Thlog #3 - The Incredible and Stressful Journey that was WP1

Week 3 came into a close for Writing 2, and what felt like a million pounds of weight lifted from my shoulders the moment I finished the very first Writing Project. The main factor of the incredible stress I felt while working on this project was the lack of preparation my high school had sent me through prior to university. In high school, English teachers gave us an entire semester to work on a 3-page research paper, and I thought that was difficult. In my first quarter of my freshman year, I was assigned to write a 4-5 page paper in just a few days. That was a challenge.

I took just the weekend for granted, in all honesty, and I waited until the last day to begin my paper. In my head I thought, "Well, I work better under pressure anyway! No big deal." I was wrong. Although I spent nearly all of Sunday gathering sources and evidence for my paper on Donald Trump, I seemed to experience a bit of writer's block. I stared at a blank paper, aside from my headings, for what seemed like eternity until I finally wrote something--which ended up like the video on the right.

Well, it probably wasn't as worse as Spongebob; I really did accomplish certain things. I decided to begin from the middle and summarize my entire argument into my introduction, which was the best way personally to tackle it. After finally finishing the rough draft of the paper, I felt accomplished.

The next day, after peer review, I felt fortunate to receive criticisms that were honest and real because I knew that I could improve my writing skills. Everything in class that I have learned so far has helped me already develop, and again, it is only Week 3.

After the grand finale of Week 3, I learned a few new things about tackling a research paper:

• Take it day-by-day. If you are already planning to procrastinate, you are doing it wrong.
• Try finding sources and quotes one day, creating commentary on them the next, tying them together with transitions, and then create an introduction and conclusion.
• Don't be afraid to take small breaks; writing can be a heavy task. 
• Make sure what you are writing is making sense. Read it over. Read it over again. Read it out loud. Shout it out to the horizons or to your roommate. Just proofread!
• Eat snacks while you are conjuring up a paper. Don't starve yourself or else you are going to dedicate a paragraph in your paper to The Habit's charburgers. 
• Mentally prepare yourself for criticism. Don't take it personally. It's not you, it's your writing.
• And last but not least... You can do it. You've done it before, you'll do it again. 

After realizing these wonderful pieces of advise, I'm going to look at Writing Project 2 right in the face, and tackle them to the ground.