Use Other People’s Sources
The next step is to find sources. Often the sources you most need will be checked out, but you can get any book that is out by recalling it. Just ask your librarian. Another obstacle appears when you have found the perfect source, but your library does not have it. Simply ask your librarian about an interlibrary loan. It is free and usually you can get your source quickly. Finally, examine the bibliographies in a number of sources. By reviewing these, you usually can find the foremost thinkers on your subject.

Judge a Book by Its Cover
Once you have located some sources, you need to evaluate each source’s credibility. You can do much of this assessment without actually reading the text.

How current is the information? (You can check the copyright and publication dates.)
Is the author an expert?
How well documented is the information on the works cited page?
Is this sources part of a respected publication, or part of a commercial venture?

Generally, you’ll want to base your research on credible sources such as governmental and educational sources over commercial ones.

Talk Back
In order to develop an original angle on your topic, you will need to compare expert opinions, and oftentimes, you will need to create a research log to help track your thoughts and discoveries while staying organized. When a quote strikes you, write it down. You’ll want to keep the source’s bibliographic information and the quote’s page number. Ask questions of the assertions put forth by the authors, and then try to answer them. Attempt to explain what caused your reaction, and give yourself plenty of space to develop a dialogue with yourself and your written sources to allow your own interpretation of the subject matter to emerge.

Searchers have always been able to save the useful things they find in search results by bookmarking or saving to the favorites in the browser. Bookmarks are now social, to be shared and leveraged via the collective wisdom of preferences from other likeminded searchers. The growth and popularity of socially enabling web applications (social bookmarks, news, networking, messaging, publishing & media sharing) drive consumer expectations for social interaction with search even more.

Another aspect to searcher expectations is that consumers search social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo Answers, MySpace) to a small degree, as an alternatives to standard search for information, references and recommendations. People don’t trust formal marketing messages and there is something inherently more trustworthy about recommendations made by others willing to take the time to review products/services and share their opinions. Marketers realize this of course and as a result, there has been an increase in the number of “fake” reviews on ecommerce sites.

So, how do searcher expectations in regards to social media affect SEO efforts? Does it affect landing pages for PPC or other online search advertising?

Keywords and links aren’t the only tactics SEOs employ with content optimization. Usability comes into play as well and making it easy for consumers of a web site’s content to socially save, share, submit and interact with that content helps meet increasing social expectations.

With PPC and landing pages it’s the same thing, but not to the degree that it takes away from the objective of the conversion of course. The objective for a landing page is to motivate a specific action, not bookmark the landing page – but why not make it easy if customers choose to do so?

With online advertising, there are increasing numbers of companies enabling rich media ads with social features. Links are added so that viewers of the ad can share, rare or comment. This isn’t practical with text based PPC ads but with video or graphical ads used in search, it might be something to consider.

The thought of starting on your paper may be daunting but the more time you give yourself to work on it the better. The first step of any research paper is of course research. If you do not have a set thesis to write about, do some background research on your topic. Do not simply skim over a few summaries and make a decision based on them. The amount of background reading you do here will help you form a strong thesis with plenty of strong facts to support or reject it. The absolute last thing you want is to be stuck struggling to write a paper with a weak thesis with little to no evidence around it or even worse to have to switch your thesis for a better one half way through your writing process.

Now that you have selected your thesis, it’s time to do some extensive research on it. This part is definitely a grind because you may find a good amount of information in your first hour or you may go hours without a scrap of useful information. It is hit and miss, but keep with it and give yourself breaks and make sure to try lots of different sources. For a research paper, the best source to find information is probably scientific journals. These are filled with first hand research articles by professionals in their field. Of course books are another great source to look through and should never be overlooked. Their only draw back may be that it may be hard to find the exact bit of information you need in a large book dedicated to your general topic.

The internet always gets mixed reviews when it comes to its usefulness as a research tool. I think it’s a great tool and it may be the most efficient, a trait I’m sure most students hold in high regard. It is true that there is a lot of false information on the internet however there is also a lot of quality information there too. A rule of thumbs that I have always used for internet research is to cross reference everything. You must find two sources that report the same information in order for it to be deemed trustworthy. Wikipedia along with other internet encyclopedia’s have a wealth of information that should always be checked out. A helpful tip is to make use of the search tools. Many search functions have tools that can enhance your searches and narrow down the number of hits.

Hopefully getting all the information you need won’t be too painful of a process. Just remember to give yourself as much time as possible to do the research; you’ll be happy you did once you start writing.

The demands
“A CAREER in teaching is for the brave-hearted,” says Clementina D’Souza, teacher from Sacred Heart High School, Worli. She says, “One should have the virtue of patience and the ability to adjust to different types of children. There should be clarity of speech and thought. One should be able to hold one’s own against the children, able to command respect without meting out corporal punishment.”

It is a give and take relationship between student and teacher and the bottom-line is if you love doing this and can go the extra length to establish a beautiful relationship of trust and love between, student and teacher take it up as a career, otherwise do not, she says.

Different options available : One has the option of teaching in pre-primary, primary, high school or in college

Pre-Primary
This covers playschool, nursery, junior and senior K.G. If you love small children and have oodles of patience and tolerance, then this will be your cup of milk. Pre-primary usually has two teachers per classroom, the main (class) teacher and the co-teacher (assistant).

To be a co-teacher, no formal training is necessary, though it might vary from school to school. The only requirement is your ability to handle tiny tots and your talent to teach them. One should have had training in the Montessori way of teaching or have a diploma in ‘Early Childcare and education’.

Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) training courses last a minimum of one academic year and are full-time courses of study. Some AMI courses are offered over a period of two or three consecutive summers, with interim work. One can do one’s Montessori training from RTI and Bombay SZM at N.S. Patkar Marg and Shri Jain Mahila Samaj at H.Cross Rd. The ‘Early Childcare and education (ECCE)’ course can be done from Sophia Polytechnic, Ratan Tata Institute, St.Xavier’s Institute of Education, MRICE, to name a few.

As Trupti Salian from Kangaroo kids puts it, “The latter method may be preferred because it is a play way method of teaching. While teaching primary kids, the stress is on how you are able to communicate with them, since small kids cannot be communicated the same way as adults,” While ECCE is also a fulltime course, some schools like MRICE and Sophia’s polytechnic also offer part-time courses whereby those who are interested can study and work at the same time till they become trained teachers.

Primary :This covers standards one to seven. Basic requirement is a D.Ed (a diploma in education) of two years duration after class twelve.

Secondary
A BA, B. Ed. (Bachelor in Education) of one year’s duration, with specialisation in subject one wishes to teach, is enough to qualify one to teach high school. i.e. standards eight, nine and 10th. To become the principal of a school, one has to be at least M.A, B. Ed with minimum 10 years of teaching experience.

One can do their D.Ed, B.Ed, M.Ed from St.Xavier’s Institute of Education, St.Teresa’s Institute of Education, Bombay Teachers Training College, Secondary Training College (govt.) to name a few.

COLLEGE
College lecturers require a good academic record with at least 55% or an equivalent grade at master’s degree level in the relevant subject. Also they have to take the eligibility test for lecturers, National Eligibility Test (NET), conducted by UGC, CSIR or similar tests accredited by the UGC. The State level test SLET is for appointments within the state. The promotion is based on performance, duration of service, and research publications.

To become a principal of a college, PhD in any subject with minimum 10 years teaching experience in Degree College is essential. Outlining a few traits that a principal should possess, Manju Nichani, Principal, K C College, says, “One should be an all-rounder with administrative, communication skills, the ability to be firm when necessary, an eye for accounts, knowledge about the rules of the government, information on all the funding agencies etc.”

Pay scales
At primary level remuneration may vary from Rs 3,500 pm for a co-teacher to 5,000 pm for a main teacher. While a temporary teacher at the primary, secondary level might take home Rs 3000 pm. On confirmation, the starting pay ranges from Rs 8,000 pm to Rs 10,000 pm. Lecturers might take home anything between Rs 10,000 pm and Rs 15,000 pm.

So if you have what it takes – patience and love for children – then teaching is the right career for you.