I want you to break the mold, do something different. But you need to resist old habits—the term paper you’ve done a hundred times.

In fact, the ”new” term paper is simply what we’ve been doing all quarter in class, the “What I Learned and How I Learned It” style, telling the story of “where your mind has been,” rather than reporting back what you read at home last night. The paper starts with this “story,” and takes it to the next level.

Your paper is a more complex story—more themes. It’s not a quick journal entry, but a full-length portrait of events. You need to develop each “character,” and draw all the threads together seamlessly.

It’s more comprehensive, a broader search than your homework. You find your own sources, beyond the textbook, cast a larger net and sort through a bigger catch. You become the “expert.”

The paper is more thorough. You’ll track down leads, tie together loose ends. You’ll even hit some dead ends (detectives do) and maybe tell us about that—you learn things there.

When you’re ready to “go to press”—put your investigation into print—, you become the “editor” of your own “newspaper.” You decide what to “cover”—how much of each issue gets in, and where it goes in the paper—, balancing, weighing, focusing, prioritizing.