A Question and an Argument: Enhancing Student Writing through Guided Research Assignments

Extract

The term paper is a standard requirement of undergraduate political science courses, yet for both students and faculty it is frequently unsatisfying. When teachers allow students to choose their own topics from the range of issues covered in a course, students often flounder for direction. Papers based on a professor's preselected questions suggest the need for a thesis but leave undergraduates uncertain about how to construct one. The result: papers that deal with a broad topic rather than presenting a sharp thesis. While the writing process alone may be a valuable learning experience for some undergraduates, many other simply throw together a mass of information without spending time integrating their work into a coherent whole. Students complain of being overwhelmed, and the grader is left to sort through a paper in search of its point.