• Give your students the option of writing a concept album that shows off their research skills.Thinkstock Images/Comstock/Getty Images
  
  You don't have to listen to a bunch of moans and groans if you are a teacher assigning a term paper. A creative research paper takes the traditional term paper format and tweaks it to become something different, unique or even fun. Adding a spark of creativity to the process of researching a subject can run the gamut of a teacher's imagination. To ensure ultimate creativity and student participation, you should also be open to suggestions from students on ways to make the research paper presentation more inventive.
  
  

Research Paper as Website

• Today's generation of students has been raised with the Internet as a primary method for transmitting and receiving ideas. Utilize students' innate familiarity with website design by allowing them to present their research paper in the form of an interactive website. Students can use web design software to build their sites without uploading to the Internet, or you can suggest free Web hosting sites for students to upload their presentations.
  
  

History Channel-style Documentary

• When you are assigning a group research paper topic, allow students to create a documentary. Research paper topics can range from the mystery of the Lost Colony of Roanoke to evidence of alleged alien visitation to Earth, and a fun way for students to present their findings is with a home movie. The group atmosphere will allow some members to work in front of the camera while others may prefer to do the bulk of the work behind the camera.
  
  

Creative Bibliography

• Instead of a list of sources on a works cited or bibliography page, make the process of locating and using sources more creative and fun for the students. Along with the actual paper itself, require students to attach a special section made up of interview questions they would have asked the writer or editor in charge of each source had they been able to, and to provide answers they think that person would have given. This assignment will force the student to become more familiar with the sources and think critically about how an interview with each source would go.
  
  

Comic Book

• Encourage participation in the research paper process by students who are more visually oriented learners than verbally oriented by allowing them to turn in their research assignment in comic book form. Great books by authors from Shakespeare to Melville have been transformed into comic book form to encourage young readers. Those who aren't quite up to the task of writing 1,000 words in regular term paper form may be able to provide more research information if they have the option to draw it as part of a story. Visually inclined students who don't have much artistic ability could make a comic book in collage form or through computer software.
  
  

Concept Album

• Musically inclined students should be encouraged to write a series of thematically connected songs that they can turn in to show they have researched and understand the subject. If possible, allow them to record the songs and turn their concept album in on a USB flash drive. Otherwise, ask for lyric sheets and album cover art. The bibliography can be in the form of liner notes.