Papers

Isaak O

February 5, 2012 - 12:00 PM

Being both a Philosophy and English major, it is paramount to my success as a student that I be capable of constantly crafting brilliant essays. Quality is of course important, but equally so is quantity. I normally write the equivalent of a novel every school year, so learning to type under pressure is key. The trick to being a good collegiate writer is being systematic and efficient.

One important distinction to be made in paper-crafting is between planning and writing. A mistake that students too often make is attempting to think out their paper while they are creating it. Certainly, some people think best in the process of writing, but too often what comes out is unclear and the ideas cannot be immediately worked into a coherent essay. I find that what works best is to do brainstorming first, organize your ideas in a linear fashion, and then simply flesh out paragraphs out of the bare ideas. I can crank out a 3-4 page paper in 3 hours if I follow this format, which allows for me to actually have a shot at completing all of my work, while still meeting my obligations to work and my friends.