Done gone f-ed up

[mikebowman]

So I've got a 3000 word paper due in around 3 hours. Went to bed at 5am last night, with an outline, and ready to get up at 7 and write like a fiend. Kept pushing back my alarm, then around 9:30 dozed off without an alarm, and woke up at 10:45. Gotta write like a machine until 2, then go to the library and print, because I'm outta ink.

When I write papers, I make a really detailed outline, which takes way longer than actually writing it, but I got a feeling this thing's gonna be right down to the wire. Got 500 words so far. Here goes nothing...

Figured there'd be someone here who could relate haha

And no, despite this being in the drunken ramblings forum, I'm not drunk, nor was I last night!

 

[bernerbrau]

Posts like this make me so glad I finished college 8 years ago.

 

[mikebowman]

I'm in my 4th year, and definitely ready to be done

 

[jmendez29]

Awesome! No time to spare, gonna be down to the wire. So you post it on HBT? Exactly what I would have done.

Make sure you keep everyone on facebook updated too.

 

[dataz722]

I have a 15 page paper due Sunday that I haven't even started the research on. I know the feeling.

But what the hell are you doing on here?

 

[motobrewer]

i had a few months to write a 4000 word paper for work.

obviously, i wrote the entire thing two days before it was due.

lol

 

[mikebowman]

Awesome! No time to spare, gonna be down to the wire. So you post it on HBT? Exactly what I would have done.

Make sure you keep everyone on facebook updated too.

exactly!

 

[CreamyGoodness]

Best writing I ever did in college was usually at 4am with pot of coffee #3 to my left and a "Camel Keg" of 40 cigarettes to my right. Ever link TS Elliot and the post-modern movement in literature to King Missile? Didnt think so, that one was mine. Ha!

 

[dutchcanuck]

And being a teaching assistant at the local university it is typically quite evident that someone has written their paper the day before its due. It's enough to drive you to drink Thankfully I have a fridge full of beer to get me through stack of papers.

 

[JonM]

And being a teaching assistant at the local university it is typically quite evident that someone has written their paper the day before its due. It's enough to drive you to drink Thankfully I have a fridge full of beer to get me through stack of papers.

This. There is no such thing as good writing, only good re-writing. -- Louis Brandeis.

Getting all the words on the page doesnt mean the paper's done. Getting all the words on the page is just step 1 in the long process of creating something presentable.

 

[david_42]

Didn't do many papers as an undergrad (engineering physics). In grad school, I had a friend who was a technical editor, so I had to get the papers to her 3-4 days ahead of the deadline. Then run over to a place that had computers (1979-81) and a nice printer for the final edits. Imagine four terminals sharing a 2 MHz, 32KB, Z80 machine. Yes, that's 2 megahertz, 32 kilobytes and a 8-bit processor!

She worked for desk flowers.

 

[Palefire]

And being a teaching assistant at the local university it is typically quite evident that someone has written their paper the day before its due. It's enough to drive you to drink Thankfully I have a fridge full of beer to get me through stack of papers.

Haha... So true. They always think you'll never notice. Likewise with the old "change the font, increase the margins and line spacing to reach the page limit" trick. I mean, I'll happily tell students that I'm pretty dumb, but jesus, I'm not that dumb.

Wonder if they know that we spend a much time on HBT while grading their papers as they do when writing them...

 

[Hang Glider]

Finished grad school this year. (went back...I'm 53). Papers every week for every class, and usually a final paper of immense proportion - but they made it very clear at the beginning of the program - 12 pt Times Roman, double spaced, 1" margins. No "playing" to fill up a page. Cover sheets, introductions, and references don't count...of course.

I am so glad to be done.

 

[CreamyGoodness]

Wait, you mean Professor Frigging White knew all about Courier New??

Haha... So true. They always think you'll never notice. Likewise with the old "change the font, increase the margins and line spacing to reach the page limit" trick. I mean, I'll happily tell students that I'm pretty dumb, but jesus, I'm not that dumb.

Wonder if they know that we spend a much time on HBT while grading their papers as they do when writing them...

 

[mikebowman]

I feel like thats why most of my profs assign papers based on word counts, not page counts. harder to fudge the numbers. though in-text citations certainly help

Finished the paper about 2 hours ago. Probably not my best paper ever, but not as much of a trainwreck as it could have been

 

[dataz722]

Haha... So true. They always think you'll never notice. Likewise with the old "change the font, increase the margins and line spacing to reach the page limit" trick. I mean, I'll happily tell students that I'm pretty dumb, but jesus, I'm not that dumb.

Wonder if they know that we spend a much time on HBT while grading their papers as they do when writing them...

Add just a tiny amount of spacing between letters, and I mean tiny and it is not noticable even when holding it right next to a normal one. It won't make a drastic difference but on a long enough paper it will get you a decent amount.

 

[Domminigan]

In my classes, we always got an assignment for something like 2-4 pages. Half the class would have to double space, increase margins and such, and the other half of the class was using 6.5 point font, 1/8" margins... I just stuck with my good ol typewriter and it's factory settings.

 

[unionrdr]

Reminds me of when I wrote a column for Scale Auto Racing News as The Soap Box Racer. Had to be in a month previous to magazine's release. I used to write them at work when I got a slack moment.
Then did 5-6 re-writes before I was sure I said what I wanted to say in the right words. I liked the way John Diana & Leonard Emanuellson wrote in Hot Rod magazine in my day. So I took on some of that style for my column.
I remember feeling like I had to re-invent myself every month,& ahead of time to boot.

 

[jiggs_casey]

3000 words? hmm... Well, it really, really, really, really, really, really sounds like you stayed up way, way, way, way way, way to late. Next time you should try very, very, very, very, very, very hard to get up when your alarm goes off.