# Anyone have a hard time writing papers?



## Squizzy

I don't know why, but writing papers is very difficult for me. I can only write about 1-2 pages a day usually before I get burned out. Also, it is so hard for me to get motivated. And when I do write, I feel I am so tired and have had the life sucked out of me. I am such a perfectionist that I have to go over every point and it takes me forever and causes so much anxiety.


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## pita

Writing papers is really hard for me. Like you, 1 or 2 pages is generally my max and I'm a huge perfectionist.

I just have to plan really far in advance in order to get my papers done. I find that writing in the morning is a lot better than writing in the afternoon or evening. That way, I don't spend my whole day dreading the fact that I have to work on a paper.


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## Ambivert

Yep I'm writing a whopping 15-20 page essay this semester (my LAST one forever, omfg, because I'm graduating!)

I've wrote so many essays that its become secondhand for me. I can give you tips if you want.

You said you can only do 1-2 pages at a time, that's good, make an objective of 1-2 pages every week or so, and in no time you will have the paper finished. It's good as you splice up the paper into manageable fragments

Generally you should ALWAYS follow a concrete structure, don't go free form or do whatever you like. follow the structure and it will solidify your thoughts into something you thought couldn't be organized. You can create an initial outline if you like (really helps)

You need an introduction with a thesis (controversial statement like "Tuna are bad for people and we need to phase it out of our diets") in it. You need to take a position and prove it with evidence by citing. I use the university database to get articles and journal content that will help for references

You need the body with several paragraphs, each one expressing a different angle of your thesis (argument). So one body paragraph will talk about why tuna is bad for you and dangerous to your health while another paragraph will talk about why tuna is bad for the fish industry as a whole so that to show its not just bad for people but the economy (pepper cited evidence throughout)

Finally you need a conclusion that will say "there, I have proven blah blah using blah evidence" and end with a sweeping lame statement line "and maybe time will tell if the world will change but the future belongs to us and not tuna..." Lol

Also, you need to cite references properly. What I use is APA format. If you have microsoft office 2007 it will do the references for you if you type the necessary details in. Helps alot and saves time that would have been wasted typing those damn references.


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## SAgirl

counterfeit self said:


> What I use is APA format. If you have microsoft office 2007 it will do the references for you if you type the necessary details in. Helps alot and saves time that would have been wasted typing those damn references.


How do I do this? I would love to know. I usually type all my references by hand and use Owl at Purdue for APA sourcing within citations and within references.

This is easy it's really finding the papers that I want to use as sources that are difficult. Punctuation and knowing where a paragraph begins and ends is also confusing.


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## Squizzy

Thanks for the tips. I really like the part about writing in the morning, because I often spend a large part of my day thinking ugh ... "I can't believe I still have that paper to write." Right now I am writing one using a outline I wrote and I only have 1-2 pages left, I will be so happy when it's done.


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## Ambivert

SAgirl said:


> How do I do this? I would love to know. I usually type all my references by hand and use Owl at Purdue for APA sourcing within citations and within references.
> 
> This is easy it's really finding the papers that I want to use as sources that are difficult. Punctuation and knowing where a paragraph begins and ends is also confusing.


It's only for microsoft office 2007, you goto the "References" tab and the "citations and bibliography" box, within it click "manage sources". Then click "New" and type in details for each reference. Afterwards you can insert citations automatically wherever you want and insert a bibliography of all those references (fully made)

Usually paragraphs are six sentences but you can make it about 1/4 to 1/2 of a page if you'd like. The paragraph length is not extremely important but make sure you make new ones (ie. indent) every so often or the teacher will find it hard to read.

For sources I use the online university library database (every uni should have one of these, ask your university librarian). You can also use "Google Scholar" to find peer reviewed sources. Generally academic journals and articles are really nice sources.


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## VanDamMan

yeah take it in pieces.

Give yourself permission to be totally imperfect in a freewrite. 

From there make an outline and bang it out. 

Perfecting and tweaks should come at the very end of the process, otherwise it hinders your creativity.


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## Hello22

Ya im the exact same; my thesis is due next week and i have most of it done, but i'm feeling burnt out already and the lecturers have decided to throw yet another project at me to do for Easter. Its like a never ending year of projects (and most are group projects which are terrible as i dont perform well in group projects, due to my frustration at the lack of motivation from other students), and i'm a perfectionist which means it takes me ages to 'validate' that everything on the paper is good to go.


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## myshkin

counterfeit self said:


> Generally you should ALWAYS follow a concrete structure, don't go free form or do whatever you like. follow the structure and it will solidify your thoughts into something you thought couldn't be organized. You can create an initial outline if you like (really helps)
> 
> You need an introduction with a thesis (controversial statement like "Tuna are bad for people and we need to phase it out of our diets") in it. You need to take a position and prove it with evidence by citing. I use the university database to get articles and journal content that will help for references
> 
> You need the body with several paragraphs, each one expressing a different angle of your thesis (argument). So one body paragraph will talk about why tuna is bad for you and dangerous to your health while another paragraph will talk about why tuna is bad for the fish industry as a whole so that to show its not just bad for people but the economy (pepper cited evidence throughout)


I disagree,
I almost always start out freeform. It takes longer, but it works. The act of writing helps me generate ideas and find new ways to approach the topic. I usually have to revise many times, but in the end I tend to have a pretty good final product.

I also disagree about the controversial thesis. A good thesis is not necessarily controversial, it should be somewhat thought provoking, but even that is not _necessary_.

I also don't like limiting my writing to certain rules, like 1 paragraph per general idea. I find that depending on my topic/goal the format changes a lot.

I am not trying to debate, just wanted to give another perspective.

I have a love/hate relationship with writing papers, on the one hand it is stressful, yet it can also be very rewarding...and dare I say...even fun. :um


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## laura024

Yes, it usually takes me a long time to write essays. Not a good quality for an English major.


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## llaurus

Writing is very hard for me. It's caused quite a few problems for me in school. No matter the plan, I always procrastinate and avoid. When I do sit down to write, I get stuck on a paragraph - just writing and rewriting over and over until I'm frustrated and upset. When I manage a rough draft, it seems impossible to make it presentable. So I'm editing over and over, and in the end, I'm always too embarrassed to had it in. I mean, I've learned the rules and all but I still feel like I'm getting it wrong, and it will be horrible, and the teacher is going to laugh, etc. 

I really think frequency of writing helps. Even if it's in small bits. It becomes less of this huge monster you have to tackle and once you get through it, even if you feel like crap, it's proof you can get through it. Feel good about your 1-2 pages. Have that be your goal so when you get that done, it's an accomplishment to repeat, rather than a failure to do more.


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## Catlover4100

I can write very well, but I definitely get the "burnout" after a few pages. I find it helps to stop working, and watch a short tv show, get on the internet, do a quick workout, etc, and then go back to it. When I have to drudgingly force myself to keep writing, the quality suffers, so I take breaks pretty frequently.


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## lde22

1 to 2 pages a day? That's pretty good. I hate writing papers. I procrastinate until the last minute and then I sit at my computer for an hour thinking of what to write. I usually write about a paragraph per hour. I took English 1A two times, dropped the first time and failed it the second.


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## mooncake

I have such a hard time when it comes to writing essays. Something that shouldn't take all that long once it's actually gotten down to usually takes me weeks and weeks to complete, if not longer. I always feel like I just don't know enough to be able to do the work so I go totally overboard with researching and then I'm left with an overwhelming set of information, which makes things almost equally hard. I seriously spent the whole christmas holidays working on just one paper... which I wouldn't even be bothered about if I had at least gotten a mark that reflected the amount of time I put in, but it was still only just above an average piece of work. That's the most frustrating thing - I feel I have it in me to produce great work but I just.. can't!

I'm trying to write an essay at the moment and I'm really struggling to get started. I've been doing research, made a plan - everything leading up until actually starting to write, but when it comes to putting something down on paper I'm just a complete blank. I feel burnt out before I've even started! Serious, serious writer's block, coupled with extreme procrastination means that so much of my time is spent just staring at my blank page and getting stressed. And then the worst thing is that once I do manage to start I end up going way over my word count trying to cram all I can think of in, and then have to waste time cutting it all back down again. It's so silly and I've tried to get myself better organised but it always ends up following the same process, and it drives me mad.

I'm even starting to wonder now if I should pick a different question to answer... but then, that means more research and more time wasted. :doh


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## Bewil

myshkin said:


> I disagree,
> I almost always start out freeform. It takes longer, but it works. The act of writing helps me generate ideas and find new ways to approach the topic. I usually have to revise many times, but in the end I tend to have a pretty good final product.


That is the way i do it. I am not sure if it takes me longer because i stall out so frequently trying another way. The first revision seems to take the longest then following revisions are much quicker. The paper ends up quite different then the initial form.


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## GSYBE

I empathize. I'm a perfectionist as well, just a highly unmotivated one. Not a good mix. It's gotten so bad that the only way I can motivate myself to write papers is to do them the morning they're due. So far I've gotten good grades with this method, but it's a really stressful and poor way of going about it. One day I'm going to oversleep and really screw myself over.


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## Steve123

For a second I thought you said 1-2 PAPERS a day and I felt really crappy (and jealous). Yeah, I'm totally the same, I'll have less than an hour where I actually have some momentum and I get a page or so done then for the rest of the day I'm completely useless. It's especially bad with research papers or anything where I have to switch between searching through text and writing often.


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## Teehee

Gosh I thought I was the only one.

Being at the library all day, I only yielded two-three pages.  And I agree with the above, it's much more difficult when you have to switch between reading and writing, then lose all train of thought.


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## JEmerson

Writing papers is generally the part of class I excel at. I got As in my two College Composition classes. For me, it's easier than trying to remember tons of stuff for a test in class.


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## GSYBE

Phew boy.

It's the night-before-the-essay-is-due thing again. I've gotten As on my first two papers but I think they might have been flukes. So, like usual, I'll probably spend the next two hours trying to convince myself I should get started. Ever play the "just another ten minutes of internet surfing!" game? Then it becomes "I'll start at 10! I swear! No, er, 10:30! 11!" Before you know it, it's midnight, I'm really tired and I start making irrational promises to myself. "Just two hours sleep is all you need. Just a little recharge! Then you'll have several hours in the early morning to do what you need to do. Can't go wrong!" 

Then the setting-the-alarm-clock-ahead-just-a-little-longer-to-get-more-sleep begins. 15 minutes here, half an hour there. You're in that semi-delusional haze of dreamland where you're not sure what's really reality and what your mind is concocting on the fly. Your brain starts assigning random tasks for you to complete in your dream, so you waste time in bed thinking "how am I gonna do this?" 

After getting up and adjusting the alarm about ten times, reality kicks in hard. Before you know it, it's two hours before the paper is due. Massive self-hatred and self-deprecation kicks in. "How could you keep setting the alarm ahead?! Didn't you know you had to write a three pager?! I'm never doing this again, ever!"

Overdrive time! Whatever semi-brilliant ideas you figured out the night before are completely out the window, and you have to make up some ideas quick. Lots of BS, some long quotations from questionable sources, and you've finally met requirements before running out of the house, slamming on the gas, and hoping to goodness that all of the police are in the middle of a serious gunfight far, far away from the highways and roads surrounding the university. Lather, rinse, repeat. 

Not a good system, but it's worked so far right?

Here goes nothing. :no


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