Use of the casebook--selected magazine articles on a given subject, copied, stapled and given to each student--generates enthusiasm and improves the quality of high school sophomore research papers. The casebook approach ensures that no student is left behind in the topic selection or information gathering stages, and the teacher's familiarity with the materials allows more effective feedback during the organization and writing phases. Two topics are selected by student consensus two weeks prior to the research paper unit. The teacher then assembles and copies an 18-26 page casebook for each topic, from which students are expected to generate 40-100 note cards and a 4-10 page paper. (These articles are found using the Readers' Guide, and assembly of the casebooks from start to finish requires about four hours outside of class). Before receiving their casebooks, however, students practice taking notes and then pulling them together into a first draft. After that the students take notes from their casebooks, and the teacher reviews again how to pull the notes together into a draft. At this point the teacher gives the students a copy of a well-written research paper from the previous year as a format model. In spite of the disadvantages of this approach, more students finish the paper with less frustration, and the quality of writing is higher. (HTH)