The Dreaded Research Paper: A Writing Guide for Busy Students received a 4+ star review, making it an IndieReader Approved title.
Following find an interview with author Larry Patriquin.
What is the name of the book and when was it published?
It’s The Dreaded Research Paper: A Writing Guide for Busy Students. It was published in March 2025.
What’s the book’s first line?
I wish I had owned a copy of a book like this one when, many decades ago, I entered university as a first-generation student.
What’s the book about? Give us the “pitch.”
The book explains the entire trajectory of how to write an undergraduate research paper, from the title to the bibliography.
What inspired you to write the book? A particular person? An event?
When I began my career as a university professor, I was struck by how many errors, both major and minor, that students made in their papers. I started developing class handouts on various matters (quotations, references, paragraphs, and so on), and those handouts eventually morphed into the book. So, I guess you could say that my students – inadvertently – inspired me!
What’s the main reason someone should read this book?
It is a brief, one-stop-shopping type of book, based on the hundreds of common, “real world” mistakes found in undergraduate research papers. My book will help students avoid these mistakes – ones that I know irritate professors! – and so help them improve their grades.
Is this the first book you’ve written?
No. I have published five academic books, the most recent of which is Democracy and Social Rights: A Path Toward Equality? (Routledge, 2025). The Dreaded Research Paper is, however, the first book I have published independently.
How much time do you generally spend on your writing?
It depends. For each of my books, I have tended to conduct a mountain of research and only then begin the writing process. It’s taken me thirty years to figure out that that’s a terribly inefficient way to work, because I end up over-researching everything. Going forward, I plan to do a bit of research, then a bit of writing, while trying to churn out at least a few pages of text every week.
What’s the best and the hardest part of being an indie?
The best part is having final decision-making authority on every aspect of the book, including the cover and the interior design. The hardest part – hands down – is marketing. You are truly on your own. I keep praying to the TikTok Gods to find some teenage influencer from California who will post an Internet-breaking video about my book but, alas, those prayers have gone unanswered.
What’s a great piece of advice that you can share with fellow indie authors?
Do everything on the expectation that your book will sell zero copies. If you are financially and emotionally fine with that outcome, then go for it. And if you do, who knows? You just might get lucky.