Learning Center

The Learning Center will close at noon today for the Thanksgiving holiday.  We will reopen at 6 pm on Sunday.  Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving.

Expect every exceptional educator and editor to enjoy eradicating errors
emanating from echoing enunciations. Accept and except are pronounced
similarly, but confusing the two creates contradictory constructions in
written English. Think of accept as being inclusive (someone accepts
people, concepts, and situations), and except as being exclusive (as in
denoting an exception). Most students accept the idea that they should be
in class except when they are sick.

Jim Zuercher
Staff Writing Tutor

Tuesday Tutoring Tip for November 17, 2009

Always avoid articulating an argument as based around or off of anything;
also adhere to the appropriate application, based on. Arguments and
theories, much like buildings are based on something, not based around or
based off of anything. An item’s base is found at the bottom, so it only
makes sense to use based on. Based around implies a foundation in the
center of an object. Based off of is contradictory. Remember, the basis
of an argument is similar to the base of a physical object.

Jim Zuercher
Staff Writing Tutor

The tired troublemakers taunt the tutors who tout trigonometry to terrified teens trying to tug their tent taut in a thunderstorm. These three “T-words” sound alike, but have very different meanings. Taut (also not to be confused with taught, the past tense of teach) means tight, as in “the rope was pulled taut,” and is always an adjective.
Taunt can be a noun or a verb, and has a meaning similar to harass and ridicule. Tout is only used as a verb, and is much more positive, defined as praising or recommending someone or something enthusiastically. As a general rule of thumb, a people tout things they like and respect; they are more likely to taunt people they don’t. When setting up a tent, the degree of tautness could lead to being touted (good) or taunted (bad).

Jim Zuercher
Staff Writing Tutor

WEDNESDAY WEB WRAP-UP for November 11, 2009

Today is Veterans’ Day, also once known as Armistice Day; it honors our military veterans. November 11th also commemorates the end of the Great War, World War I. Accordingly, today’s Wrap-up is “Iowa in the Great War,” a special project of IAGenWeb, an Iowa history and genealogy site. It pays tribute to Iowans who served in World War I. Its content includes an extensive selection of primary sources including news articles, remembrances, letters home, biographies and images.

Click here to explore this resource >>> http://iagenweb.org/greatwar/.

Jim Fisk
Student Academic Services Coordinator and Librarian

WEDNESDAY WEB WRAP-UP for November 4, 2009

Today’s Wrap-up is a free full text database from the National Institutes of Health. Although from its name, Pubmed Central, one would think that its content is limited to medical science related articles, I have discovered over time that its coverage reflects the breadth of the life sciences. For example, yesterday, a student and I located articles about an invasive species, the Sea Lamprey.

For beginners, I would recommend using the basic search interface. Connectors however may be used in basic searches as in lamprey AND “Great Lakes.” An Advance Search utility is also available, an adequate explanation of which, however, is better delivered face-to-face.

Click here to find out more >>> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/.

Jim Fisk
Student Academic Services Coordinator and Librarian

Tonight, the World Series starts and as such, it seems apropos that baseball is this week’s theme. Two sites are featured here. Baseball-almanac.com is a database having all sorts of baseball trivia imaginable. Here you will find history of the game, team histories and individual player records.

Major League Baseball also has it official place on the Web. In particular MLB.com includes extensive coverage of this year’s World Series. It can be viewed by clicking here >>> http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/ps/y2009/.

Click here for the baseball almanac >>> http://www.baseball-almanac.com/index.shtml.

Jim Fisk
Student Academic Services Coordinator and Librarian

WEDNESDAY WEB WRAP-UP for October 21, 2009

This week’s Wrap-up might be especially helpful to senior education majors who are or will be writing their “issues” paper soon. Edutopia is the work of George Lucas of Star Wars fame and the Foundation named for him. According to its founders, Edutopia is a “place where children become lifelong learners and develop the technical, cultural, and interpersonal skills to succeed in the twenty-first century.” To this end, Edutopia.org (2009) is a collection of resources informed in part by “success stories” from the field and by “participation from schools and communities.”

Click here to find out more >>> http://www.edutopia.org/.

Jim Fisk
Student Academic Services Coordinator and Librarian