Zen and the Art of the Research Paper

One of the most dreaded and misunderstood elements of the high school experience is the research paper process. On a daily basis, I encounter adults who refer to that time in their lives with only a shudder and a dismissal like, “I always hated doing research. I never understood what I was supposed to do.”
I used to feel the same way. The research paper process can be intimidating, mostly because of the size of the task. When you first hand out a research paper assignment, don’t be surprised if your explanation is drowned by the chorus of protests and groans. Students will be eager to tell you (often loudly and all at once) that know only two things about this process: 1) They don’t know anything at all 2) It’s pretty much their entire 9 weeks grade. Actually, it’s more like this: 1) “Miz Savage! I don’t know nothing about no research paper!” 2) “Is you sayin this is gonna be our entire nine week’s grade? I aint gonna pass this semester!” Heartwarming, isn’t it? At this point, panic ensues. Everyone is certain that they can’t do this and they will fail: their fate is sealed. Nobody likes to be imminently threatened with failure. When anxieties occur for students on such a large scale, their immediate reaction is to not do any work at all. This is usually because they don’t know how to do the work. Paradoxically, they’re afraid to ask questions and afraid to do it the wrong way. If they don’t try, they can’t fail, right? Wrong, of course! Students who panic will often disappear for days at a time, missing the very the material they needed to know, making it nearly impossible for themselves to catch up. So what to do?
“I don’t do research papers,” a teacher recently told me, “it’s just too unpleasant.” Personally, I couldn’t disagree more. Research papers are easy, provided you take them one step at a time.

The problem with research papers isn’t that they’re too difficult to do, or that they’re too difficult to learn. The research paper isn’t one impossible task, nor is it the mastery of one objective. The final research paper represents many simple tasks performed in the proper order, with none left out. Basically, students must master one objective before they can move on to the next with any hope of success. Instead of looking at the big picture, students need to tackle one objective at a time. The problem with research papers is that they’re not taught using the proper strategy. Like any enormous, seemingly insurmountable task (see: portfolio) something as daunting as a research paper has to be taken one step at a time. One simple objective (citing a source) flows naturally into the next (creating a works cited page), and before you know it, progress is being made. Just don’t look at the big picture too much. Let them be pleasantly surprised when, all of a sudden, they realize how simply and elegantly it all fits together.
Seems simple, doesn’t it? The trick is in the implementation: the teacher must set simple, short-term goals for the students. Day one: select a topic, do some preliminary research. Doable, right? Day two: Come up with a research question (something you want to know about your topic). Do a little more preliminary research, now looking for the answer to your question. By the end of the class period, have an answer to your question, and four pieces of evidence supporting your answer/four reasons why your answer is true. Day three: The answer is your thesis, and the reasons are your plan of development. Put that aside somewhere safe. Your thesis and plan of development may change over time, and that’s okay. Lesson on taking note-cards—adding a source to your works cited page, lettering your source, lettering your note-cards, and using simple paraphrased or quoted words or sentences to convey ideas. Practice as a class. Independent practice: compile 10 note-cards off of at least 2 different sources that have to do with the background of your topic…..etc, etc. You get the picture. The great thing about the research paper process is that it’s 90% independent practice, which gives you a chance to walk around the room helping out all those kids who get frustrated. That one-on-one time with students, for me, is a big part of what teaching is all about. Those personal interactions with students are the times that mean the most to them, and they really respond well to just a shred of personal attention thrown their way. Truly, the students are all alike: they just want to be loved, and if you can show them that, they’re yours, forever.

Students and teachers alike freak out about the research paper process. That’s a shame, because learning to write a research paper properly is one of the most important skills a high school student can learn. It’s so simple, though, really, so long as you employ this simple strategy. Don’t get caught up in the bigger picture. Don’t just give the assignment and then expect it to get done. Have a concrete, reachable goal set for your students every day. This will keep you honest, as well—you need to be constantly assessing their work to make sure that they’re on the right track. If you don’t correct someone who is headed in the wrong direction right away, they’ll have a miserable final product. Remember, many of these students couldn’t successfully complete a five-paragraph essay if you weren’t holding their hand. Luckily, it’s just as simple as I say it is. It’s just a matter of learning to relax and taking it one step at a time. Have at least one major grade due a week: Thesis and plan of development, works cited page, note cards, outline, rough draft, and final draft. These grades are frequent and serve as good check-ins with students’ progress. Make these grades worth an equal number of points, if you’d like. This places emphasis on the process, which is an important concept for students to grasp. There is no perfect, magical final product materializing out of thin air. There is a process, there are steps, and yes, it’s a lot of hard work, but ultimately, at the end of it all, it’s quite an accomplishment. It’s something to be proud of, something I’ve seen students beaming over as they handed their work to me. That feeling of accomplishment is so valuable to student growth. It’s the moment they realize that there is some consistency in life, that there are no short cuts, that hard work always pays out in the end.

I’ve taught four in-depth research papers in the past two years, and I can say with confidence that I’m unstoppable. Yet I, too, hated the research paper process when I first encountered it as a freshman in high school. Perhaps that’s what inspired me. I also think that learning these skills—not simply the computer skills, or the researching skills, or the writing skills, or any of the other countless and wonderful benchmarks on the state frameworks that this assignment will hit without even breaking a sweat—is essential. Or maybe skills isn’t the right word. Maybe it’s values. I think that, deep down, I believe that assigning research papers is like asking kids to eat their vegetables. They don’t want to, they hate it (or they think they hate it, how do they know, if they won’t even try it?), and it’s very, very good for them. Research papers teach us the value of hard work. They show us that organization makes life a whole lot easier, that neatness is important, that plagiarism is immoral, that structure creates order out of chaos, and that we can use our ideas to create logical, fact based arguments. When we do that, we sound a whole lot more grown-up and persuasive. Most importantly, research papers teach us that, yes, we can accomplish anything we set our minds to, but not in any old way. The process is just as important as the final result. We must break enormous tasks into small ones, which we accomplish methodically, not skipping or botching any one task, understanding each as part of a whole, paying attention to the quality of our work. Ideally, a successfully completed research paper will make a student feel a whole lot more confident and empowered, because it makes sense. Whether a student plans to go on to college or drop out of high school, they’ve benefited from your successfully implemented research paper unit. Among countless valuable lessons, it teaches them this: Set big goals for yourself; dream big. Then get there one step at a time.