Of all my times of writing there have been a few times where my writing went particularly well. I was a junior at Limestone Community High School and it was the grand ole time for the term paper. Oh yeah, that big ten page long paper that every junior student stresses about and the one that is required to graduate high school. Well I was considered one of these stressed out students worrying about the term paper. I walk in the class and the teacher says, “Well class it’s the moment you have all long waited for…the term paper.” Yeah my stomach twisted and turned in ways I thought it never could. I started worrying about what my topic would be, if it would be a good topic, would it be easy to research, and most importantly would it impress the teacher. So I thought long and hard about the topic that I wanted to research and I came up with cyber-bullying. It’s pretty much the same thing as bullying at a school, but instead the bullying is done on the internet.
There was a certain way I went about my work for the term paper. First off, my teacher gave the class a due date sheet and had multiple things due over the course of three weeks. This made it much easier for me to do the term paper. Since everything was spread out, I didn’t feel pressured to have that ten page paper done by a certain time. It was spread out, making it less stressful on me. This being said, I was able to really concentrate on the content that I put into my note cards and eventually my paper. When it the time came to write the paper, it went pretty well. I had all my research done and my note cards as well, so it made the writing part pretty easy. The teacher was also pretty lenient with my class so she gave us a second chance to revise our paper and have it checked again before we turned in our final draft.
So after all the freaking out, worrying, stress, and three weeks of time I handed my term paper in. I felt confident in the research and work that I had turned in. I also believed that I went about my work in a responsible and timely manner. In the end, my hard work had paid off and I was pleased with the grade I received on my term paper.
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I never had to write a term paper my junior year. And after reading this, I'm glad. I get stressed out very easily and I'd probably freak if I had to write a ten page paper.
ReplyDeleteBut during my senior year I took research writing. We always had to do notecards for reasearch and even though they were a pain in the ass, they actually helped. So I guess that no matter how long your paper has to be, if you get your research done in advanced, it wil always make the writing process smoother.
Oh yes...the term paper. I totally feel your pain with that one! Haha! I have to say though, the research is the hard part and once that is done, its not that bad. Doing notecards for research papers were always bad but the actually writing was not the hard part for me. Being organized takes away a great deal of stress and the one key thing is: DON'T WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE! Lesson learned for me. :)
ReplyDeletewow.. I did not write a term paper, but i could got the visual that you were stressed out. By the way you title is what pulled me into your story. I wrote my autoethinography abouut being a simpsons fan.
ReplyDeleteAs freaky as this sounds, I enjoyed
ReplyDeletewriting term papers! I liked feeling
under pressure! That is so weird, I know. Lol.
This is lame advice, but when typing a
research paper, typing and doing something
each day really speeds along the process,
instead of just waiting a few days before
it's due! Lol. Not saying you did that,
but I know a lot of people usually wait the
night before to get cracking! Lol. It was
great that the paper felt spaced out for you
and not so hectically put together! :):).
Wow i'm glad I didn't have to do a term paper. I really dont get stressed out but i dont think I could write that much on any subject. But I agree that different due dates are a major help when writing
ReplyDeleteI think what helped you was having the process slowed down into manageable stages...that way you weren't able to totally procrastinate and you could feel accomplishment after each stage. I'm glad you got to choose your topic. That helps, huh?
ReplyDelete