The stress is real; besides prom, college, scholarships and jobs; the main stress factor for seniors is the senior paper.

The senior paper is an eight to ten pages research paper were the student’s gets to choose and read the novel of their selection in the second semester. The students have to research the history about the book and the author and create a literally analysis.

“I would describe the senior paper as rigorous, but also not too hard. The students have to use skills that they’re not used to using to prepare them for college like research papers and deadlines,” says English teacher Ms. Belenager.

All the senior teachers assign this paper to help students build knowledge and independency so the students have experience when they get to college.

“A lot of our former students came back to us and told us that they were not prepared for college because of the research papers. As a result, the district decided to make it a requirement,” says English teacher Mr. Tillotson.

This English assignment is the hot gossip everyone is talking about throughout the campus.

“The due dates is what scares me the most because they gave you a week notice to get them all done,” says SLHS senior Manuel Araiza.

The seniors are indeed stressed, but what they do not realize is everything they are doing they have done since freshman year, except the senior paper is more independent.

“The senior paper is everything that you have been doing since freshman year. I used to teach freshman English and when we read Romeo & Juliet we did research about Shakespeare time period, the only difference with the senior paper, you are doing it on your own,” says English teacher Ms. Furkert.

Even if the students have been learning about this throughout their whole high school career, they still believe it is difficult especially since some students do work.

“The teachers do not go into depth and explain it better. I have to juggle work and finish my senior paper. We do not have enough time to research during class, plus schoology sucks,” says SLHS senior Cassie Jackson.

Click here for video on students opinion on the senior paper!

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