While research papers may hold unique challenges for all writers, they are especially daunting for "less experienced" writers because these students often come to college without ever having written a research paper. A study examined several research papers written by students who took part in the Summer Bridge program at California State University at Los Angeles which is designed to help students who are conditionally admitted to the university. A subset of 25 portfolios was selected randomly from among all that year's Summer Bridge portfolios, but with about the same numbers of portfolios from males and females and the university's ethnic composition reflected in the selection. Of the 25 read initially, 5 were chosen to analyze in depth. This paper discusses in detail two of those five, finding that some form of "patchwriting" was used in all five of the research papers studied. The paper explains that "patchwriting" is considered by some scholars as a stage of writing development in which students are exploring different ideas but have not absorbed them thoroughly enough to put them into their own words. It notes that it is helpful for many students to use this technique as they start writing at the college level in order to try to understand what the authors of their texts believe and to begin to take on the language of the discourse community. The paper concludes that students need their instructors' help to learn how to respond in ways that keep them from being susceptible to accusations of plagiarism. (NKA)