College Life Today

Use the cute kitten method of catching a reader's attention in research papers.

At the onset of YouTube, one of the most frequently downloaded videos was the “Mean Kitty” video by Cory Williams. Cory set off a wave of kitty videos that could make even the most ardent cat fan want to cough up a hairball. YouTube then got its share of “dead puppies” or at least dogs playing dead. When you think about it, neither of these phenomena in nature really warrant the plethora of video channels that exist for the tenderly touched voyeur but never the less, the general population loves them. The lesson to be learned for you and your research paper? Professors can also be lured into the cute kitty or dead puppy syndrome. With a few simple tricks of rhetoric, you to can produce the academic equivalent of cute kitties in any research paper you write.

To understand how to apply the equivalent of the “cute kitty” or “dog playing dead” for your research paper, you must first understand the psychology behind the “cute kitty”. The cute kitty has been used by nearly every blogger, YouTube video aficionado and marketing guru in the Western World because of the simple fact that it appeals to all of human kind. No one short of the pathological can deny that a kitten is just about the cutest thing on the planet. It’s a universal truth. Something that can’t be denied. Same with the puppy playing dead. The trick is to weave this psychological element into your research paper. It’s possible, in every paper, and every research paper topic.

Poverty in America

To use the cute kitten approach, first determine your universal truth. For example, say your topic is “poverty in America”. The universal truth in this topic is that no one wants to be poor. Now you have to take your universal truth and twist it like dirty rag and squeeze out some heart-wrenching take on your universal truth that will tug on your professor’s heart strings. Inciting emotion in your paper conveys to a professor that you have thought about the topic and applied it to what you know personally. Continuing with our example of “poverty in America”, you may want to begin your paper by painting a scenario in which the reader of the paper imagines himself or herself out of work, downtrodden and living in the fringes of society. Or perhaps you can use a well-known example of poverty in America, for instance the fact that 21 percent of all children in America live in poverty. That is 1 in 5 children at the playground. 1 in 5 children at McDonalds. 1 in 5 children disappointed at Christmas. Go ahead, pull out the punches and make the analogies pathetic and paint the scenarios filled with tears.

Now you may be thinking, “well anyone can turn a topic in sociology into a heart-wrenching, dead puppy fest”, but I assure you, it can be done with any topic. Take a look:

• Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War — Universal Truth: Abraham Lincoln Freed the Slaves  — Heart-wrenching fact: Abraham Lincoln thought blacks were inferior to whites and should be colonized in a different land. My research paper would include a cute illustration of former slaves weeping on a boat to a remote island off the coast of the US.
• Cognitive Development — Universal Truth: There are distinct stages in cognitive development. Heart-wrenching factor: Focus on infancy…everyone loves babies. Make sure your paper is narrow enough to explore only the early stages of development. Include pictures of babies, cute, fat, smiling babies.
• Business Ethics – Universal Truth: Enron sucks —  Heart-wrenching fact: Greed destroyed lives and pensions, retirement savings and 401k’s disappeared leaving average middle-class workers penniless. Enough said, no pictures needed.

You can see the trend and note the point. Every topic can be turned universally emotional. It takes a good understanding of a topic to attach yourself emotionally to it, therefore, while you may just be using the “cute kitten approach” as a formula, the professor is convinced you’ve really thought this one out and it has touched you deeply. The cute kitties on YouTube prove that that is what is truly affective in society today. It worked for Cory Williams and it can work for you in every research paper you write.

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