The Instructions
"As you think about writing a research paper, you may wonder how this assignment differs from other kinds of papers you have written. The fundamental difference has to do with the major content of each. Research papers do not grow out of personal experiences and opinions to the same extent that other types of compositions do. Instead, they require that you use your critical thinking skills to evaluate information and ideas that you uncover while learning about a topic through research."

Works Cited
Weidenborner, Stephen, Domenick Caruso, and Gary Parks. Writing Research Papers: A Guide to the Process. 7 Ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005.

My Questions About the Instructions
1) What exactly qualifies as a personal experience? (is it memories?)
2) What exactly qualifies as an opinion? (is it thoughts, feelings, brain blasts?)
3) What exactly are critical thinking skills? (no idea what they are... except that they are critical, you think with them, and that they develop over time.)
4) How exactly do you evaluate information? (you form an idea of worth, examine and judge the information carefully... but how do you do this? Or approaching doing it?? )
5) What exactly are ideas? (is it your thoughts, feelings, and brain blasts?)
6) How or what exactly is learning? (is it memorizing? Is it understanding? Is it regurgitating information?)
7) What exactly qualifies as research or researching? (is is surfing the net?)

1. A personal experience is anything that has happened to you, with you or about you. It is anything that you (and frankly those around you) lived through/experienced.
2. An opinion is any statement made that is not rooted in fact. It is anything you think If it is not the view that is expressed wholly by the community/population, it is an opinion. If the point is arguable, it is an opinion.
3. Critical thinking is the ability to examine an idea and formulate new thoughts, ideas and opinions from the idea. It is also to analyze and idea and make meaning from it.
4. See above. Use the critical thinking to do this. An easy approach to this is to find two points of data sources and compare them when writing a research paper.
5. Ideas can be your thoughts or feelings but in the case of a research paper, this is not where you want to go. It is also a generic term for a piece of data collected.
6. Learning is the ability to acquire new knowledge and apply it in life skills.
7. The internet can qualify as research but it should, in no way be the sole place to get information. Researching something should include as many different kinds of sources as one can get ones hands on.

If you are writing a research paper, here is a quick tip to make it SOOO much less stressful. This strategy for writing research papers also encompasses all of the above criteria.

Read from several sources. When you come across an idea that would possibly be included in your paper, write it down on an index card. On the back of that card, write the bibliographic information. Write only one idea per card and make as many cards as you can while doing the research for your paper. When you are done researching, organize the cards in a logical order for you to write your paper.
Then, as you write, go through them, one by one until the stack is gone. (Remember, when you organize that you do not have to keep every card either)

Good Luck

Can you read my other question specifically directed at my paper?