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Responding to an Image

These images show activities that might help a student gather evidence from sources to support a position in a college paper. What does each image suggest about possible sources? What do the images suggest about the process of inquiry? Which activities look most intriguing? What other activities might have appeared in images on this page?

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Suppose you surveyed a random group of graduating students about the typical college writing assignment. The odds are good that this assignment might boil down to reading a few texts and writing a paper about them. Simple as this description sounds, it suggests what you probably expect from a college education: an opportunity to absorb and think seriously about provocative ideas. It also suggests the values that lie behind college expectations—a deep respect for the process of inquiry (the academic method of asking and investigating intriguing questions) and for the products of inquiry (the analyses, interpretations, and studies in each academic field).

When you first tackle such assignments, you may wonder “How do I figure out what my instructor really wants?” or “How could I possibly do that?” In response, you may turn to peripheral questions such as “How long does my paper have to be?” or “How many sources do I have to use?” Instead, try to face the central question: “How can I learn the skills I need to use a few sources to develop and support a position in a college paper?”

Unlike a debate or a Super Bowl game, a paper that takes a position generally doesn’t have two sides or a single winner. Instead, the writer typically joins the ongoing exchange of ideas about an intriguing topic in the field. Each paper builds on the exchanges of the past—the articles, essays, reports, and books that convey the perspectives, research findings, and conclusions of others. Although reading such sources may seem daunting, you are not expected to know everything yourself but simply to work hard at learning what others know. Your paper, in turn, advances the exchange to convey your well-grounded point of view or to defend your well-reasoned interpretation.