 Why is writing a research paper difficult? What difficulties have you been having and how have you been able to overcome those struggles?
Your initial post should reflect deep critical thinking and reflection on this topic. For this session, you MUST only reply to ONE (1) post.
Tori
10/21/2013 05:29:28 am
I think that writing a research paper is difficult for many reasons. It is difficult to find good sources that include the proper information and not things that are made up. When looking up websites to get information its never really 100% that the information you are using is correct. Some difficulties I personally have been having having trouble gathering information and putting it in an order that makes sense. When writing a research paper its all information and facts about a certain topic and for me it makes it difficult to find an order I want the information to be in. I have overcome this struggle by making a written outline with the topics in each paragraph I want to cover and in a certain chronological order.
Logan
10/22/2013 05:39:15 am
That is a great thought. When researching, it can be difficult to find information that will work with your paper, so it is important that when you find the information it will be valid and reliable. A good way to get across this problem is to double check all information you find. For example, do a Google search of any statistic before you include it in your paper. Getting multiple hits with the same statistic will let you know that it is correct.
Cristina
10/21/2013 12:59:51 pm
I agree with Tori. When writing a research paper it can be difficult,depending on your topic,to find good and reliable sources. Also research papers make one nervous because it requires more work and thought than say, a narrative or persuasive essay. I had extreme difficulty writing the outline and finding sources. Apparently it is all about asking the correct questions when searching for information. Another issue I have run into is not plagiarizing because it is difficult to reword some of the sentences or even come up with my own perspective because the sources are so general. Organization is one of my weaknesses in general so that makes it ten times worse.
Samantha
10/24/2013 05:11:10 am
I am in agreement with you that finding good and reliable sources is quite difficult. I believe any type of formal paper has the ability to make one nervous, not just research papers. The process for writing a research paper may be longer, but the same amount of effort must be put into all formal papers.
Steven
10/22/2013 04:35:30 am
Writing research papers are known by most students to be the most tedious thing to do in a school year. Research papers are usually boring and dry due to the fact that the teacher gives the student what he/she is going to be writing about. Aside from the normal dull topics, these papers have to have to actually have time spent on finding information from credited websites or books that are "okayed" by the teacher. On top of that, every detail that is found from these "okayed" websites has to be cited and formally presented. I thoroughly believe the reason why so many students have trouble writing research papers is because the topic is usually thrown at us with no regard to what we would like to write about and then we have to go out and find out information about this topic that quite frankly, we don't care about. As far as the issues that I have been having as far as writing my own research paper has been focusing on doing it. While we were given the opportunity to select a topic, the options were very specific and none necessarily caught my eye. All other issues that I was having are cleared up now because of staying after already, but the issues before that included mainly organization and how to beef up my paper.
Christine Myers
10/22/2013 05:21:30 am
Writing a research paper is known to be one of the most dreadful things to kids. Whether it is the annotated bibliography, the length, or the actual research, writing a research paper is not something the average student looks forward to. With me, I feel that the most difficult part in writing a research paper is the actual research. Most of the time I feel as though I do not have enough information on a specific topic which makes it all so much more difficult. With a three prong set up, I always have one really weak prong that I will be the reason why the actual process of writing the paper takes so long. If I was a better researcher I would probably not have such an issue with writing research papers because I do not believe that putting it all together is that difficult. I have to be honest and say that I have not really been trying that hard to over come this problem, but I should start. A good starting point is asking the librarian to help me research more about my topic!
Steven
10/24/2013 04:27:00 am
I have to agree with you that researching is the hardest part of writing a research paper is gather the information to write about. As I have said before I believe it is because usually the topic is so boring, but I can also see where you are coming from as far as not knowing whether you have enough or if it is good enough to use. I also agree that once everything is gathered putting together the paper is as much as just putting your research in complete sentences with some explanations about the information here or there.
Logan
10/22/2013 05:35:49 am
Personally, I love to write research papers. In my opinion, writing papers about a topic with research is much easier than a narrative. I like to have a set structure of what to write; I hate to have too much room for leeway in writing. I think that many people see research papers as a lot more work than they actually are. When you sit down and break it apart, it actually isn't that difficult. The key is to have a solid topic from the beginning. If your thesis statement is weak, researching and outlining will be a struggle. The biggest problem I faced was trying to fit in a third prong with my topic. I couldn't think of anything that would flow well with my paper, but I later figured out something that I think works well.
Jess
10/22/2013 10:23:48 am
I am completely opposite. I love writing narratives and things that could have a lot of leeway. For me, research papers are way too structured. I like to put in my own voice and thoughts into my writing. I like your advice though. You make it sound so simple. I will definitely take it into consideration next time I stress over a huge research paper! Also I agree with you that having a solid thesis is very important.
Christine Myers
10/25/2013 04:28:20 pm
I am completely the opposite from you. Research papers are the death of me, but narratives come so easy to me. I feel as though with narratives you can be creative and you basically just write about an occurrence in your life. It is hard to have a solid topic to begin with because sometimes there is just not enough information out there; however, I can agree with you that with a weak thesis, finding research for that topic will be difficult as well.
Sam
10/22/2013 08:15:11 am
Writing a research paper is difficult for a number of reasons. The most important reason is that research is difficult to do. With all the citing, searching for, and properly using sources, it can be easy for a student to lose their way when researching. On top of that, not all sources are reliable, so students need to find a good source to use on top of all of the bad sources. Another notable difficulty students have when writing a research paper is explaining the topic well. Numerous times I have found myself confused or worried about the direction my paper is going in. It's difficult to find the perfect balance between comprehensive information that can be useful and understandable to the audience, but at the same time staying away from being a list of facts. In general, it's difficult to research and put out a paper on a certain subject when the fundamentals of the subject are thoroughly explained to the audience. Because I am personally struggling with this, I have not yet found a way to overcome it; I think the only way I can overcome this is to simplify and summarize the information I'm presenting.
Jess
10/22/2013 10:16:24 am
I find it difficult to organize all of the information I have researched into a well formatted essay. Just like what Tori said, it's hard to put it all into an order that makes sense. With writing a long paper like this one there is a lot of information and you don't want to make everything jumbled, rather as simple as possible so that it is easy to follow. I also agree that it's difficult making sure that all of the sources supply valid information. It's difficult to figure out what exactly to search and then to find the exact information that I am looking for. The topic I have chosen has so much information on it and it's hard to research because it can be very broad.
Jess
10/22/2013 10:19:12 am
(Added to my initial post)
Cristina
10/23/2013 12:54:40 pm
That is a great idea! I never even thought about taking notes on the research and using them. Honestly I find myself struggling to remember what I found helpful on a particular source so I keep going back to the website. And from there I find it hard to keep my writing original. I agree,also, with loving to write narratives because I am such an opinionated person. In a narrative I can insert my opinion of the event I am recalling. Research papers just stress me out!
Tori
10/25/2013 04:57:14 am
I really like how you brought up how you take notes on the research. I never thought of doing that and it is definitely a good idea. I think that would improve on making things more organized and structuring the paper more in chronological order. Research papers are much more difficult than writing a narrative essay, which is another point that I strongly agree with you. Papers that can flow easily are easier to write for lots of reasons. Research papers just get unorganized and confusing.
Samantha
10/24/2013 04:37:16 am
Writing a research is difficult for many reasons. One must find reliable and informative sources in order to call it a true research paper. One's own judgement must decide whether or not a source is credible. Proper citations and credits must be made in order to even use the source within the paper. A research paper is a long process because it must be done correctly.
Sam
10/24/2013 01:46:07 pm
I'd like to expand on your statement that you had "trouble finding current and up to date sources" by saying that I have had trouble finding sources on a topic that was very recent. My problem wasn't so much that I couldn't find current and up to date sources; the topic was on a recent event that was heavily covered by almost every media outlet out there. The problem I had was that I couldn't find suitable information within these sources. Also, because my topic was so current, the university and educational sites that Mrs. Erdman recommended you use didn't have anything on my topic. I guess, because the topic is so current, they couldn't keep up with it. Comments are closed.
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