Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Problems with research proposal


45 comments:

  1. i find writing the hook the hardest part, since it sets the general mood of the essay. The reader might either engage into the essay and want to read more, or he might generate negative expectations towards the essay.
    Writing the introduction, the hook in specific, takes me the longest out of all the other paragraphs.

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    1. Why don't you try doing the writing in reverse? Leave the introduction till the end. Sometimes, it helps.

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  2. The hardest thing for me in writing an essay that needs research is finding good and reliable resources than can nourish my essay and defend and prove my point at the same time.

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    1. The hardest part should be selecting and organizing the ideas in your sources. That is why you have time to finish the final draft so that you leave yourself room to edit. Reliable sources are easy enough to find in AUB. Make use of the library and the databases. Your responsibility is to piece the information together while avoiding plagiarism :)

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  3. bassel i sometimes face this problem so sometimes I leave writing a hook till the end. A lot of times, though depending on the type of essay, i write a short real life example as the hook so that the readers can relate more to the topic.

    Regarding the research paper, the outline alone is taking time since a lot of the research and planning would be done now in order to know the topic idea for each part. should we write anything for the conclusion now?

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    1. Good advice Hiba. Bassel should probably do that. You can write any part you want now, but keep in mind that this will not be final and you can always go back and change your ideas since they will inevitably develop the more research you do.

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  4. i tired posting like 3 times from my phone and it didn't work so i moved to my laptop. that was problem number 1. the hardest part about the essay is narrowing down a topic. i chose to talk about whether or not courage is the absence of fear. but thats still too broad, and i don't know where to take it from there, i also don't have time to think about it this week because of all the midterms. so if you have any ideas it would be much appreciated.

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    1. Sorry dear about your connection problems ;)
      What you need to do is take some time to read up on the topic. Make sure the articles are all reliable and academic. I believe that the more your read, the more focused your idea will and narrowing down will no longer be an issue. If you find better ideas when you read, then change the angle of your topic. Your main problem here is time, so get going as soon as your midterms are over.

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  5. What we found hard to do was to narrow down a topic. We had a lot of ideas but we were not sure how to bring it down to one simple idea, after all, success is not limited, people succeed differently, maybe on the professional level or on the social one or even the emotional one. To choose which aspect we wanted to talk about was also hard since we wanted to choose the most powerful kind of success. The only thing that scares us a bit is going off topic considering how broad our topic is and how opinionated one can be while treating it.
    Alex and Mounia

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    1. The more sources you read on this, the clearer your ideas become.

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  6. What I found hard in writing the essay is to formulate the these statement that will introduce the three ideas I will discuss. I think this problem is related to my inability to concise the content of the plan. I have 2 main ideas that are strongly related but the 3rd one is not but I think it is still a good idea to mention.

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    1. You have to look for more ideas Nathalie. Keep in mind that this is about a ten-page essay so you will have many paragraphs in it, not just two. It is not easy to write a good thesis statement, but you will get there.

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  7. I always take time to choose a topic since I rather write about someting that interests me and that in which I have a lot to say. Therefore, in the strive to find a thesis statement we should think outside the box and try to find a subject in which we have a willingness to prove a point. This will help us write the research paper more easily.

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  8. What I have found difficult so far about the Research Paper is actually the outline. It sounds like it should be the easiest part, but if you think about it it's one of the most helpful things to do. It helped me organize all my ideas and somewhat forced me to do a little more research to see which topics I want to cover in my paper and in which order I would like to introduce each topic in. So honestly, I struggled quite a bit while doing my outline and will most probably continue to edit it as Miss Zinnia said, but now I feel like the paper has basically written itself.

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  9. Exactly Dana. Writing a good outline takes a lot of time and research, but once you are satisfied with the final product (final draft of the outline), then the paper is already written as you have mentioned ;)

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  10. I think I am a little too late for this. I am so sorry for my terrible time management. I have been literally bombarded with projects.
    My biggest problem was my inability to find a topic that makes me feel the need to write about it. But I finally found one, just a few days ago. And luckily, it is an issue I have been unconsciously researching about for several years because it is purely related to my passion. But I guess I just threw it to the back of my head and now I am determined to let it grow. When I remembered it, my mind's Niagara falls were pouring ideas and I grabbed a piece of paper and jotted them down immediately. I really hope the same happens to the ones who are still struggling. Good luck shabeb.

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  11. I found that writing the introduction and the conclusion is a bit hard. You have to do your best to make the reader want to keep reading your paper to the end, to capture his interest, and the end must also leave a very good impression because it sums the entire essay.

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  12. I am tempted to say I had no difficulties because the research took a lot of hard work and I'm honestly too tired to write anything anymore. However, it would be a huge lie. The biggest issue I faced was finding the right sources for my ideas using the AUB libraries. And, if I did find a suitable e-book, it was often like 200 pages long and I wasn't ready to read it all in order to extract the right material from it. Finally, when I started using different synonyms for the same word in the search engine, I found that results were improving. I recommend doing the same for those that are obtaining invalid results. The APA format was a bit tricky to achieve too with all the little details involved, but I'm satisfied with the final result. (Written by Marc Rajji)

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  13. I was really excited about the topic I chose because I could relate to it and I've been in many discussions concerning it, so I didn't think writing the essay would be difficult. But organizing my ideas turned out to be harder than I'd expected. I wasn't sure what approach to use in my introduction but taking my friends' opinion, reading the comments on this blog, and keeping the "shitty first draft" concept in mind actually helped.

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  14. Figuring out how to start with my introduction is probably the hardest part, because it has to be something remarkable and alluring. Moreover, expanding each body paragraph and providing adequate details is also demanding, but the references I used really helped with that.

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  15. First of all, the most difficult thing in writing an essay/research paper is the continuity of ideas. After reading different sources and writing the essay, I reach a place where I feel it's essential to add something more, but I don't know what it is. Basically I solve this by reading more and more about the topic, there's always a word that captures me that I can build a whole paragraph on. Students should keep on reading random things about the topic they chose, they might be captured by something and write more about it.

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  16. Probably the most difficult part in writing my research paper was the lack of proper time management. I'm not here to complain, but I believe the time span we were given is actually quite restricted, given that I had 2 exams to study for, alongside writing my essay.

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  17. Writing a research paper has never been easy to me. The hardest part i would say is properly aligning my ideas in the right order. Also, the ideas in my head all seem very clear to me but projecting them on paper and making sure that all readers will perceive them like i do is mostly never simple. And i think that that's an issue that many writers struggle with.

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  18. What i have found difficult about the research paper is selecting ideas from different resources and making an outline. Doing an outline seems to be very easy, but it's not. It needs a lot of work and time, so that you'll be able to organize your essay properly.

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  19. When I first chose my topic I was really excited to write about it as it is not a very "typical" topic to choose. But while writing the essay I felt like I had very few sources to depend on which made the process trickier than usual. I would definitely say that this is the most challenging essay I've ever had to write considering the topic and time management.

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  20. Personally, beginning an essay has always been the hardest part I faced. An introduction is the first impression the reader gets and based on it he/she will decide whether to continue reading or not. Therefore writing the introduction, especially the hook, takes me more time than any other paragraph. I didn’t encounter any problem with the rest of the essay since this time I had made a developed outline which kind of guided me while writing the text.

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  21. For me, choosing the topic and the general theme of the essay wasn't really a hard decision. I didn't want to think outside the box when choosing the theme because I didn't want to end up discussing a topic that I am not familiar with. That is why a chose technology.
    The major two problem I had was finding a source that covers the whole topic, which would guide the flow of the essay, but I that didn't happen. Instead, I started looking using sources to support the ideas and providing examples.
    The other problem, and since it was a cause essay, was finding 5-6 sources that all contribute to the problem I was discussing. I ended up with less than that, but I tried to elaborate more on each cause.

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  22. My essay is about the advantages and disadvantages of cell phones.
    Easy! But i was kind of worried i'm writing an argumentative essay instead of an expository one.
    I had to make sure every now and then that my paragraphs weren't exposing different points of view.
    For example, i wrote about the advantage of it connecting people together and the disadvantage of it hindering human relationships and socialization...(two opposite points!!)
    Oh and the essay is of 5 body paragraphs which is kind of tiring but it is okay.
    Yeah that's it..

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  23. Writing the introduction and conclusion of an essay has always been the easiest part for me. But when it comes to writing the body paragraph i always find difficulties even if i know what i want to talk about. It is hard for me to write what i am really thinking of and that is why i spend a lot of time writing an essay which is a problem I should solve since we have so many things to do in so little time. And finding references is also not an easy part of writing an essay.

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  24. The difficulties I face when starting any essay are the first sentence of any paragraph. For example, it takes me a lot of time to find a hook. In addition to that, even when I know what I am going to talk about, I find that the thesis statement is the most annoying part of the introduction. However, once I start writing my body paragraphs, it gets easier. Moreover, when I was still confused about my topic, finding sources wasn't so easy since I wasn't sure what I was going to talk about. However, after reading a little bit of everything, the ideas I wanted to talk about were clear in my head. Thus, I knew what are the ideas I needed to read more about.

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  26. When I first chose the topic, I was afraid that my essay would seem like a " cliché ". But when I started searching for ideas to discuss I found a lot of interesting ones that I believe a lot of people didn't know about. Another challenge for me was to find a good hook to start with and that would make the reader interested about reading my essay.

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  27. The hardest part about writing a research paper is picking a topic, narrowing it down, and looking for sources. Back in school the topic would be given to us narrowed down to the last bit and we never had to look for any sources. So the reason I am having a difficult time doing those is that I'm not used to it yet. Hopefully it will get easier with time.

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  28. I'd have to say that The hardest part of writing a research paper is to write an outline, organizing my ideas and knowing where to use the information I found. And then, when that's all done, the hardest part is writing a good introduction. I once wrote 10 introductions until I started making sense :P. So next time I might consider leaving the introduction to the very end.

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  29. Choosing an interesting topic wasn't an easy task for me. I had to think of several topics until I found a subject that I'm probably sure isn't a "cliché". Then, I had to begin my essay which was the second difficulty I faced. I've always found writing the introduction the hardest part of the essay, so I had to spend some time writing more than one introduction to finally find a suitable one. Regardless of these two difficulties, I enjoyed writing the essay.

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  30. Probably the hardest part in actually writing my research paper was that I didn't know with where to start and what to write. As soon as I had an outline in mind, everything sort of fell in place naturally. The other thing was that the research paper required a lot of time, effort and concentration which I lacked at the time. However, I really enjoyed writing the essay, and I hope that it becomes easier with time.

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  31. Writing a research was a hard task for me. The last time I wrote a research was three years ago. Therefore, it was really hard to recap the writing skills I had. Moreover, it was really hard to back up my ideas with strong references. As a matter of fact, my topic , "The New Middle East", was a hard topic. I barely found information on the internet and other resources ,such as books in the library. Moreover, it was so stressful to find information due to the long time it takes to find valid information. I also had study for my biology ,chemistry, and psychology tests. At the end, it was a nice experience to do a research writing in such difficult situations since it made me have a sense of commitment and responsibility.

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  32. The research was hard, but I enjoyed learning new things about different topics before choosing my topic and specific information about my chosen topic which was ISIS.

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  33. Personally,I had troubles figuring out my thesis and finding resources to support my claims. Writing the beginning of each body paragraph was also challenging at first,because I had so many ideas but when I structured them in a draft,things started to fall into place.

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  34. In my opinion the hardest and the most important part in writing a good essay is writing a great introduction.Your introduction is very important, actually the most important part of your proposal. If your introduction gets your audience's attention, they will stay with you throughout your proposal. An effective introduction discusses the meaningfulness of the study with presentation of problem or issue. It also serves as an argument concentrating on the need to study for your chosen object and gives a clear insight into your intentions. Thus the introduction presents a background and statement of context for your investigation.

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  35. The main problem I faced was getting started since I had to plan my research. However, it turned out to be easier than I thought because I chose a topic that I was comfortable with which was Smartphones, and I first started by brainstorming my ideas by writing down every single thought, which produced a really nice and helpful first draft. Another small issue was that in each paragraph, I had to always make sure to maintain a link between the body paragraph and my thesis statement (the effects of smartphones on diverse society aspects), but that also wasn’t so hard to do after all.

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  36. In my opinion, the hardest part in writing an essay is the introduction. In fact, the introduction is what pushes the reader to continue reading the paper and drag the attention of the public. Furthermore, a bad introduction is what defines a very bad essay and this is why I always take time and face difficulties to start composing it. On the other hand, building the outline of the essay is a very hard task too, since the whole essay is going to be based on it.

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  37. Being someone who never used an MLA or APA format then i have to say that just the formatting of the text as well as knowing how and when to cite my sources was the main problem i faced, so it wasn't actually the content that made me find issues with my essay, it was just the way i presented the content in a way that's conforming to what APA demands.

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  38. Citing sources in the text and in the reference page continues to be a struggle, it is what I hate most about writing papers. I also find difficulty in forming a thesis statement and restating it in the conclusion without being too redundant. In addition, trying to wrap up or state ideas that sum up the essay in the conclusion is sometimes difficult.

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