The Term Paper Outline Seemed Much Harder than The Paper
February 9th, 2010
The Term Paper Outline Seemed Much Harder than The Paper
I have been teaching freshman English for eight years. Frankly at times I just got sick of teaching the same thing over and over. Term papers in particular were a very hard item to get a freshman in high school to grasp. Oddly enough I felt that every year the students seemed to not get smarter. I constantly wondered what they were learning in grammar school and how they ever got out of middle school without having to form a proper sentence. I needed some ideas. At a teacher’s conference we were given various gimmicks to jump start the school year. One tactic in particular was a term paper outline.
A term paper outline was designed to visually get the students attention. And that was something I really needed to do. It also was designed to be virtually fool proof. A basic term paper outline consisted of the the first introduction paragraph with three main points and a thesis statement. The subsequent paragraphs alloted one point per paragraph with a supporting MLA citation and the final concluding paragraph ended the essay and reiterated the thesis and three main points.
I thought this seemed pretty easy but my students had a rather difficult time with this example. I drew circular graphs for the visual presentation and even color coded it. There were very few students who could follow this basic formula for the term paper outline.
I thought the term papers was really getting to the students. Many of them looked overwhelmed and ready to give up. I decided to switch gears and focus on the critical analysis research portion of the paper. We took a field trip to the local library. The students got to choose books based on their research paper topics and I tried to teach them the basic MLA and APA citation methods. I had to repeat it a few times but overall the citation lesson went over very well.
I requested the students have their term paper outline given to me in two weeks. I received many groans but overall they did seem ready to present. I kept extended office hours over the next two weeks and did have a few more students drop in than normal. Most of the students seemed thoroughly frustrated with the assignment. I was a bit disgruntled. If they were having so much trouble with this then what would happen when they had to actually write the term paper.
Two weeks later, bright and early on Monday morning I received a pile of term paper outlines. Overall I have to say they were really very good. I was pleasantly surprised and made them aware of this. The average grade was a B plus. I was so proud. Many students got the introduction and conclusion paragraph reversed. I also think I really needed to reintroduce the idea of a thesis statement but term paper outline had really served it’s purpose. I couldn’t wait for them to write their term papers. I knew they would be excellent.
