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Having had the chance of being a teacher for almost three decades, and involved in education for more than 36 years. During those years I have taught the lower grades, teens, college prep and most recently at the college level. For me, it was a constant struggle keeping lessons fun, interactive and rewarding for each pupil. As my classes focused on older students, making the gradual metamorphosis from young to older, I noticed a consistent issue that each maturity level of kids became overwhelmed by: how to write a research paper.

Initially, I thought nothing of the response I received when asking for such assignments to be completed. At first, I simply defined the usual groaning as a student's opposition of my love for outside assignments. But, what I was dismissing and defining as being disgruntled, actually had much more depth; these pupils were sometimes downright overwhelmed when they heard the word "research paper".

Worry about the something different, being buried in volumes of pages, and not having a clue how to brainstorm research paper ideas was frequent. college-age students envisioning a brick wall to climb, because they were clueless about how to write a research paper, rarely truly believed me that in the wider scope of things, completing a writing assignment, even one that was very lengthy, was barely a blip on the radar, compared to much more significant, life impacting decisions they'd eventually face as grownups. Those consolations fell on a non-responsive audience usually.

Unable to look towards the bigger picture or the long term, their immediate reality was a looming deadline that could only be met by participating in an activity they weren't interested in, that conflicted with their social life or that made them uneasy facing the unknown: how to write a research paper, and do it right - not just to pass or fail, but measure up to the criteria that post-middle-school institutions, hold in high value.

When I first began teaching at the university level I planned to give a full term assignment to write a research paper on a(n) issue of that particular student's most passionate interest.

A wise colleague warned me that this would cause me more trouble than it was worth. He said that even at a college level, simply hearing that you have to write a research paper usually sent many students into a tail spin.

Determined, I ignored his best intentions and ventured into research paper territory. The first session of the course I handed out the curriculum for the semester. This included the name of the selected text, the dates of the tests and the assignment that everyone would write a research paper.

I explained that the quizzes as well as the participation in class confabs would be 66% of the semester grade and the research paper would be the other third. Also that possessing those skills definitely would increase the likely hood to land a college scholarship. I handed out schedules and due dates for the essay. I wanted the topic they chose as well as a rough briefing completed in the first 14 days and then various progress reports throughout the course.

My agenda and execution of my set schedule "forced" things to be done in small increments, rather than the typical giant one, when many students, kids or adults, sit down the night before and try to accomplish a semester's worth of work in one sitting. Unnecessary stress and anxiety in my opinion. And with the fundamentals of how to effectively write a research paper tackled in small chunks throughout the class, semester or year depending on curriculum and / or institution, initial panic about even the most simple part: research paper ideas, seemed less and less a major undertaking.

Whether narrowing down a long catalog of clauses formatted neat and succinctly summarizing research paper ideas, writing each necessary ingredient, keeping each research paper properly formatted for an educator who was known to be a stickler about such fine points, or pacing themselves to guarantee assignment completion by the due date, when deconstructed into smaller sections, how to write a research paper fears slowly, but surely disappear. Follow along for the up and coming report in this series: Research Paper Ideas, the Easy Way - Your Road To Getting A Grant Or Scholarship.