Coleman

Colin Coleman

English 111

Mrs.Lashell

2/4/15

Narrative

My senior year of high school I was tasked with writing an eight to ten page

research paper that would forever change my writing process. I originally had

thought I can just sit down and crank it out real fast and get it over with like any

other paper, but oh was I wrong. The research itself for a paper of that length takes

countless hours, and then forming the research I did into a well-crafted paper took

more than time it took coaching to get through, and yes I mean coaching.

The research was on the black plague and I thought to myself “ Heck there

must be plenty to research to do on this” boy was I right but I would have rather

been wrong. I began researching and came up with so much information some of

which contradicting itself making it very hard to find reliable information. But after

countless hours on many online encyclopedias and databases I had finally compiled

all my research to begin crafting the paper. I didn’t do any pre writing and just tried

to begin typing the paper. This was impossible I was trying to compile about fifty

pages of research into eight pages and I didn’t even know where to begin.

I was dejected and aggravated because I simply couldn’t get it started, and I

knew I needed this paper to graduate from high school. This is where the coaching

comes in; I was sitting in my high School gym before basketball practice with all

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these papers scattered around me when my coach says “ what in the hell are you

working on over here”.

I respond “ this damn research paper for Mrs. Sims class.”

“ Oh yea I heard she’s not much of a teacher. How about after practice I sit down

with you and see what we can do with this paper, but only if your first in every

sprint.” He responded. Throughout that entire practice he was yelling and screaming

pushing me to be first and pushing me to finish, all giving me more and more

motivation.

After practice every one left the gym but like he said if I was first in all the

drills he would help me get this paper going, But he did much more than that. He sat

and taught me to get all my sources in chronological order so I can find the very

start of the plague that I had researched. Then he taught me how to outline

organizing all my research into paragraphs and ideas. After all this he says, “Now

get your laptop and start typing.”

“Now?” I said.

He responds “ yes now your going to crank this out and I’m going to be here if you

need help along the way.”

I began typing referring back to my outline every now and then and the paper just

starts flowing out. After about two hours I had finished the whole research paper

that ended up being eleven pages. By this time it was around three in the morning

and he had sat there and taught me step-by-step how to type a research paper for

the past five hours. I turned the paper in the next day which was a week before it

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was due and ended up getting a ninety-six on it, taking the weight of the world off

my shoulders.

Now if I’m asked to sit down and write a research paper or any paper for that

matter I think back to what he taught me that night in the gym. I now realize taking

the extra time to prewrite and outline will save so much time in the long run along

with help produce a better paper. Now if anyone asks me who taught me how to

write a well-formed paper I simply respond “ I was coached”.