Unit 10 post

These last ten weeks have been a great challenge for me.  I did okay up until two weeks ago and then the stress hit me hard.  I did not have a proper thesis, my paper was not organized in a good way, and I had all of this research that was going in all kinds of directions.  Thursday of last week I sent my paper into the writing center as suggested by Professor Barb..  I still have not heard from it.  Friday of last week I got off work, arrived home around 2pm, went straight to working on reconstruction of my paper.  I did sleep and eat but other than that I was researching, reading, and trying to tie things together.  I finished it on Monday night right before semminar and turned it in.  Tuesday evening after work I took another proofread and figured out that I had made a lot of BIG mistakes.  I then had to go over the research again, fix the problems and re-submit.  I hoped that Professor Barb. had not seen my first paper and would grade my second one instead.  From Friday of last week until Wednesday of this week, today, I have been under so much stress and most of it is because I did not organize myself, use the writing center like I should have and got in a big hurry.  My advise to incoming students is to take a deep breath before entering the classroom.  Be prepared for each week in semminar, reading and the work that needs to be done for that week.  Getting organized and keeping things that way is another piece of the puzzle.  Use the writing center for feedback on all papers.  And make sure that the topic you choose is not too broad, researchable, controversial, and something you would want to read about just for yourself.   Do the paper as you go along and have enough time to turn the draft and final paper into the writing center to recieve feedback.  The Professor and classmates will give advise, as well as friends and family, but the writing center goes more indepth and can make suggestions to the questions you may have concerning different parts of the paper.  Lastly, I just want to say that it would have been a big help if I could have had the sixth edition of APA so I would have had a guide to look at where ever I was.
Sandy