Research papers... ugh...

So I just edited the research paper of one of my classmates, and I realized that editing a research paper is much like editing a news story. You still need the context, you still need credible sources, and you still need hard facts to legitimize the main idea.

But, with this, I found myself asking for analysis. It was kind of tough. The paper I edited was really well-written and had some great facts. But it allowed the readers to make their own assumptions. That seems like a negative aspect to a research paper... a great aspect for a news story though.

I think it's tough for journalism students to write research papers for that very fact. We've been trained to leave all opinion behind us and let the facts tell the story. You can't really do that with a research paper, or else it starts to become weak.

So what's my point? I guess I'm saying it was a challenge of my editing skills to edit a research paper. If it weren't to late, I might start taking some English classes in case the journalism thing falls through and I become a researcher. I don't think that would ever happen.

And if our lab instructor reads this, maybe she won't deduct as many points if our arguments are weak...