Write A Research Paper Instructor Comes Clean About Student Body Fear
I have had the opportunity of being a teacher for almost three decades, and involved in pedagogy for more than 3 decades. During that time I have taught younger students, grades 9-12, college prep and most recently at the college level. For me, it was a constant struggle keeping learning fun, interactive and rewarding for each learner. As my teaching focused on older kids, making the gradual metamorphosis from young to older, I noticed a constant that each maturity level of kids became overwhelmed by: how to write a research paper.
Initially, I thought nothing of the answer I received when asking for nonfiction essays to be completed. At first, I simply defined the usual groaning as a student's opposition of my love for take home work. But, what I was dismissing and defining as being disgruntled, actually had much more depth; these groaners were sometimes downright panic stricken when they heard mention of a "research paper".
Worry about the something outside their comfort zone, being buried in heavy tomes, and not having a clue how to brainstorm research paper ideas was frequent. college-age students envisioning a barrier to climb, because they didn't know how to write a research paper, rarely truly believed me that in the wider scope of things, completing an essay, even one that was ten to thirty pages long, was barely a grain of sand on a beach, compared to much more significant, life impacting events they'd eventually face as full fledged adults. Those words fell on deaf ears usually.
Unable to look towards the larger arena or the long term, their immediate challenge was a looming time limit that could only be met by participating in an enterprise they weren't interested in, that conflicted with their social calendar or that made them uneasy facing the unknown: how to write a research paper, and do it right - not just to pass or fail, but earn the marks that institutions of higher learning, hold in high regard.
When I first began teaching at the higher education level I planned to give a full term assignment to write a research paper on a(n) topic of that particular student's most passionate interest.
The dean of our department warned me that this would cause me much grief. He said that even at a university level, simply hearing that you have to write a research paper usually sent many students into a tail spin.
Determined, I ignored his wise words and ventured into research paper neverland. The first session of the semester I handed out the syllabus for the semester. This included the title of the selected text, the dates of the tests and the assignment that everyone would write a research paper.
I explained that the reviews as well as the participation in class confabs would be a majority of the grade and the research paper would be the other 33%. I handed out schedules and due dates for the essay. I wanted the topic they chose as well as a rough outline completed in the first fortnight and then various updates on progress throughout the semester.
My plan and execution of my set schedule "forced" the paper to be done in small increments, rather than the typical giant one, when many students, kids or adults, sit down at the last minute and try to accomplish a semester's worth of work in one all-nighter. Unnecessary worry and anxiety in my opinion. And with the basics of how to effectively write a research paper tackled in small manageable pieces throughout the class, semester or year depending on subject and / or school, initial panic about even the most simple part, research paper ideas, seemed less and less a major undertaking .
Whether narrowing down a long list of passages formatted neat and succinctly summarizing research paper ideas, writing each necessary component, keeping each research paper properly formatted for an educator who was known to be a stickler about such particulars, or pacing themselves to guarantee assignment completion by the designated time, when deconstructed into smaller sections, how to write a research paper concerns slowly, but surely disappear. Stay tuned for the next article: Research Paper Ideas, the Easy Way.
About the Author: In the first of a new series relating to how to write a research paper but missing regular nausea, certified Ronald Smithers gives the first realization he extracted from his writing days. Next , more on how to effectively write research papers for school, only to be found at the the student website that gives free stuff to college students, and helps you untap more funds with federal education loan consolidation.
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