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Having had the privilege of being an instructor for almost thirty years, and involved in education for more than 3 dozen years. During that time period I have taught the lower grades, high school, college prep and most recently at the college level. For me, it was a constant battle keeping educational activities fun, interactive and rewarding for each student. As my lessons focused on older learners, making the gradual leap from young to older, I noticed a constant that each generation of kids became panic stricken by: how to write a research paper.

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

Worry about the something outside their comfort zone, being buried in heavy tomes, and not having the necessary skills 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 life's big picture, completing a writing assignment, even one that was longer than they were accustomed to, 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 deaf ears much of the time.

Unable to look towards the whole essence or the long view, their immediate challenge was a looming deadline that could only be met by participating in something they weren't interested in, that conflicted with their social calendar or that made them uneasy facing new challenges: how to write a research paper, and do it right - not just to pass or fail, but measure up to the criteria that high schools, universities, colleges and graduate schools, both public and private, hold in high importance.

When I first began teaching at the post high-school level I planned to give a semester-long specification to write a research paper on a(n) subject of that particular student's most passionate hobby.

Our department head 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 wise words and ventured into research paper territory. The first session of the semester I handed out the curriculum for the course. This included the name of the course textbook, test dates and the assignment that everyone would write a research paper.

I explained that the reviews as well as the participation in classroom discussions would be 66% of the grade and the research paper would be the other 33%. I also mentioned that possessing those skills definitely would increase the likely hood to search and find a grant or scholarship. I handed out time lines and deadlines for the dissertation. I wanted the subject they chose as well as a rough synopsis completed in the first two weeks and then various updates on progress throughout the semester.

My plan and execution of my set schedule "forced" the paper to be done in small steps, rather than the typical giant one, when many students, kids or adults, sit down the night before and try to accomplish weeks worth of work in one all-nighter. Unnecessary tension and nervousness in my way of thinking. And with the basics of how to effectively write a research paper completed in small manageable pieces throughout the class, semester or year depending on curriculum and / or institution, initial terror about even the most simple part: research paper topics, seemed less and less a big deal.

Whether narrowing down a long series of clauses formatted neat and succinctly summarizing research paper ideas, writing each necessary ingredient, keeping each research paper properly formatted for an instructor who was known to be extremely precise about such details, or pacing themselves to guarantee paper completion by the due date, when deconstructed into smaller pieces, how to write a research paper concerns slowly, but surely go away. Follow along for the next article: Research Paper Ideas, the Easy Way - Finding Subject Matter That Wins Scholarships.

Thanks to several articles highlighting how to write a research paper minus the regular fear, teacher Ronald S. Smithers shares the first lesson he gleaned from his writing days, exhibiting how to get free funds, thanks to a free scholarship . Next , more on how to create a word research paper for school, only to be found at the the student website students have taken advantage of and that hands over free stuff to college students, and helps you untap even more funds with federal Stafford loan consolidation.