Research on Colorblindness and Inequality

The key phrase "colorblindness" when referred to in this sense describes the attitude of completely ignoring race. Or rather, the perception that race is being completely ignored. Most whites are unaware of their own biases towards their race. We hear about multiculturalism all the time, and have lots of politically correct terms for minority groups. However, it is still a matter of "normal" versus "other".

Lewis, Amanda E. “‘What Group?’ Studying Whites and Whiteness in the Era of ‘ColorBlindness.’” Sociological Theory 22.4 (2004): 623–46.

Lewis talks about how often whites are unaware they are even part of a group, even though they explicitly recognize other minority groups.

Wise, Tim J. Colorblind: the Rise of Post-racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity. San Francisco: City Lights, 2010.

I was lucky enough to hear Tim Wise give a speech and he is a brilliant, engaging man. He is spreading the word about this issue and getting the information into college classrooms. If you are looking to know more about this topic, his books will definitely provide a very solid introduction.

Research on the Evolution of Dinosaurs

You can find tons of information about dinosaurs online. The problem is that most of the data conflicts because scientists do not truly know much about dinosaurs and they are always proving each other wrong.

Sereno, Paul C. "The Evolution of Dinosaurs." Science 284 (1999): 2137-147. Web.

This document is a great place to start because it has some very cool graphs of the supposed evolution of dinosaurs. It will give you a good idea about how they might have developed.

Langer, Max C., Martin D. Ezcurra, Jonathas S. Bittencourt, and Fernando E. Novas. "The Origin and Early Evolution of Dinosaurs."Biological Reviews 85.1 (2010): 55-110. Web

This is a treasure trove of great information. It seriously goes on for pages and pages. A dream come true for people looking for dinosaur sources.

 

Fastovsky, David E., David B. Weishampel, and John Sibbick. The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2005.

This book has wonderful reviews, and not just as a textbook. It's definitely more involved then a typical kid book about dinosaurs, making it great for research writing. But it's also a lot easier to read than most textbooks so you should be able to find the information you need faster. And as a bonus, you might actually enjoy reading it!

MLA Citations

Forming citations is the most tedious part about writing a research paper. Even professional writers dread having to deal with documenting their sources (and some of them even do it wrong.) The rules for citations are constantly changing and different teachers sometimes have different expectations. The best advice is to pay attention to the changes. The Modern Language Association is always updating the rules based on new technology and academic preferences.

One of the great new changes is that you no longer have to cite website links in your bibliography. This is awesome for students because it saves a lot of time when trying to format a bibliography since you no longer have to struggle with crazy hyperlinks and odd formatting.

I would definitely recommend buying the most recent version of the MLA Handbook. You will be surprised how often you actually use this. Most websites are not completely up to date with citation information so you end up with a lot of confusing information. Using the MLA Handbook means that you always know exactly what is expected of you, and you might even be able to teach your professors a thing or two about the new rules!