Almost There

- 9 -

Tess's second Senior English class took place that Wednesday. While The Scarlet Letter was the focus in Lit, Senior English seemed to be more about preparing students for college by teaching them to write research papers.

Fun.

Ms. Keene taught both classes, and while Tess did not enjoy the subject matter, she did appreciate Ms. Keene's wit. The other perk to Senior English was that Jacqui shared the class and, happily, they were seated near one another again.

"Day Two, dear students," Ms. Keene announced as everyone settled into their seats. "Wait, wait." She paused, looking up at the ceiling. Tess watched her, wondering what was wrong. She glanced around to the other students, seeing confused expressions on more than one face.

The bell rang.

"There!" said Ms. Keene. "Never let it be said that Minerva Keene impinges upon your sacred passing period. Day Two! With a show of hands, who among us knows what 'MLA' is?"

Once again, Tess looked around at her peers. Within three seconds, every hand in the class was raised, including Jacqui's. On impulse, Tess raised her own, although she had no idea what "MLA" was. It did sound familiar, but she couldn't place the acronym.

"Excellent! I won't waste my time explaining, then. Yesterday, we went over the syllabus and briefly touched on the fact that this class will be nothing but a tortuous succession of research papers with steadily-ascending page requirements."

Ms. Keene turned toward the board and snatched up a dry erase marker. "I give you quite a bit of freedom in choosing your specific topics. In my personal experience, it's easier to write when you care about the subject. That being said, you'll have to find something that fits in with my guidelines for each paper.

"For your first paper, you will simply be doing a report." She paused to write "Report" on the board, and began to bullet out a list of requirements. "Your topic must be sufficiently complex that you can write three to four pages, double-spaced because I am merciful. Consider when you choose your topic that your audience is 'an average reader'—someone who might have heard of your topic before, but likely has no specific knowledge of the subject. For example, if you're writing about a video game-related topic, pretend...well, pretend your reader is me, because the last video game I played was Tetris on the original Game Boy. Make sense?"

She glanced over her shoulder, waited until a few heads were nodded, and then turned back to the board. "You will use the MLA style guide for your citations and include a Works Cited page, which must contain no fewer than four academic sources. And," she turned fully to face the class, pointing her marker at the students as a whole, "One of them must be a print resource—that is, a book."

There were a few groans.

Ms. Keene snatched up a copy of The Scarlet Letter from her desk and held it aloft. "You know books, I hope, especially those of you I've seen in Lit class: two covers, pages, made of paper. I suggest looking in the library; they have been known to congregate there. I will accept a periodical as a resource. So, as you choose your topics for your research paper, please think of something that's likely to be addressed in print."

Her stomach churning, Tess wrote down the requirements Ms. Keene was explaining, trying to keep up.

Turning back to the board, Ms. Keene moved to the side to start a new list. She wrote PROPOSAL: and, underneath it, What, Who, and Why. "For each of the papers you write in my class, I require more than just a final draft to be turned in; there are stages. First, you'll write a proposal. Then, you will turn in the research you've done—your list of sources. I'll also take a first draft of your paper before you turn in the final product. Before you groan again, keep in mind that I do have to grade all these things. I don't make you do it because I love to grade. It's to ensure you receive the feedback and guidance you need, so that your final paper will be more successful.