For academic projects, analysis and discussion take time.

During my teacher librarian days, I was helping a student craft a 4,000-word paper on humor in a famous non-funny television show. 

“You need a theory of comedy,” I told him. “You can’t explain what you’re going to do without it.” 

In front of my eyes, he logged into JSTOR, a noble choice, did a quick search and downloaded the first paper he found. Voila. 

“This looks good,” he said, missing my alarm. “It says, ‘theory of comedy’ right in the title.” 

Librarians don’t often admit it, but anyone can search and find factual information. Statistics. Even, it seems, academic theories. We teach these skills to middle school students. It’s just searching for other people’s work. 

For my student, this theory – one he barely bothered to read – filled a yawning gap in his paper. Even so, his paper’s grade hinged on analysis and discussion. He was required to assess how his research related to his subject, evaluate his methodology and conclude whether his conclusions made sense. How was he going to do any of this against his quickly snatched theory of comedy? 

I tell students all the time: We are proud that you found the best sources to describe your topic. You’re great at finding competing theories. That’s other peoples’ work. Assembling others’ ideas is important. But. You, good student, need to make the paper your own. What do you make of it? That’s where the analysis and discussion and evaluation come in. 

The goal is to combine information you’ve learned into new ways, argues Daniel T. Willingham, author of Why Don’t Students Like School. That means you add your new background on the theory of humor with pieces you’ve read elsewhere with television programs you’ve watched for other purposes.  (Willingham also argues you need enough background knowledge on the topic to really combine these ingredients and make something splendid, but that’s for a different day.) 

This mixing work takes time. And concentration. It definitely can’t be done on a phone. Probably not in front of the computer, either. This is the reflective work done on walks to class, or out alone on a path. 

This is not done through multitasking, argues William Deresiewicz, former Yale professor.  

“My first thought is always someone else’s; it’s always what I’ve already heard about the subject, always the conventional wisdom,” he told an audience at West Point back in 2009. “It’s only by concentrating, sticking to the question, being patient, letting all the parts of my mind come into play, that I arrive at an original idea.”  

No matter the skills your teachers want you to learn while you write these papers, thinking critically is the most important. Reading, note-taking, idea synthesis are all admirable talents. You will use them whatever you do in the future. Independent thought – your thoughts, ideas, opinions all mixed up from whatever you learned – is the most significant ability you bring to any table. 

Photo by Unseen Studio on Unsplash