I am currently writing one of the hardest papers I've ever been assigned. As someone who cranked out multiple five-page papers every three to for weeks last year it's hard to figure out why one four page paper is causing me so much stress. It's not that my papers are ever perfect, but I've figured out how I write and once I hit my stride I can produce a draft in under three hours. This one though is nearly impossible.
Perhaps it's the fact that this professor is incredibly tough. Perhaps it's because I'm "spinning wheels" (his words.) Perhaps it's because I'm so confused I've forgotten what I'm saying. When a paper is this frustrating it's hard to enjoy writing and hard to feel confident. I'm spiraling into some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy where I think I'll get a bad grade so I'm doing poorly as a result. Time to bring in three years of experience with writer's block. True, writing fantasy is way more enjoyable than writing about Greek philosophy but the principles should be the same.
1. Write the parts you can. If you're not feeling inspired by part of your argument stop and move onto something else. You can always fill in the gaps while editing.
2. If a line seems tortured than it probably is. Making a sentence longer with more transition words does not mean that it's stronger now. Even though length is important knowing what to delete is probably more important. (see number three).
3. Get to the point. No one wants to read pages of description. Likewise, no professor wants to read paragraphs of introduction. Once I figure out my point (it's somewhere in the paper) I'll make it the first sentence and build off of it.
So this paper isn't impossible. And writing this post was therapeutic. There's no guarantee that I'll magically become a machine and write an A paper. But at least I've reminded myself that I do know what I'm doing.
To everyone out there reentering paper writing season, good luck and I hope this helps.
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