Mystery Building

As an English major, I have always been required to write papers for the final project of a class. But, in one particular class I took a couple of years ago, the professor gave us three options. We could (1) write a traditional paper 10-15 pages, (2) Create a website, (3) create a pamphlet, journal, e-mag, etc. All he required is that we run our ideas by him first and make sure that we did sufficient research. At first, I wanted to stick with the familiar: write a paper. I know how to write a paper, I thought. But, I decided to create a website instead to challenge myself and broaden my horizons, so to speak. It was such a liberating and challenging experience. For the first time in a long time, I had to really think about who my audience was. Yes, my website was for the class and the instructor, but because it was going to be available on the internet, I needed to think more specifically than that. I ended up spending more time on and doing more research for this project than I had ever in the past. But I was extremely proud of the end result, and I acquired a new skill.

In their article, "Building a Mystery: Alternative Research Writing and the Academic Act of Seeking," Robert Davis and Mark Shadle explain that the research paper has been and is still today typically the "climactic" final project for students in a first year composition course. While they acknowledge the value of the research paper, they also argue that alternative research assignments (even multi-media, multi-genre assignments) will help in bringing back the creativity and mystery to academic discourse. It is precisely mystery and innovation is often found lacking in students' research papers, causing them to be bland, repetitive, and ultimately irrelevant. What we need to strive for, is providing students with real-life, creative opportunities for research that they value and find interesting.

The authors state that "by asking students to stick to researching the known, we teach them to fear the unknown." I see this in my students everyday. Because of their high school experiences with the 5 paragraph essay, many of them are afraid to explore through writing. They're afraid of trying something new, yet, they seem to really crave the opportunity for doing so. The projects that the authors outline sound incredible, and because I can't really find anything to disagree with (I know; a first for me) I'll just end this blog by saying that I hope to have the chance soon to provide a group of students with the opportunity and liberation of designing their own research assignment. I would love to see a brochure, pamphlet, personal research assignment, website, blog, etc. And I think they would learn just as much, no, more, by completing such an assignment than they would by always simply writing another research paper.