hard at work
Scribbled down on March 8th, 2008 by she
Posted in Learning & Education
Warning! This post is all about me (as always). Better yet, each paragraph starts with I. Bad writing. Semi-good “my heads about to explode because I’m writing papers again” ranting…
I woke up quite early this morning – for a Saturday – and toddled down to my office to get down to the serious business of writing my History paper. I’ve decided to put the past (lower than desired discussion marks) behind me. At least for the moment. I need to focus on trying to figure out just exactly what I’m supposed to be doing to get a decent mark on papers. See, this is the class where I’ve already been chastized for doing “too much” research and going “outside of the bounds” of the original assigned readings.
I’m still trying to figure out how you can over research a paper. I guess that’s one of the things I still need to learn about formal education. Me, I tend to read the assigned reading. Then I head off to the university library or the online journals available through the library and start searching for additional articles relating to the subject. I want to know as much about it before I start pontificating about the topic. More importantly, I want to read the criticisms and alternate views. I want to be well armed before I make the frontal assault on my paper and start typing.
I just don’t by into forming an opinion about anything without having viewed at least two different versions of events or thoughts on a subject.
I tried very hard to remedy that in paper #2. I stuck to the assigned readings and barely ventured off the paved path set in front of me by the prof. This, of course, was based entirely on the feedback I received from paper #1. I have no idea if I was successful since it has yet to be returned to me. Paper #3 is due on Tuesday. I had wanted to complete it by Monday but I don’t know if I’ll be 100% comfortable submitting it without seeing any feedback on #2 first. *sigh*
I’ve been typing snippets of phrases and points I want to cover in my paper all week. I’ve made notes and got my citations in order. I’ve even got a few paragraphs put together (though not ordered). This weekend is supposed to be dedicated to getting all that junk into some reasonable facsimile of coherence. Knowing how I normally write papers, I expect to be spending about 10 hours today and 10 hours tomorrow putting everything together and writing the final product. I’m sure it’s not the recommended method for writing papers but it’s the one that works for me.
I’m about 50% complete but still uncomfortable at the thought of walking blind through the process as I’m worried I may have once again “over researched” my subject. Worst still, I’m worried that I’ll feel this way all through the remainder of my university experience.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 8th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
I remember one course I had in which the lab took me 10 hours to write up (the second one of the course). I followed the format given us at the beginning of the term, and it was a computer lab (doing some stats) in which I helped half the 10 students in the lab. I got the paper back with a 4 (bell curve) and the TA said I should put more effort into my work and also crossed out portions stating I didn’t need it or it was in the wrong place. I went to talk to him (okay, I may have raised my voice a bit) and told him what I thought. Since each lab was worth 1.5 percent total and I needed a certain mark in the lab to pass the course, I quickly calculated what I needed to pass and did only 5 more of the 13 remaining labs, choosing the easy ones, least work with biggest payoff. The TA came to me a couple times asking or almost begging for me to hand in more labs and apologizing, but I was stubborn and just told him I wouldn’t be handing that one in. I passed the course with a 5 of 9 which isn’t great, but it was my 3rd year and I didn’t think spending 10 hours to get 1.5% was worth my time.
Okay, perhaps there was something relative in what I said. I can relate to what you are saying about knowing what you can about the subject before spouting off info. I hope you do well in your papers.
March 9th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
It really bothers me that there are teachers that would discourage you from doing extra work to write a paper. Is this because the TA is to lazy to grade work based on sources outside the assigned material. I would think she would be interested in seeing your extra work and encourage you to keep exploring, at least in my perfect world she would.
Would it be possible to speak to the professor and ask to be assigned a different discussion section based on the personality conflict you seem to be having?
March 9th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
There is no TA in History my classes. I’m attending a university with class caps of 35 students. In this particular course, there are only 21 students. The prof is the one who determined I’d “over researched” my paper and stepped way outside of the bounds of the assignment. Me, I thought that was a good thing. Apparently it isn’t if you’re taking History.
I should also note that this isn’t the same prof described in the discussions rant of a few days ago. That’s my Psych class. However, my Psych prof doesn’t seem to mind my going outside of the bounds of the assignments and pulling in outside resources so I guess I shouldn’t bitch about getting a B in discussions when he’s giving me A’s in my papers…
March 9th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Bah, I need to learn to proof-read.
“There’s no TA in my History class.”