Wrangling the Research Paper, Part Two: Juggling Sources

The use of several sources can be overwhelming.   To help students cut their sources down to a manageable size, try offering them this method:

1.       Open to a clean page in their notebook.

2.      Divide that page into three columns, two wide and one narrow.

3.      Label the first “quote/paraphrase and source”.  Label the second “response”.  Label the narrow one “section”.

4.      Students should go through their sources one at a time, pulling out direct quotes or paraphrases that they think they will likely use.   Record these in the first column, along with the source.

5.      Next to these quotes/paraphrases in the second column, write out their thoughts and response. 

6.      In the third column, make a guess as to which section of the paper this quote/paraphrase might fit.

7.      If a student comes up with 12-15 of these, and takes a look in the third column, it becomes very clear which quotes go together, and which areas of the paper have a lot of evidence and which do not.

This method attempts not only to cut sources down to size, but also to help organize sections of the paper.  It is time-consuming, but a useful practice.  

quote/paraphrase and source	response	section
“the children were nestled all snug in their beds”  (Moore 6)	In this part of the poem, Moore sets the tension between the quiet sleeping children and the action about to happen, the interior space and the exterior, the difference between…	Part 2
“when out on the lawn there arose such a clatter/I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter (Moore 7)	Moore breaks the silence of the poem and provides unmistakable evidence of Santa’s existence…	Part 3
Etc.

Wrangling the Research Paper

It’s research paper time again, which means lots of students with lots of stress.   Many students have not taken advantage of the step-by-step writing process that their instructors have provided, nor have they taken seriously the need to spend considerable time finding and culling through sources.   So here they are with the barest skeleton of an idea in hand with a lengthy paper due the next day.   One thing we can do is to help students take apart the assignment to look at the various pieces.  Most research papers ask students to select an issue with two sides.   Here are some steps to help students break down this large assignment into chunks.

·        Help formulate a clear research question:  “Should Harry Potter be banned from public schools?”   “Was the moon landing real or a hoax?”  “Should women in the Navy be allowed on submarines?”   Help students write in the frame of the assignment.

·        Help formulate and write down a clear position in answer to their question—this position is, of course, their thesis.    Emphasize the focus on following this answer only.

·        Help the student list points on both sides of the argument.

·        Help get students started on places to find research—start with the databases.  For most research papers, the Comprehensive selection is a good one with several good databases inside—MasterFile Premier, Gold, Opposing Viewpoints, etc.   

·        Provide the MLA tip sheet.

Students are shocked to realize that this assignment requires several hours of work between researching and writing.   Unfortunately, we are in the position to be the bearers of bad news sometimes.   Please remember that we are not here to be miracle workers, even if that is what the students want.  We can only do our best given the constraints of time that students present us with.   Just be gently honest and help students get to a place where they can take a next step, whatever that most logical step may be.     The last two weeks of the semester are usually quite stressful, but we always get through it.     (Check out the Office Yoga book for additional help.)

What's the Big Picture?

A lot of times students will come in with a variation on the theme of “can you just look this over?”   For many students, having perfect sentences and no grammar or mechanical errors is the definition of a strong piece of writing.   It’s our job, though, to help students with a much bigger picture.   When a student comes in, please have him or her read the entire document aloud, or read it yourself either aloud or silently.   Keep the pen in the student's hands.   Start with “higher order concerns”—how is the content?  thesis or topic sentence(s)? order, organization? is the writing meeting the assignment?  Once you have addressed these, then move on to “lower order concerns”—transitions, grammar, mechanics.    If students are following a true process, some of those sentences they were worried about at the start might not even be present in the writing after a session that moves in the direction described above.  This is not to advocate a dismissal of lower order concerns—they are important to the writing.  But often there are bigger issues than a fragment or comma splice.  Please get in the habit of addressing these first. 

Writing in the Frame: Compare/Contrast

In the 1940’s, Academy-award winning actress Katharine Hepburn caused a scandal when she walked through a hotel lobby because she was wearing slacks.   Seven decades later, women’s scandal-causing fashions are not news.  Hems reach higher, necklines lower, fabrics more sheer than plain air.   Women’s acceptable fashions have changed, but what do the fashions reveal?   Have women been liberated by their fashion choices, showing off bodies of every size and shape, or are current fashions just a 21^st century form of objectification?

The compare/contrast essay is more than just a tennis match of back and forth points of comparison.  There has to be a larger purpose to the comparing; in other words, what does the comparison reveal?  For Basic Writing, students must simply show a larger purpose for the comparison.  For Composition I, students must show a relationship to culture.   Setting up the several points of comparison is the easy part.  Finding out that “so what” answer is the key to the assignment and not a key that is easily located.  What is the student writing about?  What point does the student want to make?  What has the student noticed while comparing?  Asking lots of questions to get students to locate their “so what” is one way to help.   

Somewhere on the Spectrum

Many of us have heard the phrase “Autism Spectrum Disorder.”   This range covers several developmental disabilities including Asperger’s Syndrome.   Some students enter our program under the care of the Office of Disability Services.   While we know that these students are allowed certain accommodations by law, we do not know the specific disability that a student may have.    We can assume, however, that some of our students fall somewhere on the Autism Spectrum.   As the Wisconsin Technical College Staff write in the “Autism Spectrum Disorders Guide:”

The essential features of a person with autistic disorder fit into three categories:

1) an impaired development in social interaction.

2) impairments in communication.

3) restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests, and activities (5).

Working with students who fall into the behavioral categories above can present some challenges to a Writing Lab.    One accessible source that provides some background information and some ideas for helping students is the  Asperger's Syndrome and Postsecondary Education blog.  Bristol Community College’s Learning Specialist Cindy Poore Pariseau has compiled an excellent presentation on students with Asperger’s Syndrome on this site.   Check out this informative slide show at the link above.     

As we go forward in the semester, it may be helpful to recall these words in the “Autism Spectrum Disorders Guide” by the Wisconsin Technical College Staff:  

Educators working with students with disabilities, especially students on the autism spectrum, should be respectfully aware that their unique neurology makes for a very different, but an equally valid reality. This unique form of intellect brings with it some profound skills and wisdom. When educators presume competence, believe that the student is trying their best, and approach those who are different with kindness, the results can be extremely positive for all concerned (ii).

Writing in the Frame: Narrative

Forget the too-sweet chocolate bunnies and endearing marshmallow peeps.   Don’t bother me with the brightly-colored plastic eggs hidden in the nooks and crannies of the yard.   I’m not that concerned with what treats might be hidden in my Easter basket.   What I’m really looking forward to is the Easter Bread.   For generations, my family has made a traditional Italian Easter Bread, light enough to rise off the plate of its own accord, sweet enough to temper even the worst bad mood, flavored with lemon, vanilla or anise, braided into a beautiful wreath whose ends are joined by a colorful hard-boiled egg.    My mother’s, grandmother’s, and great-grandmother’s handprints all may be found in this bread.  And when my family and I slice it and enjoy it for Easter breakfast, we are enjoying not only a special food, but a long tradition.

So, tutors, you get the idea of the narrative.   It is meant to be a true story, told in the first person.  It is about either a significant event (Basic Writing) or a slice of culture that reveals the significance of the story to the writer (Comp. I).   It should include a lot of description and be a very engaging story with all the elements of narrative:  a particular sequence of events (could be chronological, flashback, or flashforward), have a point of view (in this case, first person), use specific, detailed language, and show the story vs. just telling it.    In my example above, for instance, I tried to show the importance of this piece of my cultural heritage rather than telling you, “My family makes a traditional Easter bread.”   I think we can look forward to a lot of great stories from our students. 

Hands Off the Wheel, Please

It is a real temptation to want to just do the work for a student, especially for one who is struggling and when we can see a clear path through the writing but the student can’t.   We want to spell those words, provide just the right vocabulary suggestion, put in that comma or semicolon, or suggest a different sentence structure.   But keep in mind that the ownership of the writing needs to remain with the student.  They have to stay in the driver’s seat, even if they are driving erratically or off course.  One way to keep ourselves in the back seat is to put the question back to the student.   If a student asks how to spell a word, ask them which letters they can provide.  If a student asks if a sentence is a run-on, explain what a run-on is and some ways to correct it, and then ask the student to correct.   If a student can’t think of a synonym, hand him or her a thesaurus.  Remember that we aren’t editors but rather facilitators of a process.  Keep away from writing on the students’ papers and from manning their keyboards.   Keep your hands off the wheel; resist the temptation to drive the students’ writing.   Hold the line in promoting writing as an active process in which the student must be present and must remain in the driver’s seat

"Scripta Manet, Verba Volant"

If your Latin is as rusty as mine is, that translates to “what is written remains, what is spoken vanishes into thin air.”    As developmental writers, many of our students need to receive information multiple times and from multiple modes in order for it to move from short-term memory to long-term.   I am frequently amazed in the Lab as I look around and see and hear so many wonderful and engaged conversations about writing happening in our small room.   An absorbing conversation is one mode of learning information.  But students also need to write down what that conversation has entailed.   Try to find places during your tutoring session where students can write down some of what is being said.   It might be a bullet point list, a few notes to themselves, or even some complete sentences. It might be handwritten or on the computer screen, in pencil, marker, or drawn out.  What they write down is up to the students, but it is up to us to remind them to record some of those great ideas before the end of the session and before that often hard-to-capture writing vanishes into thin air.   

Writing in the Frame: Descriptive Writing

The snow fell again from the iron-gray sky in rough sheets, relentless and harsh.  Accompanying it like a wild cello was the wind, up and down the scale.   For a lifetime the storm raged and howled as if there were wolves at the door.   But the morning played a different tune.  With a rosy dawn came the forgiving sun, and a quiet landscape frosted in white.  On the middle branches of the one lone pine, a bright cardinal sat and sang its morning, after- storm song.    

So, dear tutors, you get the idea.   Descriptive writing should be descriptive, focused on showing vs. telling, the use of sensory details, and the use of devices including simile and metaphor, personification and hyperbole (can you find a sample of each above?).     Students sometimes get lost in a descriptive assignment and write a great narrative but forget that they are supposed to be incorporating a heavy dose of description.   This week and next we can expect lots of students working on their descriptive assignments.   To help them out, focus on what the assignment is asking for.    Maybe make some lists of descriptors based on senses and emotions, or divide a sheet into physical and emotional qualities, if applicable.  You could help a student come up with a metaphor or two.    It might not be as easy as pie, but with some guidelines, we can help students stay on a vivid track.  (“Picture yourself on a boat on the river, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies…”).    

What’s With All the Talking?

Hello again, Tutors.  This inaugural tutor tip for the semester is about talking—how much, how often, who’s doing it.   Last week I was working with a new student on an essay for basic writing.  At some point, I realized that I was hearing a lone voice—mine.  The poor student was only saying two words because that is all I was giving him room to do.  This is a reminder to me and to you to pull back if you find the only voice you are hearing is your own.   Of course we have to talk to the students; it’s meant to be a shared conversation about writing, after all.  But keep an eye (okay, an ear) on how much of that conversation is coming from you and how much from the students.   Too many words can feel like an avalanche for some students, especially those who are developmental writers.  Give some time to allow students to process the information.  Try following up your fewer words with something concrete to back them up—a visual representation of what you are talking about, a “to do” list for the student when the session is about to end.   Ask the student to recap what happened during the session and where he or she plans to go from there.   The sound of a little silence on our part might be just what the students need to hear. 

Welcome!

Hello Intrepid Tutors and welcome to the shiny new QUEST Writing Lab Blog Space.  Look here for the (hopefully) weekly Tutor Tip Column, issues that arise, notices, ideas for current assignments, and more juicy stuff.  Check in once a week, comment or post, let your mind unravel into new writing spheres, make a suggestion, leave us a recipe for good tutoring, etc.   Please leave students’ and faculty members’ names out of the scenario—remember, we are in the wide-open public cyber-world, so please respect the privacy of the individuals with whom we work.  See you around the universe.