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Writing Reports, from Top to Bottom

School reports

Writing Reports, from Top to Bottom Don't let school reports get your child down. With our great tips your kids will be well on the way to acing them.

Choosing a topic

Try to pick something fun. Encourage your child to choose a topic that genuinely interests her. There's nothing worse than slaving away on a subject that makes you yawn.

Keep it manageable. If your child is all set to research The Expansion of the American West or Ancient Egypt, help him narrow his scope to something more targeted, like The Gold Rush or Mummies. At the same time, a topic that's too narrow or obscure will drive him crazy searching for information where none exists.

When your child begins to research a topic, you can help brainstorm questions to guide the search for information. What subtopics and words might not already be in the title? Thinking out loud helps clarify where you're headed.

Finding information

Discuss ideas for using relevant magazines, books, newspapers, and websites.

Accompany your young child to the public library.

Help an older child sift and evaluate information on the internet.

Remind your child that no matter how interesting the fact or tidbit, if it doesn't answer a question about the topic, out it goes. Kids who indiscriminately grab every scrap of information often need permission--and encouragement--to discard irrelevant material.

Taking notes

Does your student have plenty of 3x5 note cards? Elastic bands to keep stacks of cards together? A cardboard box or milk crate to keep project-related materials in one place?

Life is a lot simpler when each note card contains only one fact.

Compare the differences in these two note cards for a research paper on baseball:

A good note card:

• Lists source (Ex.: World Book, Volume 2, page 133)
• Heading or subtopic from outline
• Limited to one fact
• Has personal note/question

Bad note card:

• Source not indicated in top right corner
• Heading too vague
• Too many facts
• No name after quote

Making an outline

Does your student have specific outlining guidelines from the teacher?

Some kids get overwhelmed by all the "stuff" they have to process. If your child has problems plugging information from the note cards into an outline, he may need a hand organizing the note cards into stacks of related facts.

The bare bones
Using information collected on note cards, your student can make an outline similar to this. It's the bare bones of what will later become a fleshed-out written report. Here's part of an outline for a research paper entitled The Early Days of Baseball.

1. Baseball is born
   1. Rounders
      1. Originated in England in the 1600s.
      2. Differences between rounders and baseball.
   2. The Abner Doubleday theory
      1. Many people think Abner Doubleday invented baseball in 1839.
         1. Doubleday's friend, Graves, claimed he was a witness.
         2. A commission credited Doubleday with inventing the game.
      2. Historians say theory is bogus.

2. Baseball becomes popular
   1. Interest soars after 1900:
      1. Kids' favorite warm-weather sport.
      2. Crowds follow pennant races and World Series.
      3. Star players become national heroes.
      4. Known as "the national pastime."
         1. Quote from philosopher Jacques Barzun: "Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball."
   2. The Babe Ruth era
      1. Babe Ruth joins NY Yankees, 1920:
         1. Plays outfield.
         2. Hits more and longer home runs than anyone before.
      2. Other heroes:
         1. Lou Gehrig.
         2. Rogers Hornsby.
      3. Radio stations begin broadcasting games:
         1. Play-by-play accounts reach millions of people.

Writing a rough draft

Not a large parental role when it comes to writing the rough draft. At this point, your student is organizing the research paper into sections, using headings from the outline as a guide. She's writing information from her note cards into paragraphs with clear main ideas. She's struggling with topic sentences and transition phrases. She's formulating a title, an introduction and a conclusion. Essentially, it's a one-person show.

A lot of what happens at this stage is monitored at school during class time, especially for first-time researchers.

Getting feedback and revising

In most cases, your child's teacher is likely to be checking progress and offering suggestions for improvement. If your child wants you to look over anything at this stage, you're lucky. Lots of kids simply don't want to deal with criticism from parents.

In the event you are asked, why not suggest she read her paper aloud to you? It's a good way to identify run-on sentences, repetition, and inconsistent use of tenses.

Is your student discouraged by all the mistakes? Remind her that "getting it down on paper" is only the first of many steps. Rewriting is part of the game.

Writing a final draft

The art of tinkering and refining is key to any written project. Perhaps the most significant contribution parents can make is talking up the virtues of revision. Initially, most kids groan at the prospect, but it's a habit that will serve them well throughout their school and work lives.

Remind your child that his favorite athlete, actor or rock star didn't get where they are by doing what they do once or twice. The pros are no strangers to repetition and hard work.

Organizing a bibliography

Is your child gnashing her teeth because this year's teacher requires a different form of bibliography than last year's did? Advise her to do it exactly the way the teacher wants it. This is not the place to demonstrate individuality.

Giving credit where credit's due

A bibliography is a list of sources used to get information.Your child will find it easier to assemble one if he keeps track of each book, magazine, or encyclopedia he uses for note-taking.

Every time a fact gets recorded on a note card, its source should be noted in the top right corner. Notice that in the sample note card, The World Book, Volume 2, page 21, has been shortened to: WB, 2, p.133.

When assembling a final bibliography, students should list all sources (texts, articles, interviews, videotapes, and so on) in alphabetical order by authors' last names. As for the exact form, different teachers have different preferences. When in Rome. . .

For a book:
Author (last name first), Title of the book. City: Publisher, Date of publication.

EXAMPLE: Dahl, Roald. The BFG. New York. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1982.

For an encyclopedia:
Encyclopedia Title, Edition Date. Volume Number. Article Title in Quotations, page numbers.

EXAMPLE: The Encyclopedia Brittanica, Volume 7, "Gorillas," pages 50-51.

For a magazine:
Author (last name first), "Article Title." Name of magazine. Volume number, (Date): page numbers.

EXAMPLE: Jordan, Jennifer, "Filming at the Top of the World." Museum of Science Magazine. Volume 47, No. 1, (Winter 1998): page 11.

For a newspaper:
Author (last name first), "Article Title." Name of newspaper, city and state of publication. (date): edition if available, section and page number(s).

EXAMPLE: Powers, Ann, "New Tune for the Material Girl." The New York Times, New York, NY. (3/1/98): Atlantic Region, Section 2, page 34.

For a person:
Full name (last name first), Occupation, Date of interview.

EXAMPLE: Smeckleburg, Sweets. Bus driver. April 1, 1996.

For a film:
Title, Director, Distributor, Year.

EXAMPLE: Braveheart, Dir. Mel Gibson, Icon Productions, 1995

CD-ROM:
Disc title: Version, Date. "Article title," pages if given. Publisher.

EXAMPLE: Compton's Multimedia Encyclopedia: Macintosh version, 1995. "Civil rights movement," p.3. Compton's Newsmedia.

Magazine article:
Author (last name first). "Article title," Name of magazine (type of medium). Volume number, (Date): page numbers. If available: publisher of medium, version, date of issue.

EXAMPLE: Rollins, Fred. "Snowboard Madness." Sports Stuff (CD-ROM). Number 15, (February 1997); pp. 15-19. If available: SIRS, Mac,. version, Winter 1997.

Newspaper article:
Author (last name first). "Article title." Name of newspaper (Type of medium), city and state of publication. (Date): Edition if available, section and page number(s). Available: publisher of medium, version, date of issue.

EXAMPLE: Stevenson, Rhoda. "Nerve Sells." Community News, (CD-ROM), Nassau, NY. (Feb 1996): pp. A4-5. Available: SIRS, Mac. version, Spring 1996.

Online Resources

Internet:
Author of message. (Date) Subject of message. Electronic conference or bulletin board (Online). Available e-mail: LISTSERV@ e-mail address

EXAMPLE: Ellen Block, (September 15, 1995). New Winners. Teen Booklist (Online). Helen [email protected]

World Wide Web:
URL (Uniform Resource Locator or WWW address): author (or item's name, if mentioned), date.

EXAMPLE: (Boston Globe's www address) http://www.boston.com. Today's News, August 1, 1996.