The biggest fear of every student in Cherokee High School was the annual research paper. Every spring the rumors would begin to circulate about the potential topic of the research paper their teacher will assign. However, the teachers dreaded the research paper just as much as, if not more than the students. Despite four years of writing the same style and format, many seniors would still write theses such as "Do you want to know what George Orwell thinks about socialism? Read my analysis of Animal Farm to find out." Teachers would spend weeks attempting to show proper argument structure. They would give hints to writing a good opening paragraph. They would spend hours aiding students with thesis development. In the end, however, nothing got through to about half of the class, who would wait until the night before to write the entire paper, and turn in a poorly written paper.
However, I always enjoyed writing research papers. The teachers got through to me, and in my opinion the papers had interesting topics, and thought provoking research. My freshman year, I wrote a criticism of Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window. Sophomore year, I wrote an analysis of Hemingway's Snows of Kilimanjaro. Both my junior and senior I compared aspects of George Orwell's 1984 to contemporary America. In all cases, I found copious amounts of informative research, much of which I never used in a paper but held onto in memory. Perhaps it was my open mind and eagerness to learn that guided me to successful writing in high school, or perhaps it was great teachers, albeit grammar was hardly teached (sic) in any English class.
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Ryan,
ReplyDeleteWe had the same type of assignment in my high school, and interestingly enough, the same type of response from our students. There would be our students who would try really hard, do great research, and talk to the teacher everyday after class. Then there was the students who didn't care, and wrote the paper the night before. As you can imagine the grades usually reflected the effort put in. I am not proud, but I can say I have been on both sides of this story. My freshman and junior year I was the hard worker and got great grades. My sophomore and senior year I was the slacker who didn't care. The reason I am telling you this is because of your line: "Perhaps it was my open mind and eagerness to learn that guided me to successful writing in high school". I could not agree with that statement more. My sophomore and senior year, I received a poor grade, did not learn much, and had a very poor paper. This was because I was not eager and I did not have an open mind about doing the paper. You hit the nail on the head with your comment, to write a good paper, you must be eager and open minded. I just thought it was interesting that what you said corresponded exactly to how I felt about my four years of writing at my high school.
Aaron Stevenson
Our school followed the same format, the annual research project come spring time. I wouldn't say I necessarily dreaded it, but I certaintly put it off for as long as I could. I can say that I finished many papers the night before they were due but I still managed to get good grades. I found the only challenging part of a research project to be the research. However, our school offered many sources of information through the library and online databases such as Gale Student Research Center or Britanica. These types of websites are so helpful because they only have creditable sources, the hardest part of research in my opinion. The teachers still got through to me and I listened to their advice. I guess I just managed to get away with procrastination, which is not a good thing as I look back.
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