Termpaper writing time management skills
Your professor just asked you to write a paper on your favorite artist, and you leave the class in high spirits, looking forward to working on the project. Then one month passes, two, a whole semester—and all you’ve done is Google your subject and bookmark a couple of sites. So you do some crash research and do an all-night crammer, and the next day you turn in a paper that you know will catch a “D”.
Poor time management can do that to you. A lot of students start off very enthusiastic about a new project, and then lose steam not even halfway through. The secret to avoiding this is by managing your time and working within a schedule—and sticking to it. Here’s how.
Create a timeline. According to studies, the best students create a mental timeline as soon as they get a new assignment. It’s not so much a skill than it is an attitude. It shows that a student not only wants to do the project, but wants to do it well. Make it a habit to set personal deadlines for yourself, and try to stay ahead of your professor’s schedule.
Schedule backwards. Start writing your timeline from the due date backwards, so you have no room for extensions. For example, you can use the last week to put your final draft together, the week before that to do supplemental research and write a first draft, and the middle parts to write your source and note cards. You’ll find that when you reach the present week, you’ll to start right away in small, manageable stretches.
Leave more time for difficult parts. Allot a reasonable amount of time for each step in your research. Remember that some steps take longer than others; for instance, you will need more time to do the research and organize than actually write the paper. Be sure to leave at least a couple of days as your “buffer.” If a step turns out more difficult than you expected, you can linger on it a bit without getting strapped for time.
Consult your professor regularly. That way, he or she can point out flaws and you can correct them as you go along. It’s easier than presenting your first draft and then having to revise it altogether, throwing you completely off schedule. Be flexible with your schedule so you can make time for revisions.
Skip steps. Or rather, spread them out so that they don’t take up a whole chunk of your time. Try doing footnotes and citations as you go, rather than doing them from page one when you’re done writing. Proofread each chapter as you finish them, so you won’t have to go through the entire document afterwards.
Use the three-step review. When editing your work, start by looking at the paper as a whole, seeing how the parts fit together and whether your body supports your thesis. Then work on each part, checking each paragraph for typos and grammatical errors, as well as structural correctness. Let it rest for a day or two, then give it a final skim-through with a fresh perspective.
