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course they are taking. Regardless of the course you teach, certain fundamental ideas are usually veryimportant to understanding the important themes of geography. In mathematics, the big themes mightrelate to solving problems and writing equations. In a science course, the big ideas might relate toscientific method, the dynamics of life, etc. What are the big themes of your course? Where are theydescribed in your textbook?I first discovered the concept of the No-Research Paper when I was teaching United States andVirginia Government several years ago. I realized after helping students learn the content of the first fourchapters of the textbook that few students had a complete grasp of what the U.S. government was allabout. To many students, a chapter on the British roots of the U.S. government was just that. Few sawthat it also related to the constitution that we eventually created in 1787. The same could be said for thechapter about the approximately 200 years of the American colonial experience, and the chapter on theperiod of 1776 until 1787, when Americans lived under a government that was too weak to defend itself,and had little power to deal with other problems that arose.In order to get my students to truly understand the constitution that our forefathers created, it seemedto me that students ought to synthesize what they had learned in the first three chapters of the text withwhat they were finding out about the basic principles of the U.S. Constitution in chapter four. My solutionwas to assign a “seven-to-ten page, typed, double-spaced paper” on the topic, “Why We Have theConstitution We Have.” By assigning such a paper over a month’s time, I immediately accomplished twoimportant goals. First, I put my students into a manageable but complex task that I knew would help themto synthesize the basic ideas fundamental to understanding the rest of my course. Secondly, I allowedthem to practice the process of writing a lengthy work (the first for many of them) with the use of a rubricto emulate.The process took slightly more than a month to do. We had already read the first three chapterswhen the assignment was given. A great deal of support was provided in the form of modeling of the useof graphic representations to analyze and synthesize. a rubric was provided for students. A peer-reviewprocess was established, and timetables were set to monitor progress. Some of the work was done in theclassroom, however the majority of the project was on the students’ own time (homework).The benefits of a No-Research Paper are enormous. First, by eliminating the need to hunt forinformation in the library, etc., two great obstacles are automatically overcome; the need for a topicaldecision, and finding the time to do research. On the other hand, a similarly complex level of thinking isrequired in the process of deciding what to include in the paper, what not to include, and how to restatethe essential understandings of the course in one’s own words. Instead of gathering 100 pages of notes ona topic, each student is already in possession of 100 pages of subject matter, all of which s/he has read anddiscussed in class. The focus in a No-Research Paper, then, is developing deeper understanding throughanalysis and synthesis.Since my first experiences with this form of student writing, I have been greatly reinforced in myoriginal beliefs that students would benefit from this process. A paper on the five themes of geography,scientific method and how it applies in earth science, the sell as microcosm for all living things, tools forproblem solving in algebra, the merits of various genre in literature, or any other topic, can lead studentsto practice of higher order thinking skills at the same time that they are learning the most importantconcepts of your course. At the same time, students are experiencing success in articulating a wellthought-outargument, presented in writing. No-Research Papers can be of various lengths. They need notcover several chapters. One chapter, or even a section of a chapter can be used in this manner. The teachermay also provide other materials that augment the text. Clearly, any time we help our students reflectthrough writing on the major themes of our disciplines, we are helping them in more ways than one.©2004 MAX Teaching with Reading & Writing, 6857 TR 215, Findlay, OH 45840, 404-441-7008 http://www.maxteaching.com65