The Good 'Ole Research Paper

One of the topics this week on our forums was Research Papers - and let me tell you, research papers are no fun. But everything we must do in this world doesn't mean "fun."
We discussed if research papers are becoming obsolete. And if they are, how so? And if not, why not? It has been very interesting to listen to people's thoughts, but everyone pretty much agrees that research papers will not be leaving the classroom for quite some time. Research papers make people dig for information like no other school project. Just this evening, and throughout this past week, I have been working on finding 15 sources for an annotated bibliography of Langston Hughes. I'm not writing a paper on him, but I sure do feel like it! The thing is this: I wouldn't trade this searching and re-searching for anything - I have learned so much about Langston Hughes that I am excited to tell others what I have learned and am excited about sharing all the information I've gathered about him to my classmates this Thursday during World Literature II.
Here are some of the things I have learned:
1. He is one of the most prolific African-American writers for the Modernist movement and during the Harlem Renaissance
2. He created a poem titled the "Montage of a Dream Deferred" that was 72 pages long!!! It also was inspired by the be-bop movement which was an improvisational/modernist approach to Jazz music
3. Hughes wrote dozens of children's books that worked on getting rid of African-American stereotypes and shedding light, instead, on their art, culture and folk-lore.
4. He is best known for his "Simple" stories which are based on James B. Semple - an African-American man who is typical of the Harlem Renaissance. All of the stories were written to immitate different characters one might come across in the Harlem district. This style of writing made him famous because he was real and down-to-earth with his characters.
5. Check out here Denzel Washington quoting Langston Hughes's poem "I, Too" on YouTube in the movie "The Great Debators."

These are just a few of the MANY things one can find while doing research...yes, it is time consuming (has taken me 6-8 hours to compile everything) and hard on the eyes (since most of the research is done on the internet) but it is rewarding, gives the researcher a sense of accomplishment, and helps one understand the richness and beauty of a topic.