Help with assignments

I remember what it was like being a student. Yes, believe it or not, I once was at school, then work, followed by uni whilst working and then came higher paid work after completing my degree. During that time I have seen the explosion in the online world.

As strange as this may seem, but once upon a time the internet belonged to the realm of the computer geek. You had to be able to code stuff and search engines were merely a term paper (the creators of Google never gained their doctorate...their research paper - became Google and the rest as they say is history). I could give you the actual dates, but would you be interested? Probably not....Anyway, the point I am trying to make is this. There were no personal computers. Assignments had to be handwritten or typed - using a manual typewriter and lots of correction fluid. Databases were expensive to use (assuming you could pay for the librarian's search time) or you resorted to those large paper things with lots of words in them.

I remember wading my way through volumes of abstracts, looking for relevant papers, tracking authors, following bibliographies and reading vast forests of paper based articles trying to find those bits I needed to support my argument.

Keeping everything together was a nightmare - ring binders, dividers, papers stuffed everywhere.

But today - you have a different problem - well associated problem. Everything (or so it seems) is available on the net. It's not that you can't find it, just there is so much of it, what do you do with it.

One of the many tools I am using at the moment is something called eCorral - I tried Google notes, but prefer this one. Sure its a paid for bit of software, but its already paid for itself in terms of saved time - As an online researcher, librarian and writer I am constantly researching - and always looking for ways to shorten the time between research and writing. I don't know about you - but sometimes I can't remember where I put something...most frustrating. Thankfully I don't have that problem anymore. Now, like you, I have to decide what not to use in my research reports.