Writing Resources

You may not be a professional author, but you still need to know how to write well.  You’ll have to write papers for class while you are taking classes at IHE, cover letters to possible employers when you are applying for jobs, and messages to patients, clients, and anyone else you want to do business with when you are working in your field.  Remember that you can schedule a writing lab online or at the library, where you also can find some good resources on writing.

If you’re a health sciences student and have to write a paper, you might want to read some or all of--or at least skim-- How to Write Health Sciences Papers, Dissertations, and Theses by Shane A. Thomas (call number R119 .T445 2000, ISBN 0443062838).  You can look at a Google Images preview of this book, too.  There is a link to the preview from the book’s page in our online catalog, or you can go to the preview directly at http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0443062838&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true.  This preview shows you the chapter titles and text on some pages, which can help you decide whether or not the rest of the book will be useful to you.

Here are some other books on writing you can find in our library:

Title	Author(s)	Call number	ISBN
The Basic College Writer	Peter Carinio	PE1408 .C38 1990	0673380785
Basics of Writing	A.C. “Buddy” Krizan, Joyce P. Logan	PE1408 .K75 1992	0538705574
College Writing Skills with Reading	John Langan	PE1408 .L3178 2010	9780073371665
Composing with Confidence:  Writing Effective Paragraphs and Essays	Alan Meyers	PE1408 .M519 2003	032108831X
The Curious Researcher:  A Guide to Writing Research Papers	Bruce Ballenger	LB2369 .B246 2009	9780205666119
English and Communication for Colleges	Carol Henson, Thomas L. Means	PE1479 .B87 H457 1995	0538711388
The Gregg Reference Manual:  A Manual of Style, Grammar, Usage, and Formatting	William A. Sabin	PE1479 .B87 H457 1995	0538711388
How to Write Science Papers, Dissertations, and Theses	Shane A. Thomas	R119 .T445 2000	0443062838
The Little, Brown Compact Handbook	Jane E. Aaron	PE1112 .A23 2010	9780205651634
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers	Joseph Gibaldi	LB2369 .G53 2003	0873529863
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association	American Psychological Association	BF76.7 .P83 2001	1557987912
Research and Composition:  A Guide for the Beginning Researcher	Joyce Inglish, Joan E. Jackson	LB2369 .I48 1977	013774000X
Sentence Skills:  A Workbook for Writers, Form A	John Langan	PE1441 .L352 2010	9780073371696
Step by Step:  Writing about Literature	Pat McKeague	PE1479 .C7 M2 1999	9780787255640
Wordsmith:  A Guide to College Writing	Pamela Arlov	PE1408 .A69 2010	9780136050544
The Writer’s Harbrace Handbook	Cheryl Glenn, Loretta Gray	PE1408 .W7714 2010	9781428230224
The Writer’s Workplace with Readings:  Building College Writing Skills	Sandra Scarry, John Scarry	PE1413 .S37 2011	9781439082119
The Writer’s World:  Paragraphs and Essays	Lynne Gaetz, Suneeti Phadke	PE1439 .G254 2009	0131409476

Addendum, February 29, 2012:  The IHE Library just received a copy of another book that can help you become a better writer, Ways of Reading:  An Anthology for Writers by David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky (Call number PE1417 .B373 1999, ISBN 031217893X).  According to the Google Books page on this tome (http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN031217893X&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=true):

"Much admired, widely adopted, and one-of-a-kind -- Ways of Reading combines lengthy and challenging readings with an innovative and demanding apparatus to engage students in conversations with some of the most powerful voices of our culture."

One way to improve ones writing skills is to read works of great authors.  This book features works by W. E. B. Dubois, Ralph Ellison, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Michel Foucault, Paulo Freire, Harriet (Brent) Jacobs, Adrienne Rich, Alice Walker, Virginia Woolf, and more, offering the reader the opportunity to analyze what makes their writing work so well. 

A Short Study of Studying

For busy people, sometimes the hardest part of studying is finding a place to study in.  At the IHE Library, you can study alone or in groups and receive help from the librarian.  Many students prefer to study in groups because they can help answer each other's questions, quiz each other, and relax in a fun environment.

Managing your time as a student and balancing your life outside school can be tricky.  If you need to review good study habits, here are some books from our library that might be useful:

Title	Author(s)	Call number	ISBN
100% Student Success	Amy Solomon, Lori Tyler, Terry Taylor	LB2343.3 .S664 2008	9781418016302
Career Development for Health Professionals:  Success in School and on the Job	Lee Haroun	R690 .H377 2011	9781437706734
College in a Can	Sandra and Harry Choron	LB3605 .C56415 2004	0618408711
Learning Strategies for Health Career Students	Susan Marcus Palau, Marilyn Metzer	R847 .P35 2007	9781416042709
LWW’s Student Success for Health Professionals Made Incredibly Easy	Tom Lochhaas	R737 .O47 2012	9781609137847
P.O.W.E.R. Learning:  Strategies for Success in College and Life	Robert S. Feldman	LB2343.3 .F44 2005	9780072881899
Power Up:  A Practical Student’s Guide to Online Learning	Stacey Barrett, Catrina Poe, Carrie Spagnola-Doyle	LB1028.5 .B357 2009	9780135029336

Additionally, we have study guides specific to various subjects.

Network to get work

You may have heard that networking is one of the best ways to find out about job opportunities.  The dictionary and thesaurus website http://www.merriam-webster.com defines networking as “the exchange of information or services among individuals, groups, or institutions; specifically: the cultivation of productive relationships for employment or business” (retrieved February 3, 2012, from  http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/networking).  In other words, you can meet and keep communicating with people, called connections, in order to find work opportunities.  You never know who can tell you about a great opening.

Make connections with people and tell them you are looking for a job.  Hand them business cards with your name, phone number, and email address on them.  Send them a friendly email now and then.

Who are your connections?

Short answer:  anyone.  (Actually, you probably don’t need to bother with people who hate you, but I hope there are none of those.)  Network with your faculty, fellow students (both in your program and in others at IHE), friends, current and former co-workers, relatives, people you meet at your externships, neighbors, your own doctors and their co-workers, and of course, IHE’s Career Services Department.  Helping you find work is their job, and they're happy to do it.  Look for openings and other news on their Facebook page (search for IHE CSD on www.facebook.com) and advice on their blog (http://deborah-httpwwwcnncom2011living0105.blogspot.com/).    

How can you find connections?

It always helps to be outgoing, friendly, and self-confident.  The best networkers start conversations with strangers and hand them business cards.  Make cards even if you do not have a job right now.  You meet potential connections every time you go to a doctor or dentist’s appointment.  While you are looking for a job, consider doing volunteer work alongside other people in your field.  You are bound to meet contacts there as well as get great experience.

Networking online

Do you have a Facebook account?  If so, you can post about how you are looking for a great career.  Remember, though, that people can see your Facebook page, so be careful about what you type and which pictures you post.  Besides the IHE CSD Facebook page, you can find more pages about medical assisting and other subjects of programs taught at IHE.  Why not see if you can make "friends" with the other people on these pages?  (Here's a secret:  I learned about the opening for a head librarian at IHE through a Facebook page called I need a Library job--and the rest is history!  Do you think there might be similar job hunting pages in your field?  Find out by signing into Facebook and using the search bar that appears on top of the page.)

Another website designed especially for networking is LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/).  If you sign up, you can create and post a résumé.  As on Facebook, you can create a profile and add “connections” (instead of “friends”).  You can start by adding your friendly neighborhood IHE librarian.  Look for your current employers and co-workers to connect with and ask them for recommendations.  Search for job openings and organizations to join.  For example, you can see from my Linkedin page that I belong to several groups such as the American Library Association, Instruction in Academic Libraries, and Rutgers SCI&SCILS Alumni.  You can look for groups to join, too.  From the LinkedIn's home page, use the search box to find groups for people in your field or with similar interests.  See which groups you can join. 

Networking on line

Look for announcements about job fairs.  While on line to speak with representatives from hospitals, officers, and companies, strike conversation with other people looking for a job.  Even your fellow job seekers might be able to help you find employment.

Further reading

Reid Hoffman, the executive chairperson at LinkedIn, has some interesting thoughts about networking; read them at http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/01/24/reid-hoffman-linkedin-startup-you/. 

LinkedIn and Facebook are not the only networking websites.  For a long list of these sites, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_sites.  Look for sites that you might find interesting.

IHE Library has a book on networking that can give you some good ideas:  One Phone Call Away:  Secrets of a Master Networker by Jeff W. Meshel, with Doug Garr (ISBN 1591840902, call number HM741 .M47 2005).  For the publisher’s summary of this book, visit http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0720/2005050954-d.html.

 As always, your IHE librarian is happy to help you with any of these things.

Taking the GED; New blog from Career Services

How can you register for the GED?

You’ve decided to enroll at IHE, but you have one problem:  you never finished high school.  You still can apply to IHE if you pass the GED, the General Education Development test.  The American Council on Education develops this test, which is designed to see if the test takers have high school level academic skills.  The GED is not online; it is a paper-and-pencil test.  Most of it is multiple choice, but there is an essay section.

The GED is offered at many test centers.  You can register to take the test at the Jersey City Employment & Training, 525 Montgomery Street, Jersey City, New Jersey 07302.  The center’s phone number is (201) 631-6348.  Registration is every Monday between 4:30 and 8:00.  In order to register, bring two forms of ID, including a state photo ID, such as a driver’s license, and something that proves that you live in New Jersey, such as envelope that was mailed to you.  Registration also requires a fifty dollar money order (no cash or checks).

This testing center requires that you take the test there over the course of two Tuesdays and two Wednesdays.  During the first session, which will be on a Tuesday, you will begin the GED with the writing skills section, which includes multiple choice questions and an essay.  The next day, you will take the social studies and reading sections.  The following Tuesday will be for the science section, and the next, last day will be for the math section.  You can use a calculator for some but not all the math questions.

To find out more about the GED, visit the American Council of Education’s website at http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?Section=GED_TS.  This page will tell you more details about the GED and offer practice questions, and allow you to find other testing centers in case you do not want to go to the one in Jersey City.

Job Search Tips

The library is not the only department at IHE with a blog.  The Career Services Department has Job Search Tips (http://deborah-httpwwwcnncom2011living0105.blogspot.com/).  The first installment includes suggestions for learning about new career opportunities.

What do the keys on your keyboard mean?

If you're reading this blog, there's a good chance you know at least a little bit about using your computer.  However, you might not be that comfortable with your keyboard just yet. You might find that you have a new job, externship, or class that requires you to use a keyboard more often than you're used to.  Don't be too discouraged if you find it difficult.  Using a computer keyboard is like anything else:  the more you practice, the better at it you become.  


You might not know what all the keys are for.  Here are explanations of some of the most important ones.


Esc:  Escape, stop what you are doing


Tab:  Move the cursor (the blinking line that appears where you want to type) ahead.  You can use it to indent new paragraphs in a word processing program or to move to the next box or blank in an application.


Caps Lock:  Press this button to type all capital letters.  Click it again to type lower case ones.


Shift:  Hold this button down to type capital letters.  Also, when a key has two characters (such as the key that has both a @ and a 2 on it), and you want to type the top image, hold down the shift key and type the symbol you want.  In order words, to type @, hold down Shift and press the @2 key.  (To type 2, you do not have to hold down Shift.)


(Image from http://www.seoconsultants.com/windows/keyboard/, retrieved February 1, 2012)



Backspace ß:  Erase something that you typed.

Enter: Move to the next line.  Start a new paragraph.  Sometimes the program will skip space between paragraphs.  You can hold Shift and Enter to move to the next line.


The arrow keys move the cursor.

Num Lock:  Numbers lock.  Do you see how there are numbers on the right side of the keyboard?  If you press Numbers lock (or someone else did before you went on the computer), you can type numbers.  This can come in handy if your job requires you to type numbers quickly.  If Num Lock is off, these keys will just move the cursor around.


(Image from http://realtimer.hubpages.com/hub/A-Z-Windows-Key-Commands, retrieved February 1, 2012)


Highlighted in this diagram is the Windows key.  This key and the Alt and Ctrl keys are used for different functions.  For example, to print, you can hold down Ctrl and press P.  To make the words and images larger and easier to see, hold down Ctrl and press +=.  To make them smaller again, hold down Ctrl and press _-.


For more explanations of the key's functions, visit http://www.seoconsultants.com/windows/keyboard/.