A System for Teaching College Freshmen to Write a Research Paper

Abstract

THE DISAPPOINTMENTS IN TEACHING composition course involving research are well known: students aren't interested in their topics and can't read very well; the papers often are illogical and lack thesis; note cards are simply spliced together into report, at best-and, of course, there's plagiarism. By trial and error, I have evolved system for teaching the research paper which nearly eliminates these problems. In my present teaching of how to write research papers, I begin by teaching students some of the techniques of reading the kind of material in which they will do their research. Then I teach them to ask questions about the material they have read and about the topics of their own papers. Finally, I help them to organize their papers around the questions they have learned to ask of their topics. The first step in this sequence is the teaching of the basic reading skills of finding the main point and major supports of an article in magazine or chapter in book. The teaching of these techniques is in no way misuse of class time. I found that students were pleasantly astonished to discover that the main point of an article can usually be found in one sentence near its beginning or very near the end, and that the title is often clue to the main point. These discoveries are steps towards more efficient note cards. Research papers are also often flawed by the students' lack of another reading skill, the ability to distinguish between fact and speculation in sources. I now assign one reading selection early in the term primarily for the purpose of pointing out speculative language such as perhaps, may be, and a possible explanation. I half-expected my students to take offense at such low-level instruction; on the contrary, they sat up, paid attention, and took notes with enthusiasm. The second step in the system is to select truly universal topics. The three that I am using now are work, and education. These topics affect everyone; students come to class with at least rudimentary opinions already formed. The third step is to assign the topic in question form and to pose the question in such way that it applies to the student personally. The question will be something like What should I do about or What kind of X will be right for me? For the topic family, we read and discuss two articles on marriage and children. The question is, What family style should I choose for myself? Why? We discuss the