Get Schooled

By Randy

April 27, 2005 09:00 AM | Link to this

When I assign a research paper in Middle School, the result is not as important as the process. I teach each step along the way, so they learn to organize and evaluate, to write and revise. They grade themselves according to a rubric. It’s a lot of work for them, but I give them class time to help work out problems and provide computer time for those who need it. Those who complain the loudest are those who have not finished the project.

By JR

April 27, 2005 09:13 AM | Link to this

In the middle grades the longer “papers” are taught in various stages over weeks with the students “building” in the topic, outline, structure and information over time. These types of “papers” are not as easily plagerized because the work is completed in class and in the media center. The teachers monitor the progress of the students and help direct them towards finishing the report.

By Trent

April 27, 2005 09:43 AM | Link to this

When I taught high school English, I graded all papers based on a rubric that I handed out with the assignment. The rubric not only communicated my expectations and later supported the legitimacy of my evaluation, but it taught students to write for different expectations, because the rubric changed according to the assignment. I agree that time is a problem, but if you are an English teacher, your job is to teach writing, so you make the time by making the assignment a priority and by narrowing the focus of the assignment.

I also agree that process is important, and that includes the research process. Leading students through different means and methods of research cuts down on the cheating problem. There are also websites that will scan papers and compare them to known published works, which helps substantiate allegations of cheating when you have to fight parents and bureaucrats.

Before bemoaning the death of the research paper, I think it is important to find out if another type of focused, measured writing is replacing it. Most schools do not require enough short analytical writing, even though that is a skill that is much more applicable in an office / professional environment. More workers have to write memos and briefs than have to write lengthy position papers…

By Mac

April 27, 2005 09:47 AM | Link to this

As a veteran Gwinnett teacher I first want to question this comment from the original post about cut and paste plagiarism: “Gwinnett teachers are going to start explicitly teaching students what plagiarism is, especially as it relates to the Internet.” Going to start? We never stopped. Those of us who assign research have ALWAYS taught what plagiarism is and have adjusted that teaching to the internet age.

The two best ways to keep students from plagiarizing (in addition to explicitly teaching them how not to do it) are labor-intensive on the front end, but they save the teacher from the dispiriting ordeal of snooping out ripped off stuff on the back end. They are (1) make research assignments that are idiosyncratic and personalized enough that they cannot easily be plagiarized, and (2) as the teacher above said, teach research as a process and check every phase in the process.

A teacher who says, “Give me a 2000 word research paper on Hitler” and then only checks the final draft is practically saying to her students, “Please plagiarize.”

By Jennifer

April 27, 2005 10:38 AM | Link to this

I wrote the comment this blog is referring to. I do not teach English, I teach history. Most of my students will head off to college and be expected to write research papers. This school year, my students wrote two research papers, one in the fall and one this spring. I went through the process of how to write a research paper for both assignments. This included how to take notes, how to cite sources, what plagiarism consisted of and how to follow a correct research paper format. However, even after all of that, I could still google quotes from papers students turned in and show my students where they had stolen information from online. Our county requires English teachers to teach the writing of research papers every year in high school. Theoretically, this means a student should, by the time he graduates, write at least 4 research papers, minimum. There is no such requirement in other disciplines, although I wish it was required in Social Studies. Unfortunately, over the past few years, fewer and fewer English teachers in our system are teaching the research process and no one is checking up to see that these teachers are doing this, meaning students are being shortchanged. Many teachers have taken the “why bother� approach, feeling the students will not do the work, they will just copy and paste from the internet or sadly, they just do not want to read over 100 research papers. Teachers in other disciplines assign research papers because we feel it is an important part of the learning process. I was willing to take the time to ensure my students did not receive credit for information they stole from online sources and I also gave my students an opportunity to turn their papers in early for proofreading. This allowed me to identify potential problems with grammar, the citing of sources and the format. In addition, I allowed students a chance to rewrite papers turned in with major problems for partial credit and several students took advantage of this. I also take the time to proofread papers students have completed for other teachers. I want my students to succeed and I am working towards that goal. The research paper is not going to go away at the college level and avoiding it in high school just guarantees that teachers are setting their students up for failure in higher education.

By Jeeves

April 27, 2005 11:03 AM | Link to this

Dang Jennifer - That was entirely too long a post for a weblog. Didn’t even read it. Kinda like a research paper that is very long and hard to read. Have students write precisely and to the point and they won’t have to worry about stealing other’s ideas.

By Amanda

April 27, 2005 11:14 AM | Link to this

I am dismayed to read about the decline of the research paper in high schools. I graduated from an excellent high school and was taught, every year over and over, how to write and how to write well. Once I started college, I had a huge advantage over my classmates who came to college not knowing how to write. I had a natural grasp on grammar, an ability to express myself succinctly and coherently and the ability to do those things without it being an enormous undertaking. I was appalled to find out that my college had to set up a “Writing for College” program for incoming freshmen shortly after I started because the level of writing skill that people were coming to college with was so pitiful. Teach the kids how to write and make the punishments for plagarism serious. The college-bound students have no excuse for not knowing how to write when they arrive on campus!

By Jennifer

April 27, 2005 11:19 AM | Link to this

Sorry Jeeves, I got on my soapbox. I’ll try and keep it a lot shorter next time.

By Trent

April 27, 2005 11:29 AM | Link to this

I agree that the research paper process is valuable for certain students. It teaches students how to gather information from many sources, how to analyze large amounts of data, and how to organize/synthesize that data to support their analysis.

Even though I taught English, I have a BA and an MA in history, so I know about those papers in college.

But is “They will have to do it in college” a valid reason to spend extensive time on it in high school? Despite numerous hours in department meetings listening to defenses of pedagogy, I have yet to hear a reason why students should write a lengthy paper every year, beyond the suggestion that it is “college-prep.”

How many careers require these skills?

By Bowdoin

April 27, 2005 01:29 PM | Link to this

Trent asks: How many careers require these skills?

Fair question, but it depends on what skills we’re talking about and (by extension) what type of paper we’re talking about.

“Research paper” is routinely used to describe two very different products: 1) A synthesis of what is known about a particular topic; and 2) A presentation and defense of an argument.

The skills involved in writing a Type-1 paper are, it seems to me, basic elements in the toolkits of medical professionals (what do we know about this rare condition?), lawyers (what’s the case law on this?), marketing reps (what’s out there already and what does it sell for?) and virtually anyone in a large organization who has to do presentations to clients or senior managers.

The skills involved in writing a Type-2 paper are a bit less in demand, but they’re essential to anyone who has to persuade other people of the rightness of some proposition: lawyers again, but also clergy, business-to-business sales reps, and anyone who has to write grant applications, argue for zoning variances, or defend a pet project against reallocation of funds.

By Anita

April 27, 2005 03:06 PM | Link to this

Bowdoin, I couldn’t agree with you more.

Some other thoughts:

As a college English teacher who has assigned and read many a research project, I am constantly amazed at what students will do when they know how to approach research papers. All too often, the student hears “research paper” and they assume that they are to go to the library and check out everything they can on the subject (or google everything…you get the idea), without paying any attention to whether or not the source material is germane to their discussion. The “paper” ends up being a pastiche of various source material and NO synthesis or evidence of student thought and consideration of the material. Repeated attention to research, across the formal educational life span, is crucial to building a sense of what it means to question and to find answers.

As a person who regularly sits on panels in dishonesty hearings, I’ve seen first hand the results of both poor assignment planning and bad approaches to research projects by students. As teachers, we have a duty to teach students academic responsibility. The level of ethical awareness students put into their schoolwork must surely carry over into their professional lives.