I. The Traditional Research Paper

In most cases, research papers have been a bad experience for both the student/writer and the teacher/audience. Most students think of them as a game, written with the fewest possible errors, using "Teacher-Words" for a good grade.

Why?

1-"most writing they do in school doesn't count in their lives and reaches no public..."
2-"school is often a place for sitters and receivers, not searchers and learners..."
3-"in school, they are taught by the "Erros A~proach," red ink in margins and exercises in drill books...' (p. 212)

A paper written WITHOUT ENTHUSIASM, without a person behind the search; a paper whose writer has swallowed the findings of "experts," reguritated them as truth, strung them together WITHOUT COHERENCE, PERSONALITY, OR FUN.

The I-Search Paper:

A. Assumes the writer/student and the experts and teacher are all equal human beings.
B. Assumes they are all experts at something, are all learning--alone and from each other.
C. Assumes they all make mistakes; therefore, the student must sift out the truth from what he reads and hears, and write as he discovers it.

No longer the Closed Circle--with the teacher on one side. dispensing knowledge, and the student on the other, receiving it.

Now the Moebius Loop or Strip--with knowledge and learning flowing back and forth between teacher and student and expert.

"We learn alone; and we learn from others--most powerfully when they are learning from us." (p. 150)

III. The First Step--finding our own voice--get rid of teacher-words--ban Engfish

One day when I was five I was staying at my grandma's house and the phone rang. It was my mom. She was in the Borgess Hospital and said that she had a boy and they named it lonnie. I was so excited I kept asking what color of eyes does he have? What color of hair? Then she had to get ready to come home. I kept begging my grandma, "Come on, get ready, and finally we went. We had left early that day so my grandma said, "Why don' t we stop at Kindleberger Park?" I played on the slide and swings and then I wanted to go to my house and so we did. When we got there we saw my brother. He was cute and I got to hold him, but now I am ten and he is five and I wish in a way he wasn't my brother because he is a little snot. (p. 11)
 

A. GET RID OF ENGFISH (try the following and other exercises)

1. Convert the following passage into simple, precise English:

Objective consideration of contemporary phenomena compels the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.
            from "Politics and the English Language" by George Orwell.

Once upon a point in time, a small person named...initiated plans for the preparation, delivery and transportation of food stuffs to her older relative, a senior citizen, residing at a place of residence in a forest of indeterminate dimension.
from...by Russell Baker

2. Remember a nursery rhyme and rewrite it in the most complicated, pretentious language imaginable. Ask another student to identify the nursery rhyme.
3. Find examples of stuffy, pretentious language and share them with the class.

IV. Finding a topic: letting a topic find you

A. From free writings, from walks in the woods, from conversations with friends, from reading, from watching, from doing--
B. Find something you want intensely to know about or possess--
"maybe it's a stereo record or tape player that's right for your desires and pocketbook. Maybe it's a motorcycle. Or the name of an occupation or technical school best for your nees. Or a spot in the U.S. or a foreign country you'd enjoy visiting this summer." (p. 62)
C. Answer some of the following questions in your journal: (1-3 minutes each)
What place would you like to visit? (some place where you've never been)
What would you like to own?
What would you like to know that you've never had a chance to learn?

COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS.

What if...
I've always wondered...
I've always wanted to...
If I had the money, I would...
The fantasy vacation I've dreamed of is...
I would like to train...
I would like to be...
I would like to make...
I would like to operate...

BE SURE THAT THE ANSWER TO THE ABOVE WILL. GIVE YOU THE INFORMATION NECESSARY TO MAKE A DECISION IN THE NEAR FUTURE (two years, approx.)

D. Make a list of FIVE topics that you are curious about researching.
E. Choose two of these and do a free writing about each. (10-12 mm. each)
F. Develop 3 QUESTIONS from your free writing -- make sure you write the question in first person - "I."

A. What I knew (and didn't know about my topic when I started.)
B. Why I'm writing this paper. (Here's where a real need should show up; the writer demonstrates that the search may make a difference in his life.)
C. The search (the STORY of the hunt): a detective story
D. What I learned (or didn't learn. A search that failed can be as exciting and valuable as one that succeeded). (p.64)

A. Write a tentative opening to your I-Search Pap telling what you knew and didn't know when you began and what you want to find out and why. It is the beginning of your story, your quest. (1-1/2 to 2 pages, approx.)
B. Source Day - Work in groups; question the writer; suggest sources; criticize the opening
C. The Search

1. Interview an expert first. An expert is a person who knows the topic well. The topic need not be his occupation.

a. An expert can give you the most practical, workable information.
b. An expert is right there to answer questions as they come to you.
c. An expert can help you choose the best sources

2. Interviewing - use open-ended questions, not ones that can be Answered with a "Yes" or "No"

EX. 1. How did you get started in--?
2. Tell me about your first day.
3. If you were allowed to tell a beginner only one thing about how to do what you're so good at, what would it be?--the thing that counts the most. (p. 138)

3. For 10 to 15 minutes, interview another member of your group and then let that person interview you. Find out something she or he likes to do, and get the waterfall of words flowing. Take notes. Write up the interview. (p. 149)
4. Library: Chapters 18-20

A. Cutting - cut your free writing exercise or tentative opening in half; cut it in half again.
B. Cut out meaningless words - try omitting all of the following words from your opening:

EDITING DAY AND REVISION CONTENT AND ORGANIZATION:

1. Beginning - 

has personality and is interestingcontains personal experiences and is detailed 
contains specific question (with limitations) is written in first person - I 
contains previous knowledge and experiences

2. Search itself - 

tells exactly where the writer went for information tells what she/he found out
is written in the order of the discovery or search
gives the writer's reaction to the researched information as it is discovered

3. Conclusion - 
answers the question asked in the beginning:

a. completely
b. not at all and then tells why not
c. with reservations, also including what needs to be found out yet and where this information might be obtained

1. cliches
2. details, specifics, incidents, examples
3. wordiness
4. formal tone (avoid)
5. short, choppy sentences
6. sentence variety
7. rhythm of prose
8. paragraphing
9. creative use of language
10. repetition
11. need for explanation
12. clarity
13. Macrorie's "List of Bad Words"