Articles with Skill Building

Nuts and Bolts of Report Writing

Nuts and Bolts of Report Writing

by Shannon Combs Bennett, Student Well, this is when we get into the meat and bones of the course Skill Building: Nuts & Bolts of Reporting Research. Report writing. Now don’t be scared or nervous. This was a great section on all the why’s and how’s for you to become a great report writer. Before that however you need to plan your research. The section on research planning, complete with example case studies, was an excellent outline of how the process should work. We all know, or should know, that you need to have the ground work of good research laid out before you can build your report. But, how do you do that? It is a combination of many smaller things that when merged together create a solid case for your writing.  Through the research planning section of this module the process is laid out nicely step-by-step.  Complete with online, and off line, resources for you to consult. The breakdown of the types of reports out there I think will be very helpful to anyone who has never created one before. For those of you who don’t know, or just need a refresher, the types of reports you can create are: Narrative Software formatted Letter Formal Depending on your background these may have varying degrees of difficulty for you. That is ok, too. For instance I tend to enjoy writing formal reports and have very little experience using software programs to generate reports. This is where the case study…

Continue reading

The Nuts and Bolts of Research Guides

By Shannon Combs Bennett, Student Well Modulus 1 and 2 are under my belt for the course Skill Building: Nuts and Bolts of Reporting Research and I am happy to say they covered two of my favorite topics: citations and guides. You are probably wondering what the big deal is?! We all know how important citations are but guides, what do you mean?  If you have never made a research guide then you are in for a treat. Guides are a wonderful resource for you as a researcher. I learned that many years ago, and continue to create them for places I go to do research. However, I have discovered that many researchers do not do this and, to be honest, I think research would be a lot easier for them if they did. You can create a guide for a specific place (town, county, state, and country), a repository, type of publication, or really anything else that you reference or use frequently in your research. As a living document (i.e. one that is designed to grow and change over time) you can start small and build on your experiences making sure all the pertinent information you need to be successful is listed there. I have several types of guides on my computer as well as in my filing cabinet. My computer documents contain ideas, website information, checklists I have created, resources that I keep track of, etc.  In the cabinet I keep facility/tourist brochures, handouts that I get while…

Continue reading

Starting: Nuts and Bolts of Reporting Research

By Shannon Combs Bennett, Student One of the most important skills a researcher needs to have under their belt is how to report the information they uncover. While there are various writing styles and types of reports to choose from there are specific items that need to be covered so your reports represent your best work. Which is why I was very excited to see a new course offered in the Skill Building track, Nuts and Bolts of Reporting Research. While I enjoy writing blog posts and articles, reports can be like pulling teeth at times. Reports are necessary however, even if you never take a paying client in your life. Technically, your family are your clients. I am sure you have heard that we should document our own research the way we would want a professional too. So, that means you should really be writing reports for yourself, your loved ones, and your files. Looking over the syllabus it looks like instructor Leslie Brinkley Lawson makes it easy and simple for everyone to learn. While some of it looks like review  (or maybe you have attended lectures on the topic) there are also a few gems in there. Practical exercises are always a wonderful way to practice, learn, and hone your skills. Exercises and case studies are exciting additions to a course and I was thrilled to see them both being used in this course. Case studies are excellent ways to learn from someone else’s experience. For those who…

Continue reading

What’s New? Skill-Building: Breaking Down Brick Walls

The National Institute is proud to announce our newest course, Skill-Building: Breaking Down Brick Walls. Brick walls are a reality in genealogy research, but fortunately there is hope. In this course, we  look at a variety of strategies you can implement to help turn your research roadblocks into breakthroughs. We begin with a quick refresher of some key research concepts to help focus your research and prepare you for success. Next, we walk through some simple steps to get you prepared for the journey. Finally, we investigate four different approaches you can use to do some brick wall busting. By the end of this course, you should have some new ideas for researching brick walls and the inspiration to forge ahead. Written by genealogist Julie Cahill Tarr, this 8 week course will teach you the methodology you need to solve your toughest research problems. A comprehensive course full of practical examples, Julie says, “I wanted to give students a variety of ideas to help them reframe their research and forge ahead on those difficult ‘brick wall’ ancestors. Instead of telling students about the various techniques, I show them ways to actually implement these strategies and give real-life research examples for further illustration. My hope is that students will walk away from this course with new ideas they can try immediately, and with a renewed sense of hope.” Because this course was created for the professional or the serious minded researcher, it is advised that you complete the Analysis and Skills…

Continue reading