All-Nighters

All-nighters are a frequent occurrence in the life of many college students. As I type this, my roommate is planning on holding one of her very own this evening. While I lecture her about the importance of getting enough sleep, and how her immune system is going to take a major hit, she rolls her eyes and places her headphones back in her ears. Seriously though, allow me to provide you with some tips on avoiding staying up all night to get homework done:

1. Examine your schedule — Most people have schedules that allow them at least a few minutes of downtime between activities. Maybe you have five or ten minutes before or after a class. You may find that you have more small pockets of time than you expected.

2. Use your time wisely — Those tiny pockets of time you’ve found in your schedule can and should be put to use. You could be spending that time on Facebook or Instagram, or you could be reading a page or two of homework. You could spend that time writing a paragraph.

3. Plan out your time — Keeping a planner and managing out your time will help you come up with space to work on certain projects and papers. Make sure to schedule in things like eating and sleeping!

4. Remember that not sleeping will literally drive you insane — If you don’t sleep, you will eventually go crazy, and it may be sooner than you think. Not sleeping for a night or two in a row is especially hard on your body and your brain, but it’s just as bad when you make a habit of not getting enough sleep. Your processing will be slower, and your decision making skills will go out the window.

5. Not Sleeping will screw up your memory — If you’re staying up all night to study for a test, you need to rethink your study habits. Memory is the first thing to go when you’re sleep deprived. This means that even if you stay up all night working on something, you may not remember it the next morning. I’ve found this to be true with my own studying, so I try to avoid reading and studying late at night.

If you’re having trouble sleeping due to stress, or some kind of physiological condition, make sure to consult a doctor to discuss your options.

Now, everybody get some sleep! 😉

-MB

Becoming a Better Writer

Writing, just like everything else in life, is a practice. You’re not born a “good” writer or a “bad” writer. No one starts out writing brilliant works of art as soon as they pick up a pen. Writing well requires practice and purpose — even cross-training. Your favorite athlete or musician did not get to where they are now without taking the time to put in the work necessary to perfect their craft, and the funny thing about perfection is that it doesn’t exist. An athlete or musician may play well, but that doesn’t mean that they ever play perfectly, so let’s take that pressure off right now. Aim to write well, don’t aim to craft the perfect piece of writing.

There are some things that you can do to greatly improve your writing skills; keep in mind that all of this takes time and won’t make you a completely different writer overnight. In fact, the goal here is not to make you a different writer — it is to improve the writer that you already are.

1. Write — I’m putting this one first because it is absolutely the single most important thing you can do to improve your writing. There is no substitute for actually sitting down (or standing if your prefer) and writing. Thinking and talking about writing cannot replace actually writing, though neither one of those things hurt. Write about everything because it really doesn’t matter what you write, just that you do it. Don’t worry about well when you’re practicing, the main thing is to write often. Remember that tweeting, commenting on things, and updating Facebook statuses count as writing.

2. Read — This is where cross-training comes in: reading will ultimately make you a better writer. This follows the same idea that listening to a lot of music makes you a better musician; reading and working with other people’s writing will help you figure out how phrase things, create transitions, capture an audience, and so much more. With the technology available today, you have so much access to reading material, and you should take advantage of it.

Tip: As you read, consider writing about what you’re reading. Take a moment every couple of pages, or chapters, to write down your thoughts. This will not only give you writing and reading practice, but will also help you remember what you’ve read, and could even give you fodder for class discussion and/or future essays. It’s a win all around!

Moving Away from Five Paragraph Essays

In most high schools (at least in the United States), students learn to write essays by using a formula that begins with a introduction paragraph, a thesis statement at the end of the introduction, three body paragraphs with one piece of evidence per paragraph, and a conclusion. This formula leaves you with the infamous five paragraph essay.

These kinds of essays are acceptable in high school, and even expected on things like SATs and AP exams, but in college essays, topics and arguments are often too complicated for the five paragraph essay to do them justice. Professors and TAs work hard to get students to move on from the five paragraph essay as early as possible. There is no magic number of paragraphs. The best practice is to simply write your essay without worrying about paragraph count. Of course, if there is a page count, or a word count requirement, you should focus on those things, but very few professors are going to notice your number of paragraphs; unless, of course, you’re following the five paragraph formula.

The takeaway message here is that you should use however many paragraphs you need to sufficiently prove your argument and address counter-claims.

No matter how many paragraphs you end up with, they should all be well-developed and relate back to your original argument. This means that most of your paragraphs will probably end up being at least half-a-page long (double-spaced, of course).

Transitioning from the five paragraph format can be a complex process, so I’ll likely have more blogs on the subject in the future.

Campus Writing Centers

At several colleges and universities, including Berea, there are writing centers where students can go to get input throughout the writing process. Most people who have been writing for any amount of time have figured out that writing is a messy process. You write something, then you have to rewrite, and then write some more, until you eventually have to turn in the paper.

Writing centers can be great places to have other people read over your writing and offer suggestions. Most writing centers do not serve as an editing and proofreading center, but they can provide you with resources for things like comma rules. I’ll post a blog soon with tips on how to edit and proofread your own papers, as well as your friends’ papers.

It’s always a good idea to have as many different eyes on your writing as possible, so have lots of different people read it and give you input. This doesn’t mean that you have to agree with their input, or follow their advice, but they may notice something that could really improve your paper.

If you’re a Berea student, you can visit Peer consultation in the Center for Transformative Learning as often as you’d like, and for FREE! http://webapps.berea.edu/ctl/peer-consultation/

You may be wondering why you’d want to go to your campus writing center if you’ve taken your paper to your TA to look over, TAs are a wonderful resource, but relying on one person’s opinion of your work may not yield the results you’re hoping for. It would be a wonderful idea to take your paper to your TA and your writing center; this can be done at different points in the paper, if that would be helpful.

Integrating Quotes

In most college essays, you’re going to need to incorporate quotes into your writing. Quotes can be great things that help you prove your arguments in really specific and precise ways, but you need to learn how to use them properly in your writing. First, let’s look at some common mistakes that people make when trying to bring in quotations: 

#1 Dropped Quotes: these are quotes that get inserted into writing without being introduced or setup in any way. “Mac and cheese is yummy.” And then your reader becomes completely lost. Even though mac and cheese is yummy, we don’t know who said, or why it is significant to the discussion on dropped quotes. 

Avoiding dropped quotes: Make sure to introduce your quotes by telling the reader who is speaking, and provide some context for what is being said, for instance: My friend, Julia, said “mac and cheese is yummy!” when she saw the Kraft commercial on TV. 

The next step here, in any good writing, would be to provide the reader with some insight into why the quote is significant. Perhaps Julia is being sarcastic here, and she actually hates mac and cheese. Or maybe she’s defending Kraft’s choice to use the yellow coloring agent. Whatever the case may be, here is your chance to tie your quote back into your argument. 

#2 Not relating your quotes back to your argument: failing to relate your quotations back to your argument can be a major problem. Every quote you use should have some significance to the point you’re trying to make. If, for some reason, your quotes doesn’t have anything to do with your thesis, don’t use it. 

#3 Retelling what your quote says: The reason you use a quote is bring someone else’s words into your work so that you can work with them in some way. It’s like a conversation — there’s no need to repeat back to the speaker what they already said. If a speaker says, “the sky is blue,” there’s no need to quote the speaker saying “the sky is blue,” and then tell your reader that the speaker is explaining that the sky is blue. It’s already been said. Instead, provide your reader with some kind of insight that supports your argument. Why does it matter that the sky is blue? 

 

Office Hours

Over the past few years, I’ve worked with several cohorts of students, and with each cohort I attempted to hold office hours. The idea here was that students needed to know where to find me at certain times during the week so that they can ask questions, or get help with their papers, or just have someone that they can sit and do homework with. In theory, it’s an excellent, but in practice I rarely see students during my office hours. 

I’ve tried setting several combinations of hours, including daytime and nighttime hours: both with little success. The idea behind the nighttime hours is that I can be available when the professor is not on campus, and while students seem to understand this concept, they often only make an appearance right before their papers are due. I thought daytime hours might provide students the opportunity to drop in for quick questions between classes, or during lunch, but no one seems to show up to those either. 

I’ve created flyers, and sent out emails with details of when and where I’ll be at various times throughout the week, and still I find myself sitting alone night after night when I know that students could benefit from stopping in for a visit. 

My colleagues and I have tried casual settings, such as the coffee shop across from campus, as well as more formal settings such as the library. 

So, if any of my fellow TAs have ideas for making office hours productive, please let me know! 

PS– I have a rather long list of topics to discuss in future blog entries, so stay tuned!