Dealing with Big, Important Papers

  • If there are smaller assignments (for example proposals, bibliographies, outlines) due earlier in the semester that lead up to the big paper, take them seriously.
  • Begin research as soon as you can, and use as many sources of help as possible (librarians, class tutors, Learning Assistance faculty and staff, etc.).
  • Make up actual questions to guide yourself while you research, and revise your questions as you learn more in your researching.
  • Remember that sometimes you have to do some "background" research to understand your topic well enough to write about it. That research may never show up in your writing, but it will make it much better.
  • Write a little while researching. Even writing a short paragraph after each reading relating what you've read to the questions you're researching helps you get started when you sit down to write a draft of the paper.
  • Start early enough to leave yourself time to take the paper through several drafts, for example a quickie "discovery" draft, a revision to focus more carefully or expand on ideas and document research, and a final revision to improve grammar, mechanics, and style.
  • Realize that often while writing big papers on complicated subjects you'll find that your first draft will be a "discovery" draft (some people call them "dump" drafts). Try writing this draft quickly, without looking at your notes, to get your own ideas about the subject down on paper where you can work with them. Once you know what you want to say about the subject, you can more easily focus and structure your paper, including the information you've found in your research.
  • Outlines are sometimes most helpful after you've written a quickly first (discovery) draft. That's when you may have a clearer idea for a thesis that helps you restructure what you want to say.
  • Don't worry too much about academic tone or correctness in grammar and mechanics while writing a first draft. That tends to create the dreaded writer's block. Imagine writing to someone you trust (your best friend, your mother, your roommate?) if your professor scares you. You can always go back and edit your writing later if it initially comes out sounding too personal.
  • The differences between your home language (what you grew up speaking with you family and friends) and academic languages (the way people write and talk in class at Oberlin and the academic world in general) may cause you to worry about your writing skills, especially if you're the first person in your family to go to college. But when you initially sit down to write a paper, that's not the time to concentrate on those differences. Save working on that until you revise in a later draft, after youõve worked out what you want to talk about and the structure of the paper.
  • Consult the Rhetoric & Composition Program tutors who work in Mudd 210 from 7-11pm Mondays-Thursdays, 7-10pm Fridays and Saturdays, and 3-6pm and 7-11pm Sundays. They are juniors and seniors who have been trained by the Rhetoric & Composition Program to help members of the campus community with any sort of writing, at any stage. They can do everything from help you get started on an assignment if you're having difficulty understanding it or finding a topic, to reading a draft for coherence or relevance or "flow," to assisting you in revising for grammar or style. If you're unable to visit the tutors in Mudd during scheduled tutoring hours, Len Podis can put you in touch with tutor. Sometimes teachers will allow you to resubmit a paper you're dissatisfied with if you can tell them that you're working on it with an tutor.