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I have had the privilege of being an instructor for almost thirty years, and involved in education for more than 3 dozen years. During that time period I have taught the lower grades, teens, preparatory academy and most recently post high school students. For me, it was a constant challenge keeping educational activities fun, interactive and rewarding for each learner. As my teaching focused on older students, making the gradual metamorphosis from young to older, I noticed a constant that each age group of students became overwhelmed by: how to write a research paper.

Initially, I thought nothing of the reaction I received when asking for nonfiction essays to be completed. At first, I simply defined the usual groaning as a student's opposition of my love for homework. But, what I was dismissing and defining as being disgruntled, actually had much more significance; these groaners were sometimes downright unnerved when they heard the word "research paper".

Worry about the unknown, being buried in dusty books, and not having a clue how to brainstorm research paper ideas was frequent. Young adults envisioning a brick wall to climb, because they didn't know how to write a research paper, rarely truly believed me that in the wider scope of things, completing a dissertation, even one that was very lengthy, was barely a blip on the radar, compared to much more significant, life impacting decisions they'd eventually face as full fledged adults. Those consolations fell on deaf ears usually.

Unable to look towards the whole essence or the long overall result, their immediate reality was a looming deadline that could only be met by participating in an enterprise they weren't interested in, that conflicted with their social calendar or that made them uneasy facing new challenges: how to write a research paper, and do it right - not just to pass or fail, but measure up to the criteria that high schools, universities, colleges and graduate schools, both public and private, hold in high value.

When I first began teaching at the university level I planned to give a full term assignment to write a research paper on a(n) subject of each student's most passionate concern.

Our department head warned me that this would cause me more trouble than it was worth. He said that even at a post high-school level, simply hearing that you have to write a research paper usually sent many students into a counter-productive funk.

Determined, I ignored his wise words and ventured into research paper territory. The first day of the semester I handed out the outline for the semester. This included the name of the text book we would be using, the dates of the tests and the expectation that everyone would write a research paper.

I explained that the quizzes as well as the participation in classroom discussions would be two thirds of the final score and the research paper would be the other third. I handed out time lines and deadlines for the paper. I wanted the focus they chose as well as a rough draft completed in the first 14 days and then various updates on progress throughout the semester.

My outline and execution of my set calendar dates "forced" the paper to be done in small chunks, rather than the typical giant one, when many students, kids or adults, sit down the night before and try to accomplish a semester's worth of work in one sitting. Unnecessary stress and anxiety in my opinion. And with the fundamentals of how to effectively write a research paper tackled in small manageable pieces throughout the class, semester or year depending on curriculum and / or school, initial stress about even the most simple section, research paper ideas, seemed less and less a major undertaking.

Whether narrowing down a long list of paragraphs formatted neat and succinctly summarizing research paper ideas, writing each necessary element, keeping each research paper properly formatted for an educator who was known to be very picky about such particulars, or pacing themselves to guarantee paper completion by the designated time, when deconstructed into smaller parts, how to write a research paper concerns slowly, but surely disappear. Stay tuned for the next article: Research Paper Ideas, the Easy Way - Minus the anxiety.