It is quite possible, even likely, that students know little about the research topic they are going to investigate and write about. For some students, this realization produces anxiety, resulting in writer’s block. Afraid that their lack of knowledge may prove embarrassing later on, they have misgivings about their ability to write well under such circumstances. For such students, the idea of doing research may be intimidating. It may conjure up images of students sitting woefully at their desks, bleary-eyed, kept awake by coffee, buried deep in stacks of books, worried if they’ll ever get their papers done. Unfortunately for some students, the stereotypical images may be true; from past experience they know little about the process of research and thus tend to postpone or even bypass it as much as possible. Other students, unduly panicked by the...