Outlining and Research Papers

Outlining and research papers are two curricular objectives that both students and teachers dread.  Generally speaking this is because they are both formulaic.  In outlining if you have an “A”, you must have a “B” – if you have a “1” you must have a “2”.  Research papers tend to be expanded five paragraph essays on topics that most students can find on-line.  Some school districts have a minimum research paper requirement of around four pages with five sources that are scored by outside sources using a standing 4 to 6 point rubric. These nameless scorers use the usual domains indicating the level of control exhibited by the writer in content, style, grammar and proper research and attribution of quotes and information.

Teachers may start teaching mind mapping, webbing, word clouds, Creatly (a source for every organizational chart in the “universe”) or other meta-cognitive methodologies for learners with a wide variety of thinking patterns to get on the path to finding a worthy research paper topic.  Dutifully, around March or earlier, this painful process has started in grades five through twelve. Younger students usually do reports, not true research papers because developmentally, they are not quite ready to grasp the necessary concepts. Especially the idea of presenting the “straw dog” or the hypothetical argument that runs counter to their thesis statement.

By the time I started teaching high school in 2001, I had decided that placing the research paper near the end of the school year was a mistake.  I needed it to be the first assignment.  I was fresh; students were ready for a new beginning and somehow, waiting until later in the year, just made teaching or re-teaching all necessary skills seem like scaling Mount Everest instead of an achievable assignment.  I never had to endure the ordeal of getting my students through passing the eleventh-grade research paper, but I wanted to have them so well-prepared – that it would feel simple to them – almost like child’s play when they left my ninth or tenth grade classroom.

My love of outlining as an organizational tool for writing and for thinking is because it makes my job of responding to students easier. All the other cool graphic organizers still have to be redone to develop the concept of main idea, supporting detail, and related supporting fact in a hierarchical order. Undertaking this arranging of information to support a thesis statement perfectly describes an outline. The trick I've found to take away the pain of outlining is the take away the rules.  Students don’t always have to have a “B” or a “2”.  Additionally, have your students write the bibliographic reference next to the information collected from that source in the outline INCLUDING THE PAGE NUMBERS!  Direct quotes are printed and turned in with the outline, or if you are lucky, you can have your students turn work in through the Cloud or a Wiki – you can form a group with you as the administrator and then only you and the author have the ability to edit a piece of work.

It is messy to allow students to rampage about looking for a topic with an anything goes attitude.  Yes, I know students MUST write about something they care about, but for everyone’s sanity, choose an umbrella topic.  Since I was in a biotech program, I posed the question: Is forensic science reliable ninety-nine percent of the time?  Ask colleagues for input about what “big” umbrella topic would work to help them.  Your job is really to be the expert about the mechanics.  In middle school, my umbrella topic was WWII, which helped the social studies teacher. I also used the papers to have students form groups and write newspapers that might have existed at that time.

With an overarching topic like this, your librarian can be an invaluable help gathering materials, helping students and working with you to point students to appropriate resource material.  It truly expands the learning when students can return to their work and create poems, feature articles, Power Point presentations, Prezis and even animated PowToons.

This is a place for one of those “I Believe” statements that I talk about.  You have to be ready to believe that no matter what the haters hurl at you – you are prepared to speak about how putting this important project first, you have harnessed students creative energy at the right time and that having looked at the curriculum from middle school, you have learned that students should already have an initial grasp of the demands of a research paper. 

This reminds me, you may find that a lot of your students have been taught incorrect steps – many of my students wanted to outline the opening and closing paragraph. This is sensitive ground because you may be thought of as being critical of a former beloved teacher. I have blown this so I don’t want you to make the same mistake. Have a copy of a page from a grammar book that supports your scenario and quietly hand it out asking a student to read the highlighted portion aloud. Explain that you know many things have changed, but this rule(s) still seems to count.

Please do yourself a favor and get this out of the way during the first few weeks of school and use outlining as much as you can.  Don’t forget about a theme for your classroom – humanize yourself!