My Spiral of Research Paper Garbage

Oh Kristen, I feel ya. I'm in my last semester as an English undergrad, so I too have been reflecting on my entire experience. And I've realized something. I mentally counted the papers I've written that I personally loved or am still truly proud of. Want to see the number?

. . . . . . . . . .

ONE. That's right. What made this paper any different, I wonder? I can tell you some things it was not:

1. The topic
2. The format
3. The length

I can only assume it was these things:

1. Personal investment
2. Time

Like Kristen said, we English majors start to figure out the system after a while. If we really want to, we can write a "research" paper with a lot less effort than should really be involved. And in the end, we leave college and abandon the papers, because we didn't get the process.

That's what Dr. Burton talks about in his posts on the phases of academic blogging and in chapter 2 of this ebook. The process can be as important as the final result. We inject ourselves into our blog posts, and we share everything about our research along the way: good or bad. In the end, it's the investment of time that really matters--time to spiral your ideas around until you get to another, better iteration; time to get invested; time for feedback. 

And that's what my one and only real paper had. I spent countless hours researching before I touched the actual words of the paper. I got multiple rounds of feedback from multiple people. So it isn't impossible to get some of these social connections without blogging, but I can see how blogging and social media encourage the implementation of these ideas. Why not give students the tools they need to succeed? (If I'm going to sound a little corny there.)

So I guess the next step moving forward is for me to spiral my ideas around and take advantage of the tools I've been given to create something better.