I am assigning my students a research paper rather than an I-search. From the converstions I have had with others, so are many of the other teaching assistants. One difficulty that students have is learning how to interweave sources together, and the research paper to me is much better practice in that aspect that the I-search paper. The I-search paper is so focused on the "Self" that even the research and subject matter seems to come as an after thought compared to the thought process focus. In most academic courses the students will take in the future, they are more likely to need to know how to create a research based paper than one so heavily enmeshed in personal discovery, opinion, and input. Of course I think it is fine for teachers to choose to teach the I-Search. I have simply been explaining why I choose not to.
However, since so many others also teach the Research over the I-Search, I feel that examples of the research paper should be in Composing Ourselves. Our students are required to purchase the text, and for a paper as large as the Research paper (which we are allowed to modify from the I-Search paper) I believe there should be helpful examples. I did show an example of the I-Search, just to show a thought process that relates to the research paper, although it is not written down. However, I mostly did this just so the students could get some sort of use from the book. I would like to suggest that the new edition of Composing Ourselves have a section for Research paper examples. I have examples from my students from last semester I would be happy to give for publication.
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If you're looking for an example of a research paper for your students, the current edition has a really good example (in my opinion at least) of a source-supported Position Paper, called "American Male Malaise in Fight Club." (Spoiler alert: it gives away the plot of the book/movie.) The position and research papers are so similar that this example might work for both. Nonetheless, I agree that there should be more research paper examples in the next edition of Composing Ourselves.
Charity, I'm running into the same problem. I have chosen to use a research paper over the I-search and contrary to my usual stance of providing my students with examples of papers that I have written, I have found that the research papers I have written are not good examples for an English 110 class. "Composing Ourselves" is a little lopsided in the memoir section and needs to include some better examples of research.
No matter what our students are majoring in, chances are, they are going to be writing REASEARCH PAPERS! They need to know how to compose research papers, not I-Searchs! The I-Search is just "research light," it's covered in a candy coating that makes it easier to swallow, but it will rarely play with other instructors who look for evidence of critical thinking skills.
I completely agree with your views on the I-Search paper; I think it's too self-centered, or rather too explicitly self-centered, to function as a good example of the kinds of papers that students will be writing in other classes. I'm absolutely positive that a few of my former professors probably would have shown me both sides of their right hand if I wrote an I-Search instead of a research paper. That's one of the reasons that I assigned a research paper for my class; the other big reason is that it's too similar to the Annotated Bibliography, making those assignments redundant. I don't know if there are any current plans to include samples of straight-up research papers in the next edition of Composing Ourselves, but it's definitely something I think should take place, especially considering that so many of us teach a research paper instead of the I-Search.
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