Writing non-fiction can be a difficult kind of process to teach. Namely because it must be true, and as any writer, journalist, or regular (child or adult) student of history knows, truth is rarely as simple as it seems. The type of research students do, and the way they cite, or honor their findings, is almost as important as the content itself when it comes to writing a research-based piece.
But it can be hard when you’re under a deadline, and it’s not possible to know the entire truth about something in the week or two week time that you have given to write the piece. Indeed, the closer you get to something, the larger it becomes.
One of the best ways I find in engaging in research is treating it like an opening flower. I hate to bring up Faulkner, but history is not dead. No, it’s not even a ghost. It’s more like the embodiment of you, and whatever zeitgeist surrounds you and me: a ripple, a game of telephone. And even if your student is writing a non-fiction piece which takes place in the present, you better be sure they understand that it has a life in the present too. History changes depending on the teller.
So we begin with the roots:
The student must use their own genius and experience, their own intuition: their own positionality to the information. Who is the student? What do they know or think they know already about the topic? Do they have an idea of how this topic has been researched in the past? This may be before any mentor texts are introduced. These preliminary questions that the student asks will be the tap root from which they sustain interest, constantly continuing to return to in their research.
To establish what research is is an important question to ask before starting the research process. As in R Words: Refusing Research by Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang, research has a history of violence. This should not deter the student from asking questions. But requires the student to analyze themselves and their purpose before engaging in the research process.
The stem
establishes an understanding of the types of sources, connecting the student to their preliminary questions, and continually rerouting them back to their initial interest. In the same way the student analyzed their own relationship to the material, the student must ask: as far as I know, what is this publisher’s relationship to the material? And ask the big questions: follow the money, follow the power. Who are the publishers? Are they reputable or not?
And so there begins to be a bud, each of their sources become like petals, which they are the center of.
The question that must be asked now:
Where are there shadows in the research? Where are there things that seem to be unsaid? Why do they think? Where would those answers lie? Are the answers meant to be verbalized?
As the student completes their research, outside and alternative readings and viewings: music, art, and poetry as a few examples, are essential in understanding whatever it is the student is researching because while research involves reading, interviewing, and analyzing. It is also intuitive. The student must pay attention to themselves as they engage with the material.
And so the final project weaves the petals or theories to the student, with clearly stated purpose for the research process to begin with, and a sturdy group of resources that holds the final product up.
Bending Tree Education 