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Erin
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| Posted: Oct 29 2007 at 3:24pm | IP Logged
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I'm needing help and I thought maybe I may not be alone, at least I hope not.
How do you write a research essay? I have put this off because I really don't know what/how to outline/explain/expect to/of my dc. Clear? 
An example, we are just starting RC History one question is
1) Human History began in paradise. How did people spread throughout the world?
What would you expect/tell your child to do? You can tell me a step by step outline  Seriously I do need help. Many thanks.
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Erin
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Willa
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| Posted: Oct 29 2007 at 5:44pm | IP Logged
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How old is your daughter, Erin? The age would make a difference in what I would expect.
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Willa
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Erin
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| Posted: Oct 29 2007 at 9:39pm | IP Logged
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Willa
Dd is 14. About your Sean's age (I've been at your Learning notes checking out what Sean is doing )
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ALmom
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If they are doing RC History, then I would expect them to make some connections between what they have been learning about the secular spread of peoples - and the connection with God's plan. They will probably pull together quite a bit from different sources, so I would show them how to do parenthetical references in the body of a paper. The topic is very vaguely worded and most of my children would have some trouble knowing where to go with it, so I might have to give a few specific pointers to jump start a 14 yo that hadn't done any RC History papers before. However, history teachers/professors tend to phrase questions in an open ended way with an expectation that you are organizing and relating and connecting everything that you have learned so far. After a while you get used to this, and your own creativity takes over to sort of make everything you know fit a theme or topic.  I guess that is just part of the stereotypical history professor. The poor kids who are succinct and to the point sometimes wonder why history is such a difficult
thing. My more cut and dry science types find this an adjustment at first.
Hope this helps. I guess every discipline has its quirks.
Janet
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donnalynn
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| Posted: Nov 01 2007 at 6:34pm | IP Logged
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Hi Erin -
I went to a Christian Homeschool conference last year and heard a presentation by the founder of Analytical Grammar - see here.
The topic she presented that day was on Teaching the Essay but there is one available on teaching the research paper as well.
The structure is very formulaic, but that is point, especially in the essay where she is focusing on how to really enable students to write an essay for the SAT when you don't have a lot of time to be stumbling over the form.
She did go over a bit about her offering on the research paper and from what I gathered it is a very step-by-step presentation of how to write a research paper.
I didn't purchase anything - only because I knew my oldest (age 13) was not really at that point. But I was very intrigued and the price is very reasonable. At the very least I thought it would help me! And I am thinking about it for next year or the 1st year of high school.
I can't give a first hand report of working with the materials but I thought I'd mention it.
My only other reservation is that it might be a bit too rigid in structure - and I am not sure that it would really fit into the CM lifestyle - but it sounds like you are looking for something very specific and this came to mind.
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Erin
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Donnalynn
Thanks for the suggestion, I'll check it out.
Interestingly an irl friend tells me that we write our research essays here in Australia differently to the USA. We have an introductory paragraph outlining where we are going with our essay, then we enlarge upon those points in our main body and then we tie it together at the end. Oh and bibliographies and footnotes are expected. Sounds a bit like writing up a science experiment. Now I'm not too sure how this differs from there but when said friend's daughter went to write her university essays she had to relearn how to do it. They had previously used an American program to teach essay writing. This reminds me of a discussion we once had on the board about the differences between how grammar is taught in the USA and England/Australia. You just wouldn't expect it.
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donnalynn
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| Posted: Nov 02 2007 at 8:27am | IP Logged
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I had no idea Erin!
Your description sounds very similar to what I would expect but I have heard college professors say that they spend a lot of time getting students out of the "formulas" they learned in high school! And that's in the same country!
So I am not sure what the answer is .
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Willa
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| Posted: Nov 02 2007 at 8:58pm | IP Logged
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Erin,
That's how I learned to do it, even though I'm an American (but I don't know if that was the standard way, since I didn't go to high school in the US).
I was thinking about the RC History topic you mentioned. If this is a theme your daughter is already quite famliar with through her RC study so far, it would be simply a matter of pulling together and doublechecking information and ideas that are already in her head. In that case, I would discuss the question with her and have her write down points that came to mind during our discussion, and then help her (or stand back, if she's already comfortable) while she assembles the ideas into logical order and then goes to the books or videos to confirm her use of facts. Then list a bibliography, etc....
If this topic is somewhat new to her, and she needs to find and study several books to pull together a thesis statement -- in that case, I'd help her a bit to find some useful books and then show her how to paraphrase information and merge it together so it isn't simply a rewrite of what the books say. Then I'd proceed to help her as outlined above.
At least, that is how I would do it with my Sean, who can write narrations OK but hasn't had any experience with longer research-based papers (we usually save that for late middle school and high school).
In fact, we may try it soon. He wants to get going on more substantial writing, from what he's said.
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Willa
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Willa
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Erin,
Also, when I was teaching the older kids to write research papers I had a workbook that we used as a loose guide. But there are several equivalent resources on the web for free.
A Research Guide for Students
Well Trained Mind series on Writing the Research Paper (more for the parent than the child).
One more
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Willa
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4Real Forums : Language Arts Come Alive
Topic: How do you write a research essay?
