It certainly takes a village to write a research paper

   It certainly does take a village!

   Hillary Rodham Clinton had it right when she wrote a book on how it takes a village to raise a child. But that famous proverb can be applied to just about anything, including writing research papers.

   Even though the paper is on its third draft and still not completely done, I want to take this opportunity to thank my village people for helping me get this far. So what if it’s a little premature to offer my appreciation. I feel the need.

   The proposal, Designing a Photography Course for High School Teachers, is 16 pages of other people’s research, and glued together by APA-style citations. It didn’t start out that way, of course.  After sitting in front of the computer for months, dazed and confused, I realized I needed lots of help. It was time to reach out. Thanks to the following segments of population in my village:

·      Bowling Green University Learning Design program graduate Aaron Carpenter for meeting with me before I even started writing the paper. He helped me formulate an idea for the project.

·      Candace Bowen, John Bowen and Mark Goodman, my project committee co-chairs. I especially want to thank Candace, the director of the Center for Scholastic Journalism at Kent State University, for sending back (in a timely manner) my first draft, which had lots and lots of comment boxes highlighting the mistakes and changes I needed to make.

She pointed out that the first draft was too full of myself, which is a research paper no-no. When writing research papers, stay away from sentences that begin with the following two words: I believe. I think. I will. I hope. The key to writing a thesis is write down what you hope to accomplish, then search and cite other people to back up your points. This takes the “I” out of the equation.

  The paper also had lots of quotation marks, which are for journalists, not researchers. I admit APA style is the hardest concept for me to learn and do.

·      All of the researchers cited in the paper. Without their prior research on photography and education, it couldn’t have been written.

·      Kent State journalism grad student Shelley Blundell, KSU Journalism Educator graduate Marina Hendricks, and University of Toledo Center for Writing grad volunteer Shannon McKeehen. They were my second pair of eyes.

·      Springfield High School (Holland, Ohio) English teacher Mark Davidson for letting me interview him for the paper. 

·      APA Made Easy (APA 6th Edition) (Kindle version) by Scott Matkovich. I wish I would have bought this book before I started writing. It walks you through the whole writing process from the very beginning; choosing your font, setting margins, etc. That would have saved me (and my village people) a lot of frustration.

   Now that the draft is nearly complete, it’s finally time to begin the fun part: designing the course.