For me, the thought of writing a research paper triggers the emotional response of great excitement with an equal part of anxiety. Research allows my brain to probe and roam but this must be very guided process. Without proper guidance, you can easily get lost, lose the focus of your topic, or because of *too* much curiosity and what I find to be even worse in some instances, over-researching. This happens most when you are 30 chrome tabs into your research topic and realize that you have inadvertently began researching enough for a short novel instead of the 10 page research paper initially assigned. I sometimes see my students doing this when they update me on a biweekly basis to let me know that they’ve changed their topic for the final time this time and it can be difficult to try to curb their enthusiasm. However, they eventually understand that this is just part of a greater process that must begin with small steps that are built into the course.

I find that my students think in very binary terms of black and white when it comes to research but I try to share with them the sentiment that research can also be a tool of self-expression. Their topics are representative of their interests and perspectives which of course is how you find “yourself” in what you write. This can be difficult to convey to a classroom online and even in person. I can assure them that I can help them research a topic that they are interested in, I am met with looks of skepticism for quite some time until they get started and finally trust that I want them to write about their perspectives in conjunction with and on equal ground with the scholars in their field of interest. In this way, I hope they begin to view research as a project they should spend some time with. That is to say, this class does not encourage all-nighter, one-shot large assignments. This should in fact take some time since they are discovering intricate details about a specific topic while hopefully learning a little bit about themselves.