Research Paper Timeline

The following was an email on TRISMS where she explained what the research paper timeline was for her 8th grade son in a public school class for history. It's a good guideline to think about for maybe one paper each year.

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We had to place my son in private school last year because we
could not find an outpatient placement for his LD treatment program.
Overall, it has been an horrid experience, I've had to fight his
teachers to follow his treatment plan but some good has come out of
it.

He had to do a research paper for history class and she gave them
a packet with a timeline to turn in each component:

Topic and sources (min 3 books, 1 encyclopedia entry (max), 3
periodicals/websites)

4 days later-Bibliography cards, working works cited page

1 week later-Sources should be read.Title page, working outline

4 days later-1st 20 notecards due

1 week later-2nd 20 notecards due

4 days later-last 20 notecards due

10 days later-First rough draft due

2 weeks later-Final Outline, draft, polished paper, final works
cited page

She gave them samples of the outline, bibiography cards, works
cited page and how to do the different types of citations, a format
for the notecards, a definition of plagarism, a word requirement (900-
1,100 words for 8th grade)and required a map, chart, and a graph.

It was a tremendous help for my son to keep on track and meet
her standards. In the end her only quibble was with his paper's
length- 9 1/2 pages. She wanted it pared down to 6 pages which I
thought was ridiculous given the number of notecards required along
with the map, chart and graph.