Rhian Williams ’25
The blank page: a horror for students and teachers alike, especially when it comes to big papers. But with that anxiety and worry, how does one start?
Do students really know how to write and research effectively? Inside of our own school, we have an expert in research who is ready to help anyone. Her name is Dr. Amanda Waugh.
Dr.Waugh earned her master’s degree in school librarianship and her doctorate from the University of Maryland in library and information studies. She said that curiosity is especially important when it comes to writing research papers.
“The number one thing you want to do is start by finding something you’re interested in,” she said. “Then you can broaden it and narrow it as needed.”
She said that students usually start with something that they think will impress teachers and peers, which makes the process ten times harder because they have no interest in the topic itself.
She said that when looking for a topic, you should “loop in what you find interesting.”
Junior Ellie Rand said that she enjoys research papers despite the fact that the actual research can be dull.
“Being able to learn something new is fun,” she said. “The process itself is frustrating, but the end result is rewarding.”
Once students have a topic they are clear on, where should they go from there? Academic sources can get really overwhelming and may cause the student to drift off-topic.
“I suggest students start by reading an encyclopedia,” said Dr. Waugh. “Wikipedia is fine too.”
Dr. Waugh recommends getting some background knowledge on a topic, then digging deeper into any information a student finds interesting or helpful.
“The goal of the initial research is to find names, dates, events, or key words that you could use later in more official research,” she said.
After you have those first building blocks of knowledge, you can expand to different databases, articles, and journals.
“You have to read everything with intention,” said Dr. Waugh. “Even reading the introduction or abstract to get a sense if the article will help you or not.” she said.
“If you think an article will help you, download it, then look for any related articles.”
And with all that new knowledge comes the easy part: writing it. With these strategies, your research paper will seem less dreadful and more manageable.
Photograph by Miles Hansen