When time doesn’t fly

On my first day here at Wright State, I remember thinking that I would NEVER graduate. Not because I’m unmotivated, but just because four more years seemed like such a horribly long time to spend in classrooms.

Now, I have about five or six weeks left until those four years come to an end. Quite honestly, it scares me. In high school, the next four years were really the only part of my future I ever worried about, but they went by SO fast. Until now.

Usually, the spring is a time when every week is filled with countless activities, and this spring is no exception. But this time, busyness isn’t helping the time go by any faster. Instead, the clock seems frozen. This quarter just will not end. Each assignment looms over my head and taunts me. And when I actually sit down to do that dreaded studying or homework, I feel like I’m sitting at the computer or staring at the same book for days. Minutes seem like hours. It’s excruciating.

Especially when it comes to writing. I’m an English major and a writing tutor. I should enjoy this stuff, but recently, it’s just been one more thing on the to-do list. The only good thing is that I think I can finally identify with the students who come into the Writing Center complaining of their hatred for anything to do with writing. For the longest time, I just couldn’t see how it could be that bad, but I think I’m starting to get a glimpse of their perspective.

Luckily, having spent the last three years coming up with suggestions for others about how to make writing less painful, I’ve had at least a bit of success by taking my own advice. What works for me?

1. Doing the research first. Researching and writing are two very different things. In academic writing, the point is to add your own, fresh ideas to already existing research. How can you write about your new ideas if you don’t even know what the research already says? And worse, researching as you write can make it awfully tempting to plagiarize. We’ve all heard about plagiarism a hundred times, and we all know the consequences. Avoid the headache and know your topic before you even open Word.

2. Planning it out. The worst, most agonizing way to write is to sit down and do it all at once. If you absolutely must wait until the last minute to write your essay, at least spend a significant amount of time beforehand THINKING about what you’re going to write. Just having ideas can make the process run much more smoothly.

3. Taking breaks. Don’t force yourself to sit in front of a computer screen for hours on end. Your writing will start to sound terrible, and you’ll no doubt end up with carpal tunnel.

4. Getting myself to care. When I can make myself care about what I’m writing, the process is usually a lot less painful. If your topic is really that bad, perhaps you ought to choose a better one. And if you can’t choose another topic, at least try to find something endearing about your topic and run with it.

5. Giving myself rewards. A lot of times, I’ll think to myself, “Just finish this page, and then you can eat that candy bar.” Do whatever works for you.

So now, I’ll click post, I’ll stand up and stretch, and then I’ll go eat my Milky Way.

I Am Doing This Instead Of Things I Should Be Doing

So. It's one o'clock going on two in the morning and I've put off two different writing assignments. Massive, 8-12 page stories that require thought and attention and love and care. But no. I'm watching Falco music videos and getting ready to play video games with my friend from Texas. I'm a procrastinator. None of this amateur-crastination stuff for me. I've considered majoring in the subject, and it's hurt me in a number of ways over the years.

An anecdote: I almost failed out of the sixth-grade. An elaboration: Every time my Social Studies class would assign a project, I would usually (read: always) put the project off until the day after it was due. There would be a lot of "I'm just putting the last few details on it, Mrs. Social Studies Teacher" going on when asked where my results were. It got to the point where my best friend (the one who's going to play games with me via the internet in a minute) wouldn't be my partner when project time came around. It was bad.

Luckily, I got over it. Projects still came around, but I realized that I wouldn't win any friends nor keep up my normally laudable grades if I kept putting off projects. When assigned a group, I became the jovial, awesome guy who came up with great ideas and sweet talked others into doing the majority of the work. Alone, I got used to turning in sub-par projects. Projects, mind you. Not papers. Three dimensional, physical objects used to show off one idea or another. Papers were something I put off too, and I'm going to parlay the one into the other in a reasonable way in the following papers.

Mainly, I learned that no matter how awesome and spectacular you may be ( and I am totally and completely awesome and spectacular), putting assignments off is a horrible, horrible, instantly rewarding but ultimately damning idea. If you have something that needs done, for the love of all that is good and holy in this world, do it. If you think that you can do it tomorrow, you can't. It will not work. Because tomorrow you will think you can put it off till the next day. Tomorrow, I will probably study for a Geology test and play Guitar Hero. The day after that I will work on stuff for my other job and maybe write a few creative words. The day after that will be...Friday? Thursday? Regardless, I will not be working on my writing. Then the weekend will come and I will sleep and do laundry and do just about everything except write. Then Sunday night will roll around and I will type like the devil. I will type like there is no tomorrow because, for all intents and purposes, there IS no tomorrow. And my work will be really, really bad. I will know that I can do better, and it will be even worse because I claim to be a creative writer. Which means I plan on writing, creatively, for a living at one point in my life. And I cannot bring myself to write creatively. Instead I'm writing this blog entry about procrastinating.

There's not a whole lot that needs to be said about procrastination. It's a bad habit and it needs to be broken. So you, procrastinating reader, can break it with me. Dedicate your time. Say that after x amount of time on one project, assuming you do your normal, day-to-day assignments on time, you can spend y amount of time doing something enjoyable. This is a tried and true writer's block cure, and it works for basic projects and papers as well. Spend a few hours in the library researching or in front of the computer typing knowing that you have an hour or two or guilt free bliss waiting for you and you will find the work comes a lot easier. The same principle applies to hiking (I like hiking). Hike for an hour knowing that you have a ten minute break waiting for you and you'll find that it seems like a lot less effort than wondering when the next break will be. Allot your time as needed.

Another thing to do is write notes. Post-It notes. Lots and lots of them. If you put off papers, you probably put off other things. So what I do, usually, is write a Post-It note that says something informative, like "Massive paper. You should probably be writing that and not playing Super Nintendo." (I know myself pretty well) or something inspiring like "You will fail college and live in a box if you do not write something. You will be a disappointment to you family. Open Word and type or no one will ever love you." They help a lot more than you would think. I put these notes on my computer monitor so I see them every day and when I become disenchanted by them I take it down and re-write it so that I know that I WILL fail and I WILL be a loser if I don't get those papers written.

You know, I think I'm going to go write those papers now. You probably have something you should being too. Just saying.

Imagination or Reality? The First Paper

There are at least 300 students out there directly and personally interested in this blog entry… and likely a multitude of others that indirectly can learn from it. The 300 are in my spring quarter SOC200 Social Life writing intensive courses. Members of the multitude might include you, someone not in my classes (but who might have journalistic interest or general inquisitiveness).

For nearly 2 decades I have taught introductory sociology courses at a variety of schools (business colleges, 4-year colleges, and universities). And, no, I am not burned out on sociology. I am still convinced that it is not only interesting but can be very practical. The stuff covered is stuff seen in daily life, in personal lives. My version of Introductory Sociology is intended NOT to be one of those courses that gets shelved and forgotten once the term is over and the credit is earned. Social life surrounds and infuses us. We are not its hapless witnesses or passive bystanders, we are the actors living it 24/7 (remember Goffman’s dramaturgy and Meade’s game stage).

Within the next 10 days, students will be crafting their first (of two) writing assignment for my SOC200 – Social Life gen-ed course. I heartily appreciate the fact that nearly all of those students are NOT sociology majors. But, it is my duty to impart an appreciation for the method and content of that “systematic study of human social patterned behavior.” My goal is to get students to (at least for one academic quarter) wrap their heads around practical aspects that present themselves in their own lives in a sociological vein.

The first writing project this quarter involves definitions, examples, clarifications, MLA format, citations, and the 2000 US Census. At first blush, it might seem like a laundry list of sociological “stuff.” However, there are non-sadistic reasons for this project.

Delving into the definition of sociology frames the subject matter: human social behavior. Applying C. Wright Mills’ “sociological imagination” completes the picture: appreciation of the intersection/connection between individuals (biography) and their social contexts (societal structures and processes). This is the first chunk of the paper.

The next part forces students to split hairs and fine-tune a discussion of the differences between personal and social aspects of issues and problems. Using terms like “locus of control” and “personal efficacy” help the student to relegate behaviors to the personal realm or to elevate circumstances to social conditions.

That completes almost half of the total paper. With the basics groundwork covered, the student now shifts to a specific social issue or problem of her/his choice. To underscore how widespread it or its effects are, statistics are pulled from the Statistical Abstract of the United States. No, that is not busy work. It gets the student into census data and practice reading and interpreting tables and charts of demographic information.

With the selected social issue or problem in mind, the student then chooses one of the 4 sociological theories we discussed the first week of class (functionalism, social-conflict, feminist perspective, and SI) to come up with causes (independent, X variables) and consequences (dependent, Y variables). Students must explain and defend their choice of theory. The correct choice derives from the students explanation of its “fit” to the selected issue or problem. The paper concludes with lessons learned by doing this project.

When Pegah (the Teaching Assistant) or I evaluate these papers, we use a grading rubric that includes not only content, but mechanics, proper use of MLA format, readability, writing style, and clarity. A copy of the grading rubric is posted in the Course Studio.

I hope this further explains and clarifies not only the requirements for the paper, but also the practical reasons for it. One final reminder: Pegah and I will look over drafts to ensure that students are on target. But, please, bring a hardcopy to class or office hours for us to see and discuss the paper. Trying to discuss via email or fax is not effective.

Good luck. And please respond here or by email to let me know if this blog was helpful to you. Thank you for your time.