My experiences in high school with writing research papers were very minimal. There were never too many opportunities in my classes for me to do such a task. The very few opportunities that presented themselves to me to write a research paper the research involved was minimal. For both incidents involved I happened to be very knowledgeable on both topics. One research paper that I wrote was for a history class in the tenth grade. The paper was to be written on the history of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. Having lived my entire life on the canal and working for a shipyard located on the canal, I had acquired a great deal of knowledge on the history, construction, and practical workings of the canal as a whole. I was required to use three different, credible sources while writing and I did so. However, I never used any more. The other research paper I have written was in the ninth grade. This was a political paper written about the policies and regulations of gun ownership and gun control in contemporary America. This required a good bit of research; however the teacher knew this was our first semester in high school and did not expect much out of these papers. Throughout the course of this English class, I am hoping to learn more about what is needed in order to write a research paper. I am extremely interested in learning what is required to pass a research paper as credible and acceptable. Also, I would really like to know how to use the school’s library databases effectively and to use them for all my papers throughout my college career. All in all, I am most interested in learning how to improve my reading and writing skills as these will be a necessity later in my life.