What advice would you give to students starting a research writing course?

Answer 1

Having taught research writing, I offer the following:

• Keep your eyes, ears, and minds open. Ideas and information are everywhere.
• Experiment with how you communicate; try different sentence structures and ways of expression.
• Do not trust internet sources unless you can find hard copy support.
• That's not to say never use internet sources without other support, just be cautious about how you use it.
• Trust print...usually. Always consider the source and the motivation of the source; everyone has an ax to grind and sometimes it's not always easy to see the ax or the grinding wheel.
• Learn to support every argument you make with at least one primary source. In the absence of a primary source, cautiously use two or more secondary sources.
• Learn to take clear notes.
• Always document from where an idea or information came. If you can't cite it, you can't use it.
• Learn MLA (invest in a new edition of the MLA Handbook).
• Learn APA (this is also in the MLA Handbook).
• Most importantly, NEVER throw away any writing. Keep it in a notebook or a file folder. You never know when you may find a diamond in the garbage you will generate. Not everything you write will be gold, but there will be flakes in there that you may be able to use elsewhere, or an old attempt may lead to new thoughts.
• When editing on the computer, save all drafts when you open them--put a "001" behind the first draft, and number each successive draft accordingly.
• Do not procrastinate. Even if you can't get a good start on an assignment, get a start as soon as it is assigned. And, keep chipping away at it. You'll regret it less when the deadline arrives.