With the end of the semester nearing, students are gearing up for final exams and projects. But inviting spring weather and end-of-the-year activities can bring many distractions. Even if a student has kept up with assignments all year, a quick glance at a syllabus could result in the unnerving discovery of one more paper.
Ideally, students should begin planning their papers ahead of time, said Hope Goshert, a junior music education major and tutor at the Writing Desk at the Learning Center in North Quad 323.
Goshert said students' largest problem writing papers is planning.
"The most common problems I've seen are organization and grammar," Goshert said.
Goshert said the Writing Center would rather have students come in at the beginning of their paper-writing process, not when they just need a last-minute check.
"Usually, the people who come in close to the due time, the paper is written out, and they don't let me know it is due really soon," Goshert said.
Goshert said preparation is key to an effective paper.
She suggests students develop a topic and begin researching to find the angle they want to explore.
"They should brainstorm ideas and put down on paper what they are thinking about writing," Goshert said.
Outlining is one method Goshert suggests for organization.
After basic planning, the format of the paper and the content depends on what the assignment requires.
Students may follow the professor's directions to the best of their ability, but still can run into snags about formatting their papers.
Help on writing and organization can be found on the Internet. The Paradigm Writing Assistant at powa.org gives tips on format and organization.
For students who do not have time to extensively plan their papers, powa.org has tips on how to write using improvisation.
The Web Site also gives tips on arranging and ordering papers to help students make their papers flow.
The Web site provides information on citing sources in text and also shows examples of works-cited pages.
Students can also obtain information on bsu.edu/english, the Web site for the Ball State English department. The Web site provides a guide called Ball Point, which can be downloaded. The guide requires a password, which can be obtained by calling 285-8370, or by sending an e-mail to the Writing Program office. However, students should be aware that a response may not be sent until the next weekday because it is an academic office.
Once starting the paper, students should take some precautions to preserve their work.
Tim Parsons, a PC network analyst for University Computing Services, said the key to avoiding such problems is prevention, which should begin the minute the writer sits down at a computer.
"When you sit down, make sure everything looks right," Parsons said. "If it does not, restart the system."
After opening a Word document and typing a few paragraphs, Parsons suggests saving the work.
"People should save once every one or two paragraphs and definitely after every page," Parsons said.
Parsons said if computer complications occur, the student only loses one or two paragraphs.
However, Parsons said simple saving is not enough to keep from losing text. Students should also save extra copies on other drives to prevent them from losing their work, he said.
Even if one saves often, problems can occur when opening a document on another computer, Parsons said. He said the problem can be caused by complications in the hard drive, the disk or a combination of the two.
If a document will not open, Parsons suggests moving to another computer.
"Some floppy drives are pickier than others," he said.
If using a floppy disk, students can slide the metal part of the disk and let it spring back, Parsons said. Another option is to rotate the round metal part of the disk so the computer begins to read it on a different place of the disk, Parsons said.
Parsons said that a person should never touch the black, flimsy part on the inside of the disk.
If a marathon writing session is the only way to finish the assignment, Parsons said students should back up their file each time they take a break.
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