I've been toiling over my Ashbery paper since Thursday and I have 3.5 pages typed and several pages of disjointed notes to show for it. Today is the last day, and I'm giving myself a 10 pm deadline. We all know I procrastinate, but I will hate my life if I have to pull an all nighter. Tomorrow I have to be on campus 9am to 6pm, which isn't the longest academic day I've ever had by far, but it would be the longest academic day after an all-nighter. So, 10 pm deadline. I'm giving myself, more or less, 2 hours per page. That should be more than enough, right?
That's where you come in, readers. I'm curious how much time you spend working on your critical writing. I can easily spend 8-10 hours on a 3-5 page paper, but I also know that when pushed, I can write a decent (not my best work) 3-5 page paper in about an hour and a half (assuming I know/understand/like my topic). But when we get to 10 or more pages, I feel like it will take days. For those ugly, unavoidable 20-25 pagers, I need at least a weekend of uninterrupted cramming. Doesn't matter how much research I do ahead of time, or even if I manage to write a first draft before the last minute.
How long, folks?
PS - thanks to everyone who has made suggestions (here and elsewhere) about resources. I don't have time to check them out for this paper, but I do have to expand this topic at the end of the semester, so I'll take a look then.
Poem: Far Gone
2 days ago
4 comments:
Not counting time reading, researching, and thinking about an issue (which can take weeks, months, years), I generally find myself able to write a page of solid analysis in about an hour.
On a really good day, I can work at it for three hours, take a two-hour break (often including a run, a shower, and a nap), and then go at it for another three. During that day, I can hope to turn out six pages, three or four of which usually turn out to be usable in some form.
If it's all coming out of my brain, for the most part, I can write 2,000-ish words in 2-3 hours. It's like passing gallstones at the beginning, and then I get on a roll, and then I start doubting myself, etc.
I, too, procrastinate.
You can get it done!
Break it into 20 minute chunks.
I'm fast. The Bull comes fast and furious when I get on a roll.
I wrote a 25 page paper in about 12 hours total, actual writing time, and I have been known to crank out an "A" paper of the 5-7 page variety in about two hours. However, all of those were undergrad papers, and I am so out of practice that I am sure you would have to double that if I was to try it now.
I love doing research, so I always had my notes, thoughts, outlines done way in advance...the paper itself was a torture that plagued me perpetually, I would wait until the last possible moment. When I was at Depaul the first go round in grad school, even though I didn't have a steady job or other constraints on my time, I'd usually sometimes wait til the day the paper was due (usually and evening class) or pull an all-nighter for a morning class. When I started my MFA at CC and was working 40 hours a week, I had to be a bit more creative with my time and couldn't do the allnighter and use odd bits of time...but I did write alot of papers during my Saturday shifts on the circulation desk...
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