Let's take a moment to discuss credible sources. Say that your history teacher just assigned you a research paper about World War II. Your task is to summarize American involvement in the war in four double-spaced pages. Your due date is in two weeks. Oh no!
First of all, don't panic. Two weeks is more than enough time to write this kind of paper, even with all the geometry homework you have and the physics test you need to study for and your little sister's dance recital on Thursday night and that sleep-over you'd been planning over the weekend. Four double-spaced pages is only about 1,000 words.
On behalf of your teacher, I'd like to caution you against using any 'tricks' to get out of writing the full thousand words. You can try to set the spacing to 2.5 or use a HUGE font, but don't think you're fooling anyone. Your teacher has seen it all before, and s/he will not be impressed. In fact, s/he might be rather cross with you, and more often than not, teachers take out their frustrations with your little tricks by knocking down your grade a couple of points. That might not seem like a lot, but it could make the difference between an A and a B at the end of the semester.
Okay, back to our plan. After you've taken a few deep breaths and repeated 'I can do this' once or twice, you're going to need to set up a pacing guide for yourself. Start as soon as possible. And by 'as soon as possible,' I do not mean Sunday night at eight p.m. on the Monday before it's due. The best time to start is right now. (There's no time like the present, after all!) If that's not possible, carve out a space in your schedule to begin your research in the next two days. More on this later.
Alright, let's pretend that you've done all your research and gathered all your facts. You're confident that you know enough about WWII to write 1,000 words about it, and you're pumped. You are so ready to write this thing. Your history teacher won't know what hit her/him! You might want to start with an outline to organize your thoughts, or you might want to dive right in. Either way, give yourself three to five days to get through the writing stage.
Time jump. You've got 1,000 words on a Word document and you still have an entire week until your essay is due. At this point, you'll want to start the editing process. Read through your paper to make sure it makes sense. Check to see if it flows. Watch out for spelling and grammar errors. Read it aloud to catch those sneaky mistakes. You might want to get a second opinion as well. Ask a friend, parent, or tutor to give it a quick look through for you. They may be able to spot mistakes you might have missed. If your teacher has office hours or is open to helping students, you might want to give them a visit as well. Don't drop in unexpectedly, though. Shoot them a quick e-mail respectfully asking if they could take a quick look at your essay. Check out the sample e-mail below.
Dear Ms. Robinson,
I've been working on the WWII essay due at the end of the week. I'm in the final stages of editing, and I was wondering if you could take a quick look at it to see if there's any way I could make it better. I would greatly appreciate your input, but I totally understand if you're too busy.
See you in class tomorrow,
Jane
A word of caution: DO NOT send this e-mail to your teacher the day before the paper is due. If your teacher responds at all, it probably won't be anything to want to hear. No one likes being asked to do things last minute. Also, don't take advantage of your teacher. Asking for help with major papers and requesting general advice on how you can do better in their class is fine. Running to them for every little assignment is not.
This is also the time you want to start working on your bibliography as well. Make sure to cite every source you used. Also, do not plagiarize. This should totally go without saying.
You might also want to add a cover page. Make this part as fancy as you want. Use that weird font you've been eyeing for forever. Just make sure that if you use an image you found online, cite it!
Flash forward to The Dreaded Due Date. You're not stressed, though, because you started (and finished) early. You didn't lose a minute of sleep last night. Just make sure you don't forget your paper in the printer tray. That'd be tragic. (You might want to e-mail your paper to your teacher the night before just in case. Add a joking little note that you're so forgetful and you'd hate to accidentally come to class without your paper.)
Now all that's left to do is sit back and wait for the A's to start rolling in. Check out our next post on credible sources for more help with the 'research' part of your paper.
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