Using OneNote As Your Research Assistant

By Pat Miller

Doing things the hard way can teach one a lot of unforgettable lessons. It can also waste time, increase frustration, and sap your energy.

This post is going to give you the benefits of the hard way I did research, and the almost magically easy way to do it using an online notetaking program / app. I discovered that a program like OneNote can be a research assistant.

THE HARD WAY

When I began researching for what eventually became The Hole Story of the Doughnut, I made two big mistakes.

Mistake #!: I had no idea what the focus of my book would be, so I spent MONTHS and MONTHS gathering every fact I could. I didn’t know if I would need it, so I saved it. This is the Hoarder Version of research and is just as ineffective as storing every item and bit of trash that enters your house. Avoid this by having a carefully chosen focus before you start.

 

Mistake #2: My research “focus” was  “What is every fact, salient or otherwise, about the guy who invented the doughnut?” I collected census records, history on tall ships, maps of sailing routes, emails from maritime experts. I had info on his sister who had six children, four of them tragically lost to yellow fever in a single week. I found pictures of their tiny headstones and  researched the yellow fever epidemic. I amassed more than 250 pages of notes and copies before trying to shape it into a nonfiction picture book.

 

Eventually I found my book’s narrow focus and sifted out the fragments I needed to draft my story. It was accepted by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for publication. Now came another unexpected headache. The fact checker asked for back up on several facts in my book. I knew it was somewhere in those 250 pages, but where? What a frenzied search that was.

THE EASY WAY

After surviving the Hoarder Version, I determined “Never again!” For my next manuscript, I used a free note-taking program called OneNote. There are a number of programs/apps that do something similar for iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac.

Check out The 5 Best Note Taking Apps for 2021 to learn more. It is beyond the scope of the article to tell you how to use them, but tutorials are readily available. I want to share with you how to use your  new research assistant.

My remarks pertain to the one I use, OneNote for Windows 10, but there are similarities among the five. No more having files on your phone or computer, notes in a drawer or all over your desk, random thoughts stashed in your brain. Here is how your research life is going to get easier!

1. Be organized. Like you might do traditionally, OneNote can be arranged in binders, each with tabbed sections and pages. What you commit to these notebooks is automatically saved to the cloud and can be used across your devices and shared with others. 

 

 

2. Never lose another note. I can convert handwritten text within my notebook to print (ink to type) or type my notes using Word formatting.

 

3. Ever had a website disappear on you? Ever forget to quote your source for the passages you do capture?

OneNote has a toolbar icon that is ready at all times to clip and save your online sources. You can clip a highlighted part of a page, a full page, or the whole article. Plus, the program adds attribution to anything you clip.

It’s all in the menu you can access at any time in your research from an add-on that sits in your toolbar..

 

 

4. You can easily and permanently save notes, files, web sites, images, video, and audio. You can keep your photos (original and online), your interviews, your notes, lists, emails, etc. all in a single notebook under various organizational tabs.

 

5. When your fact checker asks for evidence, you can easily search within a section, or across an entire notebook, or all your notebooks  using keywords. Now that’s magic!

This shows results from searching for “Texas” within a single section. Clicking the arrows takes you to each reference.

 

 

 

This shows results from searching for “Texas” across the whole binder, showing which tab and which page within the tab it is on.

Whether you are a novice or a pro, you deserve a talented research assistant. And your online one, available 24/7 for free, is ready to be interviewed!

 

ACTIVITY:  Go to The 5 Best Note Taking Apps for 2021 and select a “research assistant” to try. If you are adventurous, try a tutorial for your favorite.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Pat Miller is a former career elementary teacher and school librarian who published 20 professional books and 200+ articles before turning to writing children’s books. Of her 9 titles, Substitute Groundhog (Albert Whitman) and The Hole Story of the Doughnut (HMH) were named Junior Library Guild selections. With the Nonfiction Chicks, Pat has organized NF Fest. She and her husband have 10 grandchildren under the age of 10 who love books, and an illiterate shelter dog named Pepper. Learn more at www.patmillerbooks.com.

 

 

ABOUT THE PRIZE

Pat is giving a critique for a nonfiction picture book of 1000 words or less.

Researching "Unsung" Heroes

By Rita Lorraine Hubbard

 

THE WORLD WANTS UNSUNG HEROES

Something wonderful is happening. The once-narrow lens of history is widening, and society’s appetite for diverse stories is expanding along with it. People are clamoring for new truths, especially the re-scrutiny of those who helped shape history in some way, but who were left off the historical timeline because of race, class, or caste. Researchers and writers are happily working to find these unsung heroes so their stories can be shared, and they can take their rightful place on the historical timeline. Here is one method of finding unsung heroes so you can share their stories.

 

WHAT IS AN UNSUNG HERO?

An unsung hero is someone who commits an extraordinary act (e.g., an act of bravery, innovative discovery, self-sacrifice, etc.), or who beats incredible odds or overcomes great obstacles that were meant to deter, discourage, or annihilate. Yet, because of discrimination, condescension, caste and/or class, she (or he) is deliberately overlooked, ignored and/or left out of the history books and off of the historical timeline. Even if her act is documented, she receives no formal praise, fanfare, or appreciation. 

There are many examples of unsung or “little known” heroes out there, like Robert Smalls (a slave who famously commandeered a Confederate ship and freed its seventeen black passengers), Bessie Coleman (first African American/Native American woman to pilot a plane), and Stagecoach Mary (first African American female star route mail carrier in the US). These heroes are only just beginning to be recognized for their historic contributions, but there are many other unsung heroes out there whose stories have not received a single mention. Why? Because they have not yet been discovered.

 

HOW DO YOU UNCOVER SOMEONE IF YOU DON’T KNOW THEY EXIST?

For this article, I offer an “unsung” hero I discovered several years ago – a man named Hinton D. Alexander.

I was visiting an older section of a well-known African American graveyard in my city, searching for information on a prominent citizen I wanted to feature in my first book, African Americans of Chattanooga. As I searched, I stumbled across the gravestone of one, Hinton D. Alexander. I snapped a photo. The inscription read:

“This memorial erected by the Chattanooga Band of Hope in memory of Supt. H. D. Alexander, in appreciation of 40 years of faithful service. Died October 13, 1925. His works do follow him.”

I was instantly curious. I had not heard of this man, but he was buried in the “prominent” section of the black cemetery, so I set about discovering what he had done for the community. I took the date from the headstone and pulled his obituary from the local history department’s digital files.

The obituary did not divulge whether he had ever been a slave, but it announced with pride that he was the first Chattanooga African American to go to college -- Fisk University, where he soon became one of the original Jubilee Singers.  These Singers performed before kings and queens in Great Britain, Holland, Germany, Switzerland and beyond.

Next, I contacted Tennessee State University library archives and found this image. Hinton D. Alexander is in the center with his arms folded:

Hinton and the Fisk Jubilee Singers used their voices to raise money to build a dormitory to house students on the Fisk campus.  Once Hinton’s tenure with the Singers was over, he returned to Chattanooga and served as a mail carrier until a few years before his death in 1926. I found all this because I stumbled upon a gravestone.

Hinton D. Alexander is on the far right.

 

Summary: Is Hinton D. Alexander an “unsung hero?” The question (and answer) is relative. Some may feel he was just a black man who went to college, sang in a group, and lived out his last years as a mail carrier. I see him as an unsung hero. He entered college a mere five years after the end of the Civil War, so education (and freedom) for blacks was relatively new. Because there were no funds for buildings to house the students on his campus, Hinton and his colleagues traveled across Europe and raised money by singing before kings and queens.

 

WHY ARE UNSUNG HEROES IMPORTANT?

Celebrating unsung heroes is important because their stories add depth to the timeline of history and gives students, history buffs and the world at large a fuller sense of the events, mindset, struggles and accomplishments of the past. It fills in gaps and helps readers, writers, and historians see the world through a different lens. Through these stories, young readers understand that one does not need to be rich, famous, white, or powerful to be a hero. So-called “ordinary” people can be heroes, too.

 

WHERE TO FIND UNSUNG HEROES

So where do you find unsung heroes? Anywhere and everywhere… but if you need a more specific starting place, try these:

1.     Historical markers

2.     Obituaries

3.     Old graveyards/gravestones.

4.     Old newspapers/microfiche

5.     Early unpublished diaries (check your library’s local history dept)

6.     Out-of-print or out-of-circulation books

 

ACTIVITY 

Choose your first “unsung hero.” Visit an old graveyard or a historical marker you may have passed and never noticed. Choose a grave (or marker), then take the information to your local history department, pull the obituary, and begin to fill in the blanks in your hero’s story. You never know what you will find.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Award-winning author Rita Lorraine Hubbard is a retired special education teacher of 20 years who now champions unsung heroes whose stories need to be told with courage and heart. Her books, The Oldest Student: How Mary Walked Learned to Read; Hammering for Freedom: The William Lewis Story; and African Americans of Chattanooga: A History of Unsung Heroes, have garnered honors and awards that include the New Voices Award, the East Tennessee Historical Preservation Award, the 2021 Floyd’s Pick Honor Book Award, and the 2021-2022 Texas Bluebonnet Master List Award. Rita has an advanced degree in School Psychology and owns and manages The Black History Channel.

ABOUT THE PRIZE

Rita Lorraine is offering one free copy of THE OLDEST STUDENT to the winner. Bookplate included.

Starting with a Great Idea: Goosebumps Don’t Lie!

By Suzanne Slade

One of the questions I’m asked most often during school visits is “Where do you get your book ideas?”

Students are always surprised to find out that I don’t go looking for new book ideas. In fact, they always find me. My children have sparked great book topics. Librarians, teachers, and students have shared fantastic ideas. I’ve stumbled across book ideas in newspaper and online articles, while listening to the radio, watching TV, and even strolling through an outdoor festival. It seems book ideas are lurking everywhere!

 

For example, years ago while I was doing a presentation about my Apollo book COUNTDOWN at a Chicago bookstore, my eyes kept wandering to a large book at the back of the room with a colorful cover. After my presentation, I pulled the book off the shelf to investigate. Turns out, it was an adult title about Mars. The incredible photos inside sparked an idea which became my picture book titled MARS IS (releasing April 2021.) 

As soon as a new book idea finds me, I write it down immediately. The few times I didn’t, I was convinced those forgotten ideas would have become the best books ever!

A long list of potential picture book topics is always floating around my desk—usually buried beneath a pile of research books for the manuscript I’m currently working on. But I can’t seem to find time to work on all these ideas. So how do I decide which ones to pursue?

Behold—the simple goosebump test. I look for a topic that has a surprising, fascinating, or little-known aspect which gives me goosebumps (literally.) I figure if a story idea is that compelling, young readers will likely be interested in it too.

Of course, a goosebump moment is just the beginning of the long, unpredictable, and often frustrating path to publication. But that inspiring moment is an exciting way to start the journey!

Before officially committing to a goosebump idea, I check to see if there are other children’s books about that topic on the market. A quick search on Amazon and WorldCat (www.worldcat.org) is an easy way to find out. If there are children’s books on the subject, that doesn’t necessarily mean I won’t pursue the project.

Next, I dig a little deeper to determine if the type of story I want to tell, the particular angle or part I plan to emphasize, is similar to an existing book. I also carefully consider whether I’m equipped to share this particular story. Meaning, I take into account whether I have any personal history, educational background, work experiences, hobbies, access to primary sources/experts, or other factors related to the topic which would prove helpful in creating an engaging, authentic, and accurate story.

Every nonfiction author has their own method of deciding which book ideas to pursue. No matter what your method, I believe it’s helpful to spend considerable time in the “idea phase” of a project. Because once you begin a nonfiction story, you’ll likely spend years researching, revising, and editing, not to mention reviewing artist sketches, fact checking, marketing, and more. So it’s beneficial to select a topic you’re over-the-moon about, because your journey with that project might end up longer than an actual trip to the moon! (Which is 239,000 miles by the way.)

Activity: If you haven’t already, jot down the book ideas that have been floating around in your head, or floating around your house on scraps of paper. If you don’t have any (or many) ideas, during the next week try to stay alert and open to book ideas throughout your day. You never know where new ideas might appear!

Next, find a block of uninterrupted time to carefully consider your list of ideas and ask yourself these questions: Which idea(s) are you most excited about? Which one(s) do you think will interest young readers? Do any ideas feel especially fresh or timely? Do you have access to unique primary sources or experts you could interview for certain topics? Do you have any personal background, expertise, work experiences, or coursework which applies to any of your topics? Based on your analysis, select the idea that seems best to pursue. You might also rank your remaining ideas, so you’ll know which ones you’d like to tackle next.

Finally, congratulate yourself on finding your next great idea(s)! I can’t wait to read your incredible nonfiction books as soon as they release.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Suzanne Slade is the award-winning author of more than100 nonfiction children’s books. A mechanical engineer by degree, many of her books are on STEM topics. She also enjoys writing about heroes from her hometown of Chicago, such as Jane Addams, Gwendolyn Brooks, and the Harlem Globetrotters. Recent titles include Swish! The Slam-Dunking, Alley-Ooping, High-Flying Harlem Globetrotters; Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks; and A Computer Called Katherine: How Katherine Johnson Helped Put America on the Moon. Releasing March 15: June Almeida, Virus Detective! The Woman Who Discovered the First Human Coronavirus. Find more at SuzanneSlade.com.

 

ABOUT THE PRIZE

About the Prize: Suzanne is offering a 30-minute phone or Zoom visit to discuss your wonderful book ideas. During the consultation, she will also help you brainstorm story ideas, suggest possible primary sources for the project, and answer questions.

The Reluctant Nonfictionist

By Meredith Davis

Before writing Her Own Two Feet: A Rwandan Girl’s Brave Fight to Walk, I never thought of myself as a nonfiction writer. I had spent many years reading and writing fiction, attending lectures on world-building, amassing shelves of fiction titles, and studying plots and characters of books like Wonder and Skellig.

When my agent suggested I write a middle grade nonfiction based on a personal experience I had, I pushed back. Why was I so reluctant? After years of seeking publication, my agent was telling me this was a good idea for a story. I should give it a try, I was capable of writing it, I should go for it . . . but I was afraid. And if there’s one thing I’d learned as a writer, I couldn’t write from a place of fear.

There were some key things I had to do if I was going enter this new territory. I needed to Pin down my fears, Read the genre, Identify my connection to the topic, Detour when needed, and Experience everything. Take all the first letters and they spell PRIDE, another word for confidence, which is exactly what I needed. But where to start, and how?

 -Pin down my fears. Yoda says, “Named your fear must be, before banish it you can.” I realized I had at least two fears I was dealing with. One, I was afraid of getting something wrong. This was faulty thinking. I already knew there was the potential to get plenty wrong in fiction, like misrepresenting a real culture or place, even if it was in a fictional setting. Once I acknowledged what I’d already done to get things right in my fiction, I took courage. I could do this. Fear number two, my identity was wrapped up in being a fiction writer. That’s how editors knew me, how my instructors at VCFA knew me, how my writer friends knew me, and how I knew myself. I hadn’t been part of the conversation of nonfiction, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t start. I needed to engage with the nonfiction community, and I’ve discovered they are quite a friendly crowd. The way to start was to listen.

 -Read the genre. This is a great way to “listen” to the conversation out there. When I began writing nonfiction, I began reading a lot more nonfiction, looking for books that felt like what I was trying to produce. I also started following websites like Nonfiction Ninjas and signed up for newsletters from great nonfiction writers like Kate Messner and Candace Fleming. All of these voices helped inform my emerging nonfiction work.

 -Identify my connection to the topic. Why did I care about this story? Because it’s about my coauthor and myself, my connection to this book was obvious. Early on I knew I wanted to cowrite Her Own Two Feet with my Rwandan coauthor, Rebeka Uwitonze. It was both our stories. Being so closely connected was a huge confidence boost to me when I began to doubt myself, but nonfiction writers aren’t always so closely connected to their subject matter. It’s an important question to ask yourself no matter what the project because once you find your connection, you’ve found your emotional path into the story.

 -Detour when needed and don’t be afraid of the work. Her Own Two Feet started as a picture book because that’s all the material we had. When my agent suggested it felt like a bigger story, maybe middle grade, I resisted. That meant major commitment, buying a plane ticket to Rwanda, and interviewing people who could provide knowledge and stories beyond Rebeka’s and my experiences and memories. It meant going public with our nonfiction project. I took a chance, took a deep breath, and leapt, and flew, and here we are with a beautiful book and starred reviews and letters from children who are inspired by Rebeka’s story. It was worth it, but there were lots of changes, edits, and detours along the way.

 -Experience everything. We had Rebeka’s old cast, the brush she used to rub her scars, the lotion she used on her dry skin. In Rwanda we put our hands in the red dirt of the countryside, smelled the goats in the pen behind Rebeka’s house, heard the motorbikes pass by outside, tasted rice and beans in her school’s cafeteria, and saw the garden where she taught herself how to walk on the tops of her feet. These were physical details we used as we wrote scenes that gradually, step by step, became Her Own Two Feet: A Rwandan Girl’s Brave Fight to Walk. The more you can experience, the more you can engage the senses and engage the reader. I wish you all the best and am quite sure you can join the friendly ranks of a Confident Nonfictionist. We’ll be waiting for you.

 

ABOUT THE ACTIVITY

If you’re a Reluctant Nonfictionist, or maybe just tackling a tough new project, I challenge you to target an element of PRIDE in your process.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Meredith Davis is the co-author of HER OWN TWO FEET: A RWANDAN GIRL’S BRAVE FIGHT TO WALK (Scholastic, 2019) which has won numerous awards and honors including a PW starred review, JLG Winter 2020 selection, NAACP Image Award nominee, and 2020 Winner SCBWI Crystal Kite Award for TX/OK. She once worked at an independent children’s bookstore, started the Austin Chapter of SCBWI, and earned her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults at VCFA. She is married with three children and lives in a home full of books in Austin, Texas.

 

ABOUT THE PRIZE

Meredith Davis will be awarding a signed copy of Her Own Two Feet: A Rwandan Girl’s Brave Fight to Walk.

 

What Is Literary Nonfiction?

By Melissa Stewart

Both adult and publishers and children’s publishers divide fiction and nonfiction books into two broad categories—commercial and literary.

Commercial fiction, written by such authors as Mary Higgins Clark, Gordon Korman, Stephen King, Mary Pope Osborne, James Patterson, and Lauren Tarshis, has mass appeal, and editors expect it to make a substantial profit. These books are fast paced with strong plots and limited characterization. Their themes are usually fairly obvious, and the language and syntax isn’t too complex.

In contrast, literary fiction, written by such authors as Kate deCamillo, Toni Morrison, Joyce Carol Oates, John Updike, Padma Venkatraman, and Jacqueline Woodson, is more likely to receive starred reviews and win awards. These books feature rich, multifaceted stories with well-developed characters, lush language, and complex, timeless themes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Similarly, commercial nonfiction for children has mass appeal. These active and browsable titles generally sell well in bookstores and mass market outlets (like Target and Walmart) with some crossover to schools and libraries.

Literary nonfiction for children, on the other hand, is more likely to wins awards and is considered higher-quality writing. These expository literature and narrative nonfiction titles sell primarily to schools and libraries with some crossover to bookstores and, occasionally, to mass market outlets.

When educators use the term “literary nonfiction,” they are (understandably) thinking more about craft moves than sales potential. According to The Fountas and Pinnell Literacy Continuum (Heinemann, 2016), literary nonfiction is “a nonfiction text that employs literary techniques, such as figurative language, to present information in engaging ways.”  

Because nearly all current state ELA standards are heavily modeled after the Common Core State Standards (even in states that never adopted CCSS), it’s worth looking at that document too. It focuses more on types or forms of writing and lists the following as examples of literary nonfiction:

—some personal essays and speeches

—most biographies/autobiographies

—memoirs

—narrative nonfiction

—some poetry

—some informational picture books

(It’s interesting that CCSS differentiates life stories (biographies and autobiographies) from narrative nonfiction. In the children’s literature community, picture book biographies are generally considered quintessential examples of narrative nonfiction because they tell the story of a person’s life.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 5 Kinds of Nonfiction classification system (which focuses on children’s nonfiction books exclusively and doesn’t include essays, speeches, letters, journals, textbooks, brochures, catalogs, etc.) differentiates between commercial categories and literary categories because one of its goals is to give authors, editors, agents, book reviewers, awards committee members, librarians, literacy educators, and classroom teachers a common lexicon for discussing the wide and wonderful world of nonfiction for kids. Only then can publishers understand the kinds of nonfiction books that ALL students want and need.

Because most editors gravitate toward narratives, publishers have put a lot of emphasis on narrative nonfiction in recent years. But that’s slowly starting to change, as the children’s literature community realizes two important things: 

1. About 40 percent of young readers prefer expository nonfiction.
2. Four of the five categories in the 5 Kinds of Nonfiction classification system have an expository writing style.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Based on that knowledge, publishers are beginning to acquire more expository literature, making this an expanding market for authors and illustrators. There are currently two notable gaps that need filling:

—Books about history and social studies topics.
—Books written and illustrated by people from traditionally marginalized communities.

Nonfiction creators also need to look for creative ways to incorporate what kids love about active and browsable nonfiction into books with the elements of finely-crafted nonfiction prose. Perhaps these are areas where you can contribute to innovation and evolution happening right now in children’s nonfiction.

 

ACTIVITY

Using the information above and book descriptions available on the internet, classify each of the titles below as either literary nonfiction or commercial nonfiction. Then, after exploring the links above, use the 5 Kinds of Nonfiction classification system to categorize the books as active, browsable, expository literature, or narrative.

Cooking Class Global Feast! 44 Recipes that Celebrate the World’s Cultures by Deanna F. Cook

Crossings: Extraordinary Structures for Extraordinary Animals by Katy S. Duffield

Dream Builder: The Story of Architect Philip Freelon by Kelly Starling Lyons

Eye Spy: Wild Ways Animals See the World by Guillaume Duprat

Guinness World Records 2020 by Guinness World Records

Honeybee: The Busy Life of Apis Mellifera by Candace Fleming

The Next President: The Unexpected Beginnings and Unwritten Future of America’s Presidents by Kate Messner

Wildlife Ranger Action Guide: Track, Spot & Provide Healthy Habitat for Creatures Close to Home by Mary Kay Carson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Melissa Stewart has written more than 180 science books for children, including her upcoming title Summertime Sleepers: Animals that Estivate, illustrated by Sarah S. Brannen. She co-wrote 5 Kinds of Nonfiction: Enriching Reading and Writing Instruction with Children’s Books and edited the anthology Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep: 50 Award-winning Authors Share the Secret of Engaging Writing. Melissa maintains the award-winning blog Celebrate Science and serves on the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators board of advisors. Her highly-regarded website features a rich array of nonfiction writing resources. 

 

 

ABOUT THE PRIZE

Melissa Stewart will be giving away a 30-minute Q&A Skype session.