Introduction

Leaving Behind the Research Paper that Goes Nowhere. . .

When I started teaching, I knew research and argument were important things for my students to practice because throughout their academic careers they would be asked again and again to use those skills, but I also knew that if they wanted to make any kind of real change in the world once they graduated, defending their ideas and self-informing would be essential to doing so.

So I had them write. I had them pick topics that they cared about. I had them research both sides and decide where they truly stood on the issue, and semester after semester, I watched as some students became very involved or made really great arguments to their cause. I did also restrict topics, in the hopes that they would avoid topics that simply "sounded like a good research topic" or presented little room for new arguments.

All these great ideas slid across my desk, right back to the student, gaining no bigger audience than perhaps a few family members, roommates or friends, or tutors. While I begrudged this fact a bit, I didn't see room for change.

Meanwhile, particularly in light of the government shutdown, I was growing increasingly aware that, despite living in an age where information is widely and easily available to everyone, the norm is to not to talk to each other about important issues. While we can Google whatever we want, we seldom step out of our comfort zone to reach out to people who disagree with us, or even read websites or news sources that don't bend toward our opinions. Understanding the opposition is essential to making effective persuasive arguments, which is why I always had my students research both sides, but in real life, we do not seek out the other side, let alone engage with them.

The flip side to that is, despite Facebook and Myspace and hundreds of personal blogs, beyond consumer reviews, the vast majority of us also do not even bother to share our serious opinions very often. This likely goes back to the age-old rule of etiquette which states there being two things you don't talk about in public conversation or with people you do not know: Politics and Religion. You can add to that today anything that might be remotely associated with those things.

We bring ideas up tentatively, feeling each other out to see what side of the argument they fall on before revealing too much about ourselves. If we're not sure, we pull back and keep our opinion to ourselves. Some of us block political or religious posts from our news feeds and beg our friends to stop getting so involved. I get that we started this to be polite, but this rule is misguided. Argument and conflict do not need to be negative. They require concentration, they challenge us, but they do not require the negativity and emotional hurt that we have come so comfortable associating them with.
(For more on this topic, check out Margaret Heffernan's "Dare to Disagree.")

Striving not to make any social faux pas, we've created something I'm sure was unintended: a cultural climate where we are more and more divided on every issue, and hateful mistrust and misunderstanding of "the other side" grows rampant. We are most aware that "Democrat," "Republican," "Conservative," and "Liberal" are uttered by some as though they are racial slurs, but have a talk with someone who is invested in the Chipotle v.s. Qdoba argument and you might be surprised at the fury with which they refer to the other side.

So there I was, stewing on what I had seen happening ages ago, wishing people would just share opinions in a constructive way, talk to each other, educationally -- not with vengeance and watered down facts or positions. If we could do that, we could then begin to see that we have more in common than we think and that often our goals are very similar; it is only the methods we disagree on, and compromises are easier to find than we may at first imagine.

I decided to make a change for myself and tried engaging those who disagreed with me on Facebook on bigger issues. It was not always easy, and I was not always a saint and certain people did not want to talk to me the moment they figured where I stood on an issue. But, I also found people willing to talk and share their side, and to listen to mine. Those were great conversations that were eye opening and, honestly, settling. I didn't feel riled. I felt more informed, more in control, and less like there were people out there just trying to do bad things. In short-- better about the world.

This was all happening around the start of the semester, when I was solidifying and revisiting assignments and rubrics and syllabi.  But it wasn't until I began prepping for the portion of the assignment that required viewing the other side that I realized that I could make a change bigger than my own conversations.

As I said before, whether I agreed with my students' positions or not, I helped them make their arguments clear and convincing. I felt particularly successful whenever an A level essay came in that I disagreed with on some principle because in these cases, I cared about their writing and their improvement and their ability to explain what they wanted and needed to. They were getting clearer and making good arguments, but why should I be the only one to witness this?

Why should students wait to try and make a difference until they have their degrees in hand? Sure, some things they must wait for the proper qualifications, but to voice their opinion clearly and persuasively, that is what 101 is all about. They will only get better with time, but they do not lack the skill completely now.

So this semester, we decided to do something with our research. They picked topics they cared about, like always. They researched both sides, as always. Wrote essays, like always. But this time, I did not restrict topics. And, this time, my students also wrote proposal letters that they sent to real people who could help them make change. This time, they also published their findings and actions to public but individual blogs. The links to which, I will provide for you here.

What better way to practice sharing ideas, addressing the other side, and attempting to make change, than actually doing it?

Not all Topics are weighty or universal, but all change is important. Whether they we reaching out to their favorite author, an old high school, or the First Lady herself, their opinion deserves to be heard, and sometimes small changes are realistic practice to tackling larger issues later on.

A person rarely makes change alone, but it takes only one involved and passionate individual to get people talking, get people acting, get people involved, and when people get involved, a lot changes.

Nothing changes over night, surely, but what many people often mistake for one large, slow moving beast is really a mass of small, quick decisions and movements all adding up to make a difference.

These letters and blogs are each one single step in the right direction.

EDIT: Since the semester with the letters, I have had (for time purposes) returned to just the research essay. For these classes, I offer the blog assignment as extra credit. This is why you may not find a letter on all blogs.