical ways in which these software letter generators work:

1. Basic Letter Generators
The most basic type of letter generator presents you with a list of letters that you can choose from. Once you choose the item that comes closest to your need, you are then presented with a short unformatted “bare-bones” generic letter template with a bunch of blank fields that you must fill in such as: [name], [date], [company], etc. After you’ve filled in the blanks you’re supposed to cut and paste that resulting text into your word processing program as your final letter.

2. Phrase-Based Letter Generators
The second letter generator model is a bit more sophisticated but still has some problems. These software programs present you with a series of “generic phrases” for each type of letter. You then select and paste the most appropriate phrase choices into your unformatted draft letter template. What you typically end up with is a bunch of unrelated generic phrases loosely strung together. The result is an unformatted rough draft that will definitely require a serious editing job before you can use it.

All I can say about these products is BUYER BEWARE! Although it might have seemed like a good idea at the time, these “software letter generators” are only slightly better than the typical fill-in-the-bank templates.

Here are the problems with the typical automatic letter-generator software:

For each letter, you get to choose from a half-dozen or so, completely out of context, independent/unconnected pre-written, one-liner phrases that you have to plug into your letter as separate sentences.
The final software-generated-letter is a disjointed collection of weakly-linked sentences and/or paragraphs that actually needs a professional editing job just to make it presentable before sending it out.
You do not get “in-context” mental stimulation and visual cues to help you visualize the final finished product, as you do with a real-life template.
The final letters come entirely unformatted so that you then have to completely set-up and format the letter from scratch before it can be sent.

In addtion to the above points, software letter generators provide little or no guidance in the way of tips, pointers and information on the best ways to approach writing the different types of letters. (Trust me, not all letters are equal! There are some specific things you need to know about writing many of the more complex letters).

How do I know this? I’ve done my research and purchased and tested the most highly advertised software letter generators on the market. In fact, actually using these products and seeing the resulting “letters” was a major incentive for me to continue developing the downloadable fully-formatted “real-life templates” that go into all of my writing kits.

As I said, software letter generators might seem like a good idea in theory, but in my opinion they just don’t do the job of a real-life template.

Bottom Line: Use software letter generators at your own risk.

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