Warning - The All-Nighter is Out of Style!

*_How Do I Write My Best Essay without a Sleepless Night?_* I had a paper due for my General Requirement English class and I was typing away furiously. I was staring with such concentration at my computer that my roommate's friends wondered on what I was working so assiduously. It seemed as if my ideas kept flowing as my hands failed to leave the keyboard. A smile brightened my face. Is it possible that I was even receiving joy from writing this comparison of two poems from the Romantic period! Unfortunately, the incessant movements of my fingers were not creating a masterpiece that was to win countless awards for its critical originality. My pleasure did not stem from my Eureka at finding the answer to a complex literary question. Nor did my absorption flow from my undying love of William Blake's poetry. I was talking on AIM with my best friend who lived in a room the floor below me literally eight steps down and I would be face to face with her. While I waited for her to respond to my IMs, I was simultaneously checking newly updated facebook profiles, writing messages to walls that seemed relatively empty, and poking people just for kicks. My paper was due in about six hours and the screen was blank. *How to Attack the Essay* This was my freshman year before I learned the art of tackling a large paper. Overtaken by innumerable distractions, there was no way I was going to put my full effort and concentration into the task at hand. I would laugh it off that night, but when it came to the grade being lower than I deserved, I would yell at myself for not putting in 100%. As I became more disciplined, I learned the following steps to produce my best possible paper. *1. Set Up a Meeting with your Teacher* It should be routine to ask your teacher for a meeting before every large essay you hand in. This appointment should be made a considerable time before the essay is due. The meeting allows you to make sure that you interpret the essay question correctly and that you use the proper format. And, of course, you most approach your teacher with at least an outline of your paper and the points that you are going to make. Even if you haven't done this by the time you set up the appointment, you will be forced to finish before your meeting or else, to put it bluntly, you'll look like an ass. Besides, teachers love when you approach them. It shows that you're putting a lot of thought and hard work into the task. They even have a tendency to drop a few very helpful hints. They may point out certain passages to pay attention to and outside references to consult or simply, how to better prove your point. They inevitably push you forward on the right track. *2. Do Research Early* Now that you have your outline and you know you're answering the question correctly, you must gather the information to support your point. Set a deadline for yourself to finish researching the week before you write the paper. This way you can have all the quotes and outside sources prepared before you sit down to conquer the difficult task of putting them together in a coherent fashion. Specifically, researching in a library can take a deceivingly long time. You may need to put books on order from other colleges or sign your name to a waiting list for checked out sources. For papers requiring outside sources that you don't own, it is necessary to get books no more than a week after the essay question is distributed. Remember, your classmates might be trying to get the same information. Think ahead and beat them to it (meant in the least cutthroat way possible)! Also, it just might be the easiest thing in the world to write a bibliography in the style requested. Once you have your books, sit down and write your bibliography page while you're watching a repeat of Friends. It will be a painless process and will not haunt you at 4:00 AM the morning before the paper is due. *3. Give Yourself a Separate Day to write an Introduction* Introductions suck. You need to make it not too general and cliché, but not too specific at the same time. Reminds me of trying to tap my head, rub my belly, and hop on one foot at the same time. Possible, but very challenging. By the time I finish writing an introduction, I certainly don't want to go on to the rest of the paper. Why not make a mental deadline for the introduction for the day before you plan to start the paper? If you're still on the right track, you'll have an outline, your research done, your bibliography and your first paragraph by the time you actually sit down to write the essay. Imagine that! *4. Edit While Writing* Many students differ on whether they edit their paper during the actual writing process or after they have banged the whole thing out. There is something to say for writing out exactly what you think and then going back to make it sound good. I find that it takes a lot less time and makes your essay a lot more coherent, however, to edit as you go. Read over every few sentences after you write them. Make sure each paragraph flows into the next and that topic sentences explain what is to come in a paragraph. Keep in mind that all your paragraphs should be leading to a conclusion that supports your thesis statement. Watch out for awkward sounding sentences, repetition, and extraneous information. When you've finished, you should still read it over again, but, at this point, you will only need to make minor changes. *5. Don't Write the Essay in One Night* In college, the essays that you are assigned are often much lengthier than you are used to. If you are confident that you can write a three page paper in one night then go for it, but for longer papers, give yourself at least two or three nights to bring together all your research. If you have a lot of work piling up in other classes, try to work in an hour or two of your night to devote to the paper. Hopefully, this will prevent you from the ever dreaded all-nighter. Imagine not looking like a zombie the day after a paper is due! Boast to your classmates and teacher a refreshed, wide-eyed look as you place your thorough composition in the pile. delicious | digg | technorati
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