Well...Let's Do This Thing

[Vega115]

I have to admit, I am kinda pumped up right now. For a really weird, and some of you will say, wrong, reason. The reason?

My English Honors Research Paper.

Now, let me explain as you pick your jaws up from the floor. This research paper is big. And it is a big part of my grade. i.e. It is counting for my final exam grade in the class; therefore, there is plenty of incentive not to mess up

We just got the assignment two days ago, and it is due June 6th. And the next month is strictly regimented. It is to be in MLA format. Sources are needed to be secured by i believe may 5th or 6th. Each member of the class has to hand in four sets of 25 index cards, with notes written on them. Yes. 100 index cards. And the teacher will be using www.turnitin.com to check for plagarism. Therefore, she wants us to be flipping out over using even one word that is the same in a sentence we are quoting. eep.

ANd now, do you all want to know my topic?

Here it is...(BTW: I ask that you not turn this into a polticial flamefest, that is clearly not the intent of this post. the topic of my paper is not political in nature. it is engineering. architecture.)

9-11: The Role of the Design and Construction of the World Trade Center in its Rise and Fall.


and the title will most likely be...

9-11: Death of An American Icon.

Oh yea. No internet sources. *bangs head into floor* This will make it oh so interesting. Right now, I might be spending around 24-27 hours this week in our public library looking throught microfiche film for old articles on the WTC. Mehh. And they wont let me take out their copy of the 9-11 Commission Report because its a reference book. Whaa. It doesnt help that we need all our sources by May 5th or so.

So for the next month or so, I won't be on much, if at all, because I'm gunna have my head in a book constantly. Then I'm going to a spa.

Wish me luck... 8)

[Sam5]

The buildings were too tall and thin. Bad design to start with.

[Vega115]

okay...wasnt expecting ppl to give ideas..but okay...lmao


But yea, this is kinda my "going on hiatus" post.

I'll be back in about 5 weeks

[Sam5]

Ok, have a nice hiatus.

[sarongsong]

...Sources are needed to be secured by i believe may 5th or 6th. ...Oh yea. No internet sources...they wont let me take out their copy of the 9-11 Commission Report because its a reference book...we need all our sources by May 5th or so..

If this doesn't count as a 'reference book', it may be of interest:
April 5, 2005
"The Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) today presented its analysis of how the World Trade Center (WTC) towers collapsed..."
Good luck!

[Sam5]

Right now, I might be spending around 24-27 hours this week in our public library looking throught microfiche film for old articles on the WTC. Mehh. And they wont let me take out their copy of the 9-11 Commission Report because its a reference book. Whaa. It doesnt help that we need all our sources by May 5th or so.

I think this has a full-text copy of the 911 Commission Report.

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/911/

“The Full Report (2.3 MB, 585 pages) has been made available in its entirety, as a single PDF file.”

Maybe you can use this to do your basic research at home, then cite the actual book that’s at the library, and make sure your citations match the proper book pages.

[tmosher]

Got access to an EBSCO account? One of the better on-line sources for printed material that doesn't cost an arm and two legs (I'm referring to Lexis/Nexis).

If your prof is as much a stickler as mine was for references, EBSCO's on-line resources are perfectly legit as they are basically print-based source material.

[Sam5]

Here’s a list of book stores all over the country that have used copies of the 9-11 report:

LINK TO BOOK STORES

Here’s the FEMA report:

http://www.fema.gov/library/wtcstudy.shtm

[collegeguy]

Good luck

[Andromeda321]

Good luck and hope it works out for you!
<<< Spent a hellish junior year in high school writing a ten page English paper and a ten page history paper in about ten weeks with difficult topics.
<<< That helped her write her 8 page term paper in history in less than 24 hours last December, no prior research, yet got an A. Index cards stink so I ignored them. Thank God for Wikipedia and the fact that I was allowed to cite it!
The Internet rule strikes me as odd, however, usually it's you need a certain number of other sources and such. :-?

[Vega115]

Thanks for the resources guys! I already have the NIST report (its not the final report, but the draft report...kinda like the pre-published finished report) on PDF, just gotta print that (all 275 pages ) and then i have to print the FEMA ones.

Unfortunatly I cannot use any reports from any sites unless the websites are .gov. She is being a real stickler; our full bibliographies need to be in in about two weeks, and she said that she will try to get ahold of as many of our resources as possible for when she grades em. EEP.

So, let the games begin! 8)

[papageno]

I think that JayUtah had a discussion about this over at the apollohoax forum.
If the forum still works, you could have a look at it (JayUtah's posts are usually a good read).

[Sammy]

This brings back long-represed memories of (essentially) the same assignment for English 102 in my freshman college year (which was loooong ago).

I won't be specific as to when, but there were no home computers or internet. Research was done at the library, working the card index file. The requirements were just about the same, but I had a fairly liberal prof--we did not have to turn in index cards/notes. We got the assignment at the beginning of the semester in January, due at the end in late May.

I picked a topic (parapsychology-evidence for telepathy) and did the reasearch/readings, but took minimal notes--I was blessed with very good memory/retention at the time. I started actually writing it 2 days before it was due (I was an idiot kid). On the second day, I worked all night, pounding away on my manual typewriter, making many mistakes typing (and having to erase both the original and the carbon copy, trying to avoid making a hole in the paper). I finished it at 6AM, slept untill Noon, and delivered it to the prof just after lunch.

I got a B-. It wasn't a bad return for my limited investment. But I was a bit disgruntled when I found out a friend of mine copied his whole paper out of an elderly Encycopedia Britannica, and got a C+ I might add that this was Washington University (St Louis) which has a rather good academic reputation (even back then).

[Grendl]

Thank God for Wikipedia and the fact that I was allowed to cite it!
The Internet rule strikes me as odd, however, usually it's you need a certain number of other sources and such. :-?

She let you cite Wikipedia? Wow, that's an easy-going teacher. I mentioned this to DisinfoAgent, I once got taken to task for using Wikipedia in a debate: it's not peer-reviewed or anything. It even says on it's main page:

Welcome to Wikipedia, the free-content encyclopedia that anyone can edit.
In this English version, started in 2001, we are currently working on 537021 articles.

Anyone can edit is not a good sign, though I find it to be handy for quick overview information. I guess if I had become a teacher, I would have been hated by my students! :-?

Vega 115, it sounds like you have all the govt sites; as an aside, I thought William Langewiesche's 3 part series (now a book) in the Atlantic was very interesting, whether you can use it for your paper or not. The third part, especially so, since it's more about the technical aspects of the buildings in a language I can understand. You can get a back issues; these online pages are only excerpts. If you need any help with it, let me know, I am a print subscriber.
Atlantic Monthly July/August 2002

I'm not suggesting this for your paper, because I've never been able to figure out if they're full of hooey or not, but they sure have lots of charts and graphs. These German engineers disect the terrorist attacks, have maps of the buildings and use a lot of engineering language that I can't possibly determine if they know what they're talking about. I got this link 2 years ago and have wondered if anyone has ever vetted it (there's no political intention here, simply an engineering legitimacy check). It may just be a whole lot of conspiracy junk wrapped in pretty physics terminology.
German Engineers Help the USA