The Genre of a Graduation Paper

I've been thinking a lot about the different readings that we will be working with next year. I've been thinking especially about non-fiction novels versus essays and which students will be more receptive too. However, I also realize that AP English III won't just be about the texts that students read, it will also be about developing our writing skills. We will have to work on exploring elements of rhetoric and then adopting those elements into our own writing efficiently...but there's also that dreaded piece of writing....the CMS Gradation Paper....

When I was a student teacher I worked with a class that had to do this project, in my first year teaching I assisted in grading the paper and in this upcoming year I will be on my own, teaching students how to write a research paper. I'm not sure I can pump myself up for this. The graduation paper is often a frustrating process for both students and teachers (I can still remember writing mine). Students often pick redundant topics (teen pregnancy, cell phones in schools, legalization of drugs), show a lack of awareness in terms of citations and structure in their writing and they don't feel a connection to their writing (which becomes painfully obvious when reading them). I was brainstorming some ideas with another AP English III teacher who shared his process. The process was very organized and I can see how it would help students. The teacher approached the paper assuming students had no research experience (an assumption that is mostly true). He developed assignments for each step of the process and walked students through the paper. Student's produced essays that were very similar in nature, as they were all following the same formula, and they included the parts of the paper that were required.

This makes me think about the purpose of this paper and what are the true goals of the CMS Graduation Project. Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of students doing research, writing and paper and presenting on a topic that demonstrates an awareness of the larger world--but I still question why the project was designed. If the paper has been reduced to a formulaic piece of writing have we gotten our students to understand the core of research--analysis? I don't think we have. I don't think we have pushed our students to understand the genre of research papers. They may be mirroring a research paper, but they aren't really appreciating how the structure and components of a research paper articulate an argument and encourage critical thought.

My colleague was right, the students that we serve often are coming to us with zero research experience. The goal is to get them to jump feet first into writing and research and to realize that this paper can be a personal experiences. While there are components that have to be present in the paper (citations, thesis statement, charts, etc), the paper can be personal (and it should be!). I realize that a big problem with the graduation paper isn't that students don't know how to do it, but rather they aren't invested in the process. I need students to see that research writing is a genre just like songwriting, poetry and other forms of personal narrative.

I swear, this is what students do...but then I'm not sure they watch the full video....

So after thinking about this paper and the process that we need to go through, I think I need to explain the big goal that I have (and I believe is the intention of the paper): We are writing a research paper so that we can make a point about topics that are meaningful and have real-world consequences . We are writing this paper to show our ability to engage with a topic in a critical way. This paper matters and we are going to treat it like it matters because academic research is a significant genre that shapes our world.