At the beginning of this semester I was thinking "Yay! No tests! This won't be too bad. Just a pile of research papers to work on after Europe. I'll have an entire week and a half and I even like research papers. If I can just get a few done each day then I'll have it done two days early! This'll be fine. Man, what a great deal."
Not so.
The papers are horrible enough to make up for the fact that there are no tests. First, there's about a million of them. Second, it's not just "find information and write down what you learned." It's "find information, study it, think about it, crack your brain open thinking about it, and then come up with a ton of your own genius ideas and write what you've learned, how it affects life today, how it affected life back then AND (the kicker) bring everything together into one huge paper summing up how the world has changed starting in the Renaissance and continuing all the way into today."
Just to make things "nicer" though, the teachers put no limits on these papers. "Do we need a works cited?" "Use your own judgment." "How long does this paper have to be?" "Use your own judgment." "How will this be graded?" "Oh, we'll know how hard you tried." "How do you want it turned in?" "Oh it doesn't matter, just get it to us somehow." "What style? APA or MLA?" "Whatever you want."
Cuz that makes things a lot easier. In case you can't tell I'm kinda freaking out. I've spent all week sitting in front of this silly computer screen, breaking my butt (no really, my butt hurts. You try sitting on a couch all day!) and snapping my brain in half trying to write these papers and bring everything together. I think I prefer tests actually. Cuz then at least I know what material to go over. I'm given the material. I don't have to spend hours searching for contradicting information to write a paper that says something along the lines of "Some people believe this about this painting, but others disagree. Many think it was meant to be like this but other critiques find this other interpretation to be accurate. In summary, no one really knows the answer to this question."
Okay. So things really aren't that bad. I try to take a break every day to go outside and exercise somehow. And food breaks are always happy. And I'm learning a lot and feeling really accomplished every time I finish a paper. I've also been getting distracted. Hence why I'm here. Plus the weather's been beyond amazing this whole time! Love it! Totally love it! Now all I have to do is get back to those papers... anyone know how to "discuss the tensions between church and state as evidenced by Henry VIIIs formation of the Church of England?"
3 comments:
Yes. But it's your paper, not mine. ;)
Good luck!
just ask wikipedia. they know everything
Keep in mind: you are writing to a professor, not a newspaper article or encyclopedia entry. Become as familiar with the professor as you are with the material, and write what you think the professor wants. Remember that the professor is either going to (a) read all the papers and probably grade them subjectively based on which ones (s)he likes the best and reflects understanding/comprehension more than mere recitation of fact, or alternatively (b) isn't going to read them anyway and just wants to prove to the administration that the summer abroad program had some educational value rather than being a vacation, hence the papers are an exercise in evidence-production rather than knowledge compilation. Either way, figure out what the prof wants, and give him or her what you think they are looking for. Don't do like link monkey and give the prof what you think (s)he SHOULD have asked for... give him/her whatever it is that you think they'll want. Remember, the objective in college is to (a) get an education, AND (b) get a degree, which means (c) passing the courses with decent grades. All three objectives are important, and contrary to what SOME others think, the three are NOT mutually exclusive, although they are not as identical as the professors and administration would have you believe, either. Much real education can be obtained without the grades, and grades can be obtained without education. But the degree cannot be obtained without the grades. Think about it. The "use your judgment" instructions should be a clue to what the professor wants. Good luck.
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