HOW TO WRITE 20 PAGES (from one girl w/mental illness 2 the rest of u, but please keep in mind all of this is just personal Stuff That Worked for me n u might be different):
first of all, and probably most importantly, make that paper about something you actually give a shit about. if you can write an essay on how long shakespeareās dick is when youāre talking to your friends, thatās a good topic. donāt choose something u donāt care about, you will Want To Die
āokay but the only topics are ones i donāt care aboutā talk 2 ur teacher 99% of the time if youāre likeĀ āhereās a well-thought-out thesis can i talk about this insteadā theyāre likeĀ āsure lmao i just couldnāt think of other paper topics to suggestā
āthey said noā cool find the one u hate the least and try to tie it into something u like. for example i really hated this stupid paper i had to write about a stupid book so i ended up writing about the food insideĀ the book and whether or not it was a historically accurate depiction of food. turns out i fucking love talking about food. i also remade some of the old recipes and brought them in as part of the presentation of my project and people went fuckken nuts bc BREAD. basically i thought aboutĀ āwhat motivates me? uh foodā and followed that. it was a 45-page book about bread and i looked like a really good student when really i just love bread (somewhere, oprah smiles over me)
the 20-pagers are the ones you Actually Cannot Do the night before. i know we all got real fuckken cocky back in hs when we learned how to do 5 pages in one night w/out trying too hard but 1. as a teacher now i can tell u for sure that teachersĀ do knowĀ you rushed it, we just Donāt Care bc Weāre Not Paid Enough and 2. twenty pages is not the same thing. you need to actuallyĀ take the time to do it. this is the actualĀ version ofĀ āyouāre not in hs anymoreā DONT lie to yourself and thinkĀ āitās fine iāll do it in one dayā you will !! Regret it!!!!Ā
āraquel. raquel. listen to me. do you actually believe iām capable of time management. raquel i have depression i barely manage to exist.ā same. but the truth is that when i started like?? actuallyĀ following the rules of timelines and taking my time etc it actually really helps mental illness. you donāt feel pressured all the time by a deadline, so your anxiety chills a little bit. small progress being acceptable means that on depression days, you donāt have to worry youāre fucking it all up. when itās 15 minutes every day (even if itās only 1 word a day) it feels a lot better.
ask the teacher what timeline theyād recommend. they actually Know.
alwaysĀ ask if itās informal or formal (if you can useĀ āIā statements or not). informal essays can rely on personal feelings and are soĀ much easier and trust me if you find out on the day itās due that you could have written 12 pages about your feelings instead of 12 pages of research, you will Be Very Upset
i lie to myself all the time and move the deadline up. i write it in my agenda as at least 2 days before itās due. surprise!!! i tricked u, self!!! you canāt procrastinate!!Ā
agendas/planners need to be what actually worksĀ for you. i liked to prioritize w/colors + keep lists. i really love crossing things offĀ lists. itās likeā¦ a balm. for me, i usually say i have to finish the first 2 things, start the 3rd thing, andĀ ātouchā at least half the list. if i finish the whole list i get a prize. also i get to cross off everything which is so satisfying iām sure itās someoneās idea of a rush. thereās so manyĀ āhow toā documents on these that i wonāt get into it but frankly?? if you donāt write it down you will not remember it.Ā āyes i willā no you wonāt greg. just do it. write it down. write it where u can see it. not there, greg. greg, somewhere good.Ā my friend is smart af and uses a post-it on her laptop. that doesnāt work for me bc i can just? use my hand to cover the anxiety? so choose somewhere good greg.
nervous system, skeleton, meat, skin. nervous system is the thesis. skeleton is quotes/data. meat is the analysis of that data. skin is the fancy transitions + beautification. Ā meat goes on both sides of bone, and skin goes all around. nervous system has to touch everything. do what your teachers have been begging u to do since 3rd grade and start w/an outline. do this whileĀ you read/research. i usually have a starter thesis likeĀ ālady macbeth is a feminist ICONā then take the quotes i think fit. but if while youāre reading u realize u wanna talk about the use of feminine language and how shakespeare parallels daintiness w/sharpness, u still have a bunch of quotes you can use or not use. this works also w/research papers. just pull what u think is something u wanna talk about. copy-paste it but leave a link to where u got it. then put a bullet point under that says roughly why u mention it
if you just write the outline like youāre keeping notes to yourself youād be amazed how quickly you write the essay bc we get stuck in academic language but itās easier to translateĀ āthis is why bees are the #bombā into a paragraph. i mean you just rewrite your notes to yourself in academic speech.Ā āThe above passage illustrates the growing necessity of pollinators such as bees in an agricultural environment.ā
keep track of your sources + label them. donāt just writeĀ ā(SOURCE)ā instead if youāre using multiple sources use the lazygirl way which is (SA1) or whatever shorthand u have for each source. then when you need to finish your sources you go to your little source document, find the one labelled SA1 and thenĀ āFind+replaceā w/the actual source.
integrate quotes so it reads w/clarity which means donāt do thisĀ but if youāre running late on it and donāt have time to look up the quote u want to fit this situation, technically you canĀ āuse anyā word you want (56). so yeahĀ āthere isā a moral question about it but youĀ ācanā make up quotes (79, 90). donātĀ āactuallyā do this unless youāre seriously in a crunch. which u shouldnāt be, bc u managed ur time, right?
running late part 2 (which again would never happen bc you followed my advice and made a little time table for yourself but anyway if it does somehow magically happen) i really recommend using school computers to do your work. ur surrounded by people who will hold u accountable + u will focus
running late pt3 on the day of it being due, around 5 PM, be honest w/yourself and see where you are. if youāre likeĀ āit needs 2 more hoursā okay. but if youāre likeĀ āthis isā¦ā¦ā¦ not startedā email the teacher.Ā theyāll be soĀ much more receptive the earlierĀ you do this in the process. it looks likeĀ āiām genuinely struggling and i hope to finish this on time but iām worried i wonātā instead ofĀ āi started this at 11:58PM and am asking for an extensionā. please also justā¦ be honest?Ā
āmy teacher wonāt accept late work!ā they all say that, he probably will, particularly if you have a note from the school therapist being likeĀ ālmao sheās got so many mental illnesses idek how to help herā
āno he really doesnāt, he doesnāt careā you can file for disability if you have mental illness, and, in fact, you shouldĀ if itās something that often stops you from completing work on time. i didnāt bc i found that it just let me procrastinate for a longer time, but having that on file means you can go to the dean.
āno!!! raquel youāre not listening i have 2 pages and he doesnāt take late work!!!!!!!!!ā Ā okay. yeah thatās bad. but nerves, skeleton, meat, skin. what is it that youāre struggling with? is it that your canāt find any quotes to back up your thesis? impossible, tbh, you need to be more willing to purposefully misuse quotes (donāt do that). but the better option is to just change the thesis.Ā
āi donāt even have that!!ā did you. do the reading? if you even just watched the movie, you probably have an opinion on somethingĀ even if itāsĀ āthis is bad.ā you can use that.Ā use why you didnāt like it to write a hate-fueled examination on how whiny the main character is and why u think the author is trying to point out how miserable cis white boys are to deal with.Ā
āi donāt have enough sources!!!ā go to wikipediaās page about it and look @ the sources. try to like actually read some if you have time but frankly in a hurry a student (me) might be compelled to just slap the source in there.Ā
āhow the fuckĀ do i analyze thisā. u know how ppl agonize over why an actor breathed in a scene. melt into that kind of thinking. you can literally force the words to mean whatever you want.Ā iāve talked about word choice so specific that i based a 12-page essay on three separate uses of the words āmy dearā. i talked about the possessiveĀ āmyā and how it developed for like 5 of those pages. and always repeat the thesis like a million times. after every analysis you should talk about how it links to the thesis. that is like a free 3 sentences every paragraph.
āi did all that and itās still 3 pages too shortā quick ways to Beef Him Up: definitions are great in research papers + essays bc you can talk about either word choice or like the definition of every process used in getting the data. also make the conclusion hella informative (it should answerĀ āwhat does this mean moving forwardsā most of the time, tie it into modern life or into the past). thicken ur intro withĀ āhereās a quote from this guy about it and what he personally felt about acid-base titrationsā, use a paragraph to talk about the history of the data/book, use a paragraph to talk about the modern reception of the data/book. also look for where you can use two words instead of one even tho like grammatically donāt do that.
worst comes to worst, brevity is the soul of wit. most teachers prefer concise over rambling and all over the place. if you choose to scoot under the page limit, tho, your writing etc needs to be exceptionallyĀ clean. frankly iāve only done this once and it was terrifying
make computer read it aloud 2 u before u submit.Ā āraquelā¦.. i canāt look at it anymoreā. youāre not looking @ it, youāre discovering you wroteĀ ābreathā notĀ ābreatheā and u need to change it
tutoring centers exist, i worked in one, and this is how i know they actually Help and have Good Ideas
ask about extra credit and do it tbh
good luckā¦. breathe. and remember u are astronomically more important than a grade could ever be.
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