Research

Research -- ughh! That is pretty much all I have to say.  I LOVE writing papers, but writing papers about pointless topics and having to do hours of pointless research for it is what I consider to be one of the biggest wastes of time.  Doing a research paper requires no more effort or energy than a normal paper.  I believe that students should be able to choose what they write about, write from experience or knowledge that they know or learned in class.  Research topics rarely come in handy in the future and most of the time the writers forget what they even write about a week after turning in the paper.  I find it a lot more beneficial for students to write about what they are interested in or to write about topics being discussed in their classes -- because in the long run that is what will be useful.