Pitch the OTC Medication: Worry Free Research Paper Writing - New Series?

November 2, 2008 on 5:11 am | In Other |

Having had the chance of being an educator for almost three decades, and involved in pedagogy for more than 36 years. During that time I have taught the lower grades, high school, college preparatory and most recently at the college level. For me, it was a constant challenge keeping learning fun, interactive and rewarding for each student. As my classes focused on older kids, making the gradual metamorphosis from young to older, I noticed a common concern that each generation of kids became nearly terrified 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 homework. But, what I was dismissing and defining as being disgruntled, actually had much more significance; these pupils were sometimes downright overwhelmed when they heard mention of a “research paper”.

Worry about the something outside their comfort zone, being buried in volumes of pages, and not having a clue how to brainstorm research paper ideas was frequent. Young adults envisioning a mountain to climb, because they didn’t know how to write a research paper, rarely truly believed me that in life’s big picture, completing a dissertation, even one that was longer than they were accustomed to, was barely a blip on the radar, compared to much more significant, life impacting events they’d eventually face as mature adults. Those words fell on a non-responsive audience usually.

Unable to look towards the bigger picture or the long view, their immediate reality was a looming turn-in date 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 unexplored territory: how to write a research paper, and do it right - not just to pass or fail, but measure up to the criteria that institutions of higher learning, hold in high importance.

When I first began teaching at the post high-school level I planned to give a semester-long specification to write a research paper on a(n) issue of that particular student’s most passionate concern.

The dean of our department warned me that this would cause me many headaches. He said that even at a university level, simply hearing that you have to write a research paper usually sent many students into a downward spiral.

Determined, I ignored his advice and ventured into research paper neverland. The first session of the semester I handed out the outline for the class. This included the name of the text book we would be using, the dates of the tests and the requirement that everyone would write a research paper.

I explained that the tests as well as the participation in class confabs would be 66% of the grade and the research paper would be the other third. I handed out schedules and due dates for the dissertation. I wanted the focus they chose as well as a rough synopsis completed in the first 14 days and then various progress reports throughout the semester.

My plan and execution of my set schedule “forced” the paper to be done in small steps, rather than the typical giant one, when many students, kids or adults, sit down at the last minute and try to accomplish a mammoth amount worth of work in one sitting. Unnecessary stress and nervousness in my mind. And with the fundamentals of how to effectively write a research paper tackled in small chunks throughout the class, semester or year depending on course and / or institution, initial terror about even the most simple part, research paper ideas, seemed less and less an issue of worry.

Whether narrowing down a long list of paragraphs formatted neat and succinctly summarizing research paper ideas, writing each necessary ingredient, keeping each research paper properly formatted for an instructor who was known to be a stickler about such particulars, or pacing themselves to guarantee paper completion by the due date, when deconstructed into smaller sections, how to write a research paper woes slowly, but surely disappear. Watch for for the next report in this series: Research Paper Ideas, the Easy Way - And avoiding the panic.

Thanks to a new series highlighting how to write a research paper without the all too common butterflies, certified Ronald S. Smithers provides the first realization he extracted from his teaching days. Stay tuned for, so you to can write a research paper, on the the site students have taken advantage of and that gives free stuff to college students, and helps you uncover even more capital with federal government student loan consolidation.

- Jackie Black

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