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Having had the privilege of being an instructor for almost thirty years, and involved in pedagogy 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 learning fun, interactive and rewarding for each learner. As my lessons focused on older learners, making the gradual leap from young to older, I noticed a common concern that each age group of students became panic stricken by: how to write a research paper.

Initially, I thought nothing of the answer I received when asking for nonfiction essays 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 significance; these pupils were sometimes downright panic stricken when they heard of an assigned "research paper".

Worry about the something different, being buried in dusty books, 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 the expanse of time, completing an essay, even one that was longer than they were accustomed to, was barely a blip on the radar, compared to much more significant, life impacting challenges they'd eventually face as full fledged adults. Those consolations fell on deaf ears much of the time.

Unable to look towards the whole essence or the long view, their immediate reality was a looming time limit that could only be met by participating in something they weren't interested in, that conflicted with their extracurricular activities or that made them uneasy facing unexplored territory: how to write a research paper, and do it right - not just to pass or fail, but measure up to the criteria that institutions of higher learning, hold in high importance.

When I first began teaching at the college level I planned to give a semester-long specification to write a research paper on a(n) subject of each student's most passionate interest.

Our department head warned me that this would cause me more trouble than it was worth. He said that even at a university 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 purgatory. The first session of the semester I handed out the outline for the class. This included the name of the selected text, the dates of the tests and the expectation that everyone would write a research paper.

I explained that the reviews as well as the participation in class confabs would be 66% of the semester grade and the research paper would be the other 33%. In the same breath that learning those skills definitely would make it more likely to search and find a 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 two weeks and then various updates on progress throughout the semester.

My plan and execution of my set schedule "forced" things to be done in small steps, rather than the typical giant one, when many students, kids or adults, sit down at the last minute and try to accomplish a mammoth amount worth of work in one all-nighter. Unnecessary stress and nervousness in my mind. And with the fundamentals of how to effectively write a research paper accomplished in small sections throughout the class, semester or year depending on curriculum and / or school, initial terror about even the most simple undertaking: research paper topics, seemed less and less a big deal.

Whether narrowing down a long list of paragraphs 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 term paper completion by the due date, when deconstructed into smaller sections, how to write a research paper fears slowly, but surely go away. Watch for for the up and coming article: Research Paper Ideas, the Easy Way - Picking A Scholarship Worthy Topic.