Hello everyone:

This is the time of the semester when some students are pretty worn out, if they are taking an 8-week course.

You’ve made it through the first four weeks, but the end really does not seem in sight yet. There is probably a boatload of assignments yet to be done, and they are probably the most heavily-weighted of the term.

How will you make it? Well, here are some tips. First, plan backwards. When is something due? Once you figure out that a huge research paper is due in four weeks, you need to back things up so that you are not writing the paper at midnight the night before it is due, having just started the research at 6 pm. Here’s how that will work:

Let’s pretend that today is the 1st.

The paper is due on the 30th, so you want to have your final draft completely done and waiting to be turned in two days before that. That is the 28th. (This allows you to read over it once more and print it out well ahead of the deadline. One more tip: re-read the instructions, so that you are absolutely certain that you have done everything called for. Do not leave anything out!)

You need to have your rough draft of the paper due the week before, so that you can polish and proofread. That will be the 21st.

It will probably take you two weeks to get your research done and the writing finished, so that means that you would need to start the research on the 7th.

In order to start the research on the 7th, you need to know what you will write about. Take one day to decide. That makes it the 6th.

You may need to get your instructor’s approval so allow at least two days for that. That translates to the 4th.

You need to make sure that you understand the instructions completely, so read them over twice and then sleep on it. That makes it the 3rd.

Read the instructions again and ask the professor to clarify anything you didn’t understand. It may take two days to get an answer, so that makes it the 1st.

Today is the 1st. Get to work!

Best,

Dr. Sheri