Reading other student’s I-search papers was one of the biggest inspirations in my (short) writing process. Before we started the papers, I wasn’t sure what an I-search paper should look like. After reading the papers posted to WordPress by previous students Erinn and Brian, I got a much better idea of what was expected of me. Both papers incorporated research with a strong narrative; they were both informative, and entertaining. Their papers also helped me let go of the idea that my I-search paper should look and sound like a traditional research paper.

Talking through the assignment with classmates was also a huge help. During one of our peer editing sessions, my classmates suggested various ways for me to improve my research question. One classmate suggested that make my question would not yield a paper long enough to meet the word requirement of the I-search paper. I was really discouraged…