Q&5: Why is it important to know the difference between a research paper and a narrative essay?
Many students who try to complete a research paper fail to do so because they stick the pattern of narrative essays. In the article “Helping Students Use Textual Sources Persuasively,” Margret Kantz presents to us the example of a college sophomore writing student named Shirley. Shirley writes a research paper for her English class about the Battle of Agincourt. However, her professor, Dr. Boyer, gives her paper a C. Shirley made the mistake of not analyzing her paper, and basically just summarized what she read in her sources. “Shirley collated these facts into her own version, noting but not discussing discrepant details, borrowing what she assumed was to be her sources’ purpose of retelling the story, and modeling the narrative structure of her paper on that of her sources.”(75).
I think that students have a habit of sticking to their comfort zone, and that is to stick to what they know best. Many find it challenging to make the transition from a narrative to a research. According to the article, this is known as writer-based prose which is when a student “organizes what should be an expository analysis as a narrative especially when she writes a narrative about how she did her research” (78). I think students need to understand that there is a lot more to researching, than just summarizing what we think is correct. Because Shirley did not quite know the difference, she failed to meet the research paper requirements and got a C on her research paper.