Teaching Research as the Driving Force for Writing

The Separation of Research from Other Kinds of Writing in School Curricula

On the first day of every semester, I usually ask my first-year writing students about their previous writing experiences. Usually, no one speaks fondly of the school research paper. Not even those who confess to receiving a good grade for it. As one student recently described his research paper on liability law, “it turned out well, but I almost died from boredom writing it.” Given that, in most cases, the generic research paper is still the only vehicle of research writing instruction, this is troubling.

The strained relationship between writing students and teachers on the one hand and the research paper genre on the other is well documented. As early as 1982 Richard Larson lamented the state of research writing pedagogy in his well-known article “The Research Paper in the Writing Course: A Non-Form of Writing.” According to Larson, the very existence of the research paper assignment signals to students that other kinds of writing do not require research. Larson argues for the integration of research writing instruction into the curriculum more tightly by integrating research writing instruction into the whole curriculum and abolishing the research paper assignment altogether (811-815).

Recently, we have seen an explosion in interest towards a reform of research writing pedagogy. The main trend in the works by such authors as Bishop (2001 and 2004), Shadle and Davis (2000 and 2004), Reigstad (2004), and others has been to introduce students to new research methods and techniques and to incorporate research elements into a broad range of writing assignments. Despite all the positive changes, the separation of the research paper from the rest of the writing curriculum remains strong. This is evidenced, for example, by the popularity on the academic textbook market of various research paper manuals.

Next: Making Changes in Research Writing Instruction

Teaching Composition