What inspires you to write those arduous 5-12 page papers?

College Life
1

<p>I’ve come to realize that I write best whilst listening to “random” artists, and with a playlist that has the same general theme.</p>

<p>What methods do you use? </p>

<p>How have they changed since high school?</p>

<p>Just for fun.</p>

2

<p>I write best when I am able to construe the topic into something that I would consider it fun to write about.</p>

3

<p>I preform the best when I am writing about a topic that I can relate to, like one that I actually care about voicing my opinion on, or when I can give my life experience as evidence. But…a good itunes shuffle list helps too :D</p>

4

<p>I write my best “whilst” I’m blotto.</p>

5

<p>After railing a line of Adderall. I bought some 90 mg adderall XRs from my friend over winter break before I came back to school and I’ll break it into a third, crush it up and then snort it and write amazing essays. </p>

<p>Before that, I would just force myself to go to the library, find an empty table, put my headphones on and write with pen on paper and the instructions (and any necessary supplementary readings). No laptops, no cell phone, no distractions.</p>

6

<p>Since hs my papers have a decidedly more argumentative tone (for lack of a better description). It’s not a bland book report, but a definite opinion through which I use 3, 5, 8 etc pages to defend. Instead of “Here is what this theory is about”, it’s “This is what I think of so-and-so’s theory and here is why I’m right!”.</p>

<p>As for actual methods I always always:

  • Formulate a thesis. It may be tweaked over the course of writing the paper, but this is always my starting point.
  • Make an outline. The amount of detail varies, but I can’t go back to “just writing” and hoping the organization ends up okay.
  • Gather quotes. Assuming the paper needs quotations, which most of mine do. Usually I have about 50% more quotes than I actually need.
  • Also – and this is the strange thing – I can’t write on a computer. I have to write it out on notebook paper first and then go back and type it on a computer. This has only happened since coming to college and it’s very weird.</p>

<p>^ I did none of these things (unless forced) in hs. Usually I would just stare at the topic and start writing in the hopes that something great would result ;)</p>