Hall 1

Jazmen Hall
Instructor Hankerson
English 1010- 028
23 September 2015
My First Research Paper

I knew I was never the type of person who would get excited to write an essay. I remember
writing what was promised to be my last ACT essay paper sitting there thinking Wow this is it,
Im finished! I thought all my essay troubles had vanished for that year but a week later I got a
rude awakening. A week after my last ACT essay paper was due, my teacher had told us that we
would begin to learn how to write research papers. At that moment I felt my heart drop, I never
felt so betrayed in my life! How dare she make me believe that I didnt have to write anymore
essays and then slam another one in my face! I was disgusted with the whole idea of research
papers, but because it was for a grade, I knew I would have to do it anyway. I knew if I wanted to
ace this I would have to pay attention to the process of creating research papers, I would have to
begin the grueling process of writing my own paper, and I knew there would be struggles during
my journey to complete it.
Paying attention to Ms. Lewis (my teachers student assistant) as she introduced research
papers to us was the easiest part of this journey. I can recall walking into English class and
seeing the projector screen drawn. With me being the optimistic person that I am, I thought we
were going to watch a movie for that class period. Oh boy was I wrong! The topic of research
papers had snuck up on me , and this time it was up in front on the projector staring at me. From
that week on, for about three weeks, the whole class period was utilized to demonstrate what a
quality research paper looks like. During these three weeks, Ms. Lewis gave us a website to

Hall 2

browse; it taught us how to cite things in MLA format, how to use parenthetical citations, and
how to construct a work cited page. By week four she knew we werent quite ready for the real
world of writing research papers, but she pushed us forward anyway, on creating the skeleton of
which would be our first research paper.
At week four Ms. Lewis handed out a calendar and this was the first tool we were going to
use to start our research paper. I raised my hand immediately and asked her what she was
handing out because some dates in the calendar were already filled. She explained to us that this
was our pacing chart for our pre-writing techniques. She asked us to buy one hundred 3x6 and
4x10 flashcards. At this point, I knew this class couldnt get any worse. We were filling note
cards and source cards for what felt like forever! She wanted us to bring in at least ten notecards
that had quotes from different articles and five source cards that corresponded with the notecards.
With note cards and source cards we started on something that she called our schematic. She
told us that our schematic would serve as an outline of our paper that would make it easy for us
to create a draft.
I came across many obstacles when trying to start my first draft. It took ages for me to figure
out the perfect topic to write about. I harassed Ms. Lewis until she eventually coughed up some
ideas for a topic and that still didnt help me. The most detrimental obstacle for me was
procrastination. I am an expert procrastinator and waited until like two days before the first draft
was due to start on it. While preparing my paper two days before the due date my untrustworthy
computer had the audacity to shut down while I was halfway through it. This erased everything
that I had once accomplished. This was very saddening but I knew that I had to push through it
because for one I couldnt afford four test grades that I could not afford to fail. Second, I knew I
would be disappointed in myself if I just gave up there.

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It was fourth quarter and my team was relying on me to make the winning shot; I had four
seconds on the clock and I knew my victory was waiting for me. So excited to turn in my
beautiful first paper, I came early to class. I stayed up late retyping my paper and I was pleased
of what I fixed my mind on creating. My teacher asked for our papers, and I went in for the shot.
Shaking up the young lady in the front row, breaking the ankles of the guy to my left, I went in
for the victory shot and sat my paper on the front desk first. Pleased with myself for making the
game winning shot, I patted myself on the back mentally and sat back down. To my surprise
when everyone was getting their papers back, I noticed that my paper made it to the hall of fame
(The A board).