For my research interview I interviewed My friend Terrell. He is currently in Graduate School here at The University of West Georgia for Music.
When I asked Terrel if he had done a research paper in college before he quickly retorted more vulgarly
"Hecks Yeah I've done a research paper in college before"
When I asked him if there was any specific paper that came in mind, he had mentioned his American Government class, his freshman year, he stated.
"Man! that was one intense paper right there!"
So I asked him would this particular research paper entail he paused for a minute. I don't really know why he paused but it was slightly puzzling. Anyways he then picked the conversation back up and said.
"I remember I had to go up and down those halls of that library to find book after book, after book."
I then asked him, "What kind of things did your professor require for this research paper? He told me that his professor required him to write a 6 page paper of the affects of the Civil War and its evolution to form this country to be what it is today. He then says...
"It was hard for me to narrow that sucker down, because the topic was just so broad it was almost inexplicable."
So he then goes and tells me that his professor gave him a list of prominent websites that most collegiate students go to for information, like history channel, government websites, and other educational databases and told them that they could not use them, so what he did was that he researched almost every little detail by encyclopedia, the permissible websites, and books. Now here is the kicker. He then says...
"All that extraneous work and anguish and you know what grade I got?"
I answer "What grade did you get?"
He angrily states "I got a 60."
With so sympathy for him he picks himself back up and says...
"That was a learning lesson for my all of my collegiate endeavors to not forget to site his sources."
What an interesting interview this was
I understand how hard his research paper could be, the assignment is very broad. I would be highly upset with the grade as well! My interviewer seemed to use professors research on topics they placed in the library and of course books for her assignment! She ended up with a satisfying grade on her research paper thanks to magazine and newspapers articles.
ReplyDeleteTerrell should have taken this class before he took that American Government class! But hopefully you can see from his comment about how hard it was to write a paper on a really broad topic why I'm making you all work on narrowing your topics to manageable research questions!
ReplyDeleteWe'll be talking more about types of sources next week, and hopefully in the next few weeks you'll see why the prof didn't like sites like the History Channel. And we'll be talking more about citations & how to avoid even accidental plagiarism. He's lucky he got a 60 if he forgot to cite his sources -- some profs would have given him a big fat ZERO!