Information Management and Composing: Reassessing Our Research Paper Protocols.

The term "research paper," in the sense of researched paper, is a tautology: all expository discourses are researched in some way. One of the first duties of writing instructors is to help students see the difference between reporting on information that already exists about a topic, in what is sometimes referred to as a "library paper," and using information as evidence to support a claim or to illustrate a generalization. But how does the writing instructor teach students to use information effectively in support of an original thesis? Students need to learn how to extract information selectively, then learn to manage what they have selected. Three ways that students can be taught to manage information would be as follows. First, instructors should eliminate the use of generic terms such as "comparison essay," or "pro-con essay" and instead speak of the paper in reader-based terms, as something that has contextualized aims. Rather than have students mechanically "narrow a topic," shift to real and urgent issues; the topic will narrow itself once the student apprehends the presence of an issue that matters. Secondly, instructors should help students to become immersed in their issue through reading and field research. Linda Flower offers 9 steps for problem-solving strategies that can be helpful. Third, instructors should call attention to the kinds of information to be managed and suggest particular strategies for managing them. (TB)