Researching Fish

Research Happens a Lot
online

What should a college writing course teach in the class room? Well to me personally I could not name anything right off the top of my head. But after intense research and hard work I have come up with what I know should be taught in class. That one thing out of the many would have to be research! With research being on the top priority of being needed to be taught there is things that research does to your papers. With the research involved you are able to verify your opinions, changing and shaping opinions, and being able to have the audience trust what you are writing.

I took place in observations in The Ohio State University Newark Writing Studio. In these observations I had to watch a student and a tutor go through papers that the student had been assigned from her English 1110.03 teacher. In these observations is where my opinions of research were justified. These observations were held for 8 weeks long. The students name was Samantha and the tutors name was Chelsea. Each week Samantha would bring in a paper that her teacher had said was due and Chelsea would normally read over it and help Samantha on whatever that is needed to be done.

Verifying your opinions in your paper with research is always good. With verifying your opinions that means that if what you thought was actually true then it is credible and is able to be believed. But to be credible you need to research for secondary sources that will back up what you feel is correct about your topic. Having info that is correct about your topic, the easier the paper will be able to write and the easier sentences will be able to come together. Even when the student in the observations had to look up secondary sources to back up what she thought was right. She even had said that when an opinion was correct she was happy that it was but with every one of the student’s opinions not all was correct.

With the research it can change your view on the topic. In the observation the tutor kept asking the question “why” at certain points in the student’s paper. With the asking of why in the paper that means that either you need to back it up with secondary sources or see if it was wrong actually. When finding something that is actually wrong meant that you would have to go in and correct it and sometimes that it could change a lot in your paper now that you see a different view on the topic. Even the tutor had said that when finding out that the information she thought was right is exciting because she is learning something new about the topic.

Finding information different from your opinion
can be good

In the end with both verifying and changing your opinion gives you the tools to be able to have enough sources to make the audience believe in what you are writing. Having the audience believe in what you say in a huge part because if they cannot trust what you say then what is the point of writing the paper. In research papers the looking up sources are huge because without those sources then the paper is just filled with unjust opinions. Having a trust worthy paper to me is a justifying feeling because there will be nobody in the end questioning anything I write.

Research in the end is one of the many things that is needed when it comes to a college paper. Research is the big one though because it will help form sentences and even Stanley Fish had said that classes should teach more on forming sentences. With all the help from research, it gives you all the tools to put in your paper and with the right tools that Fish says in his article you could form the perfect sentences needed.