Tutorama: Week Eleven: Using Instructor Comments on Research Drafts

If you have not read "Using Instructor Comments on Short Papers," click here.

The research paper is more difficult than the short essay for several reasons, chief among them that the instructor expects you to do all the things you did in the short paper and more. Below is a list of exercises that will help you use your instructor's comments on your research drafts.

Follow a Research Plan
Keep in mind that your instructor does not expect you to write a full-length draft the first time you write a draft. Consider the following plan to build your research paper:

• Write a 4 to 5 page draft that focuses on your first set of issues and questions, and your first two or three source texts.

• Go through the review process outlined in "Using Instructor Comments on Short Papers."

• Rewrite the first draft using the results of this process. Your goal should not necessarily be a longer paper, though revision at this point often yields longer papers simply because your argument is becoming clearer, stronger, and more detailed.

• Take your second draft to your instructor's office hours and discuss what new questions has your writing process uncovered, and what kind of research would you need to do to answer these questions.

• Make an appointment with a research librarian to discuss your research needs. If it would help, ask the research librarian to supervise your research process.

• Incorporate the new sources into your second draft to yield a third draft of at least 7 pages in length.

• Repeat this process as often as necessary.

Allow Your Project to Change Directions
Remember that the process of writing itself should help you generate new research goals. The end of your paper should be hard to predict until you do research after the first draft. Research is a process of discovering what you didn't already know, so pay attention to your instructor's questions, both in meetings and in formal comments—they may point you in new and useful directions.

Define Your Argument
Particularly in later drafts of the research paper, it is crucial to make your own contribution to scholarly dialogue clear. Look at the comments on your most recent draft: Is the instructor saying there is too much summary of the sources, and not enough of your own voice in the essay? Are you using evidence without explaining how the source texts are related to your claims? Is there no explicit connection between paragraphs yet? If the instructor's comments say any of these things, make an appointment immediately to talk about your draft. You are now facing major problems of argument for which you should seek further instruction beyond this website.