7.8.22 Research Paper Countdown!

Greetings to future readers! This week was a shorter one due to the Fourth of July (thankfully) coming on a Monday this year. Nonetheless, I was able to get some content out to the students in preparation for the research paper looming at the end of the semester.

The only major assignment remaining for the students of my assigned section of History and Historiography is the infamous research paper. I briefly discussed this research paper last week, but the focus was on the response paper that was due last weekend. Now that students have turned in their response papers they can completely shift their focus to the research paper. They better do so quickly, as the paper is due in four weeks! Four weeks may seem like plenty of time to those who have never written a research paper before, but this type of paper takes a lot of time, effort, revision, editing, planning, writing, and, of course, research!

It's been a while since I've written a research paper, so I decided to reflect on my experiences and do a little of the research cycle myself in order to refresh my mind and relate to the students' experience. The first research paper I completed was only nine pages, and I confidently assumed two weeks would be plenty of time to get it done. I got it done, but that was not a pleasant two weeks. The second week was particularly strenuous - I was practically glued to my seat in the library! This was for one of the 2000 level world history or European history courses so it was much easier than a true research paper one would write for a higher level class like HIS-4150, but it did teach me a lot. Particularly that time management is key to staying sane during the research cycle! That's why I emailed the students earlier today to remind them of the approaching deadline - the earlier they start the process, the better their papers will be!

For that reason I created an infographic to give students the general gist of what a research paper involves and, more importantly, the steps to completing a research paper:

Note the word "brief" at the top! This certainly isn't a complete guide to writing a research project, but the students already have access to resources that offer more detailed instructions. My goal with this little project was to lay out the steps of the research cycle so students aren't immediately overwhelmed by the volume of work required. They can use this guide to track their progress step-by-step and hopefully avoid a research paper panic attack! Currently they're around steps one to three and should move into the proper research phase next week. I'll keep creating content and assisting in any way I can!