Student Voices: Reflection on Writing a Research Paper
Sarah Bruhn, submitted by Beate Walter, Germany
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Background from Beate Walter
Reflection on writing a research paper …. by Sarah Bruhn
The advanced writing course I taught at Erfurt University in spring 2011 brought together a very lively and interesting group of students, each of whom displaying a unique approach to the subject of writing an academic term paper. My goals for the course included raising awareness for the writing process itself with its joys and dilemmas, encouraging and enabling the students to take responsibility for their work on each aspect (from thinking about a suitable topic to handing in the final draft) as well as to experience how this reflective practice provided personal insights into their attitudes towards writing, their emotions and approaches to learning. The students had complete freedom of choice with regard to the topic and structure of their paper and the issues they wanted to contemplate in their written reflections. Thus the graded tasks for the course included three reflections, together accounting for 30 per cent of the final grade, a presentation and discussion of their work in progress (20 per cent) and the final paper of 8-10 pages (50 per cent).
Among the issues covered in the reflections were the struggles of finding and narrowing down a topic worthy of discussion, time management, coping with writer's block, perseverance as well as dealing with feedback. In her final reflection Sarah, one of the course participants, offered a beautiful perspective on her own writing process, demonstrating her serious but also creative approach to work and allowing wonderful insights into her personality and learner type.
I felt that her insights would deserve greater appreciation and benefit a wider audience and so asked her permission to offer it for publication in the category of students' voices in HLT magazine.
Course: Academic Writing 2
Course teacher: Beate Walter
SS 2011
Reflection on writing a research paper like building a sculpture
My present way of writing a research paper can be compared to the creative act of building a sculpture. I know that there are different ways of writing and many people start with the introduction and end with the conclusion. However, that is not the way I tend to write. My way of writing is more chaotic and creative. In this reflection, I want to think about and explain how I write. The first thoughts for this reflection came to mind while I was working on my research paper and I thought it could be compared with creating a skeleton. This thought worked in me for a few days and finally I decided to write my final reflection on this.
When writing a paper, after having chosen a topic and having some basic ideas, I start to collect and read literature. While reading, I write down all the sentences, quotations or useful information that might be helpful later on. For each author I use an extra word document in order to find the information more easily when it is needed. A friend of mine taught me a different way which I might use next time. Instead of having a word document for each author, it might be more effective to have one for every sub topic. In other words, I cut the huge amount of information into small pieces, so I can use them later. That could be compared to preparing papier-mâché material for a sculpture. Paste needs to be prepared and the newspaper or normal paper needs to be cut into small pieces. In short, my way of doing research is cutting information into small, useful pieces.
While sifting through the literature to find suitable pieces of information, I start to build the skeleton. By “skeleton” I basically mean the outline or structure. But, after finding a rough outline, I specify every point and sub point. In every chapter I add the basic and essential information that should be mentioned. These key words give the skeleton a better stability and form a more detailed body. Building this structure needs a long time and it is constantly changed, even when I begin to add the papier-mâché. When I add papier-mâché to the skeleton, the skeleton becomes less flexible and it takes more effort to change it or to add something. This is why I hesitate writing full sentences too early as it would only confuse me.
After finishing my research and having built most of the structure, I start to add the papier-mâché. These are the quotations and information, which have to fit the skeleton and I try to find the right place for them. Having cut the information into small pieces beforehand, it is fairly easy to do that. In fact, the hardest task for me is to form the papier-mâché in a way that meets the picture in my mind. In other words, my greatest challenge in the creative process of writing is to formulate well-formed strings of words that express what I mean. This process naturally follows the sorting of material and information.
After succeeding in this great challenge of crafting my sculpture comes the final step, painting. Painting could be associated with both stylistic and formal improvements and corrections. In other words, before finishing a paper I need to check whether the paper is beautifully and correctly written, fulfils all the formal requirements and is aesthetically pleasing. For this reason I normally ask people to read my paper, give me an honest feedback and to mark the mistakes. Finally, after correcting my work, I am finished and I celebrate my fantastic work of art with some friends. :)
This writing method might be one of the reasons why I seem to need more time than others. So far I cannot decide whether I should change my way of writing a paper in order to be more efficient or whether it is just my way and I should take as long as I need. Actually, I am leaning towards the latter.
Please check the Teaching Advanced Students course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.
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