There’s nothing that can draw the biggest most exasperated sighs out of a class of high school students than the mention of a research paper. The thought of the daunting task can send chills down the spines of even the most rigid bookworms. Maybe it’s the endless investigation to prepare to write about a topic that gives the statement “too much information” it’s ultimate meaning. Or possibly it’s the mere length that the usual research paper holds. Who really knows the reason why so many dread the undertaking of this paper. But the only thing that could possibly be worse than writing a paper is reading one. Every one of them holds the notorious humdrum feel that makes shaving off your eyebrows seem more of a tempting past time. I’ve never come across one that has held my attention pat the first few sentences, that is of course until I discovered “Deep Play” a curious research paper that is unlike any I have read before.
Granted my forte may not be research papers, or anywhere near that, but in my lifetime I have learned a thing or two about the so called common and accepted paper. Every research paper has the specific trademark of the ceaseless drawl of one fact after another, that makes reading one quite the burden, the papers are simply nothing more than a reproduction of information that the author finds from one source after another. Although this didn’t seem to be the case while I was reading Clifford Geertz’s paper on cock fighting. His paper held a different standard than the rest, his held personal experience within each sentence. He knew his subject front and back, not from reading countless books but from undergoing it first hand, something I have never seen before in a research paper. Along with this knowledge comes a different writing technique than the usual used by authors of these papers. Geertz didn’t have to refer to sources in every paragraph which is what you can commonly find in any well written paper. His was more of a well told story...