(no subject)

[cleolinda]

You know how, when you're writing a paper, sometimes you just hit that wall? That wall, like, five pages before you've reached your length requirement, where you're just like, "Dude, I have nothing left to say. Paper as it currently stands? Pretty much says everything"?

Yeah. I hit that wall about an hour ago.

P.S. I never, ever want to hear anything about Paradise Lost again. EVER.

Comments

[anniesong.livejournal.com]

Forget about writing about Paradise Lost and just write about Lost (the TV show). Just keep a straight face as your explain to your professor the mistake...

[word-herder.livejournal.com]

Heh. That would be hilarious...

[rebel-waltz.livejournal.com]

[morganmuffle]

I feel like I've hit that wall and I'm barely even started... doomed I tell you, doomed!

[illmantrim.livejournal.com]

erk?

ummm..... filler?

[exiledprincess.livejournal.com]

see, that's why i'm a science major. i do much better on exams than papers. and length requirement? as long as i know the electron transport chain, my professor doesn't care if i explain it in a paragraph or a page.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I have always thought that the Electron Transport Chain would be a good name for a band.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I'm there with you on Paradise Lost - in my Freshman English course in college, in a semester-long course devoted to surveying 1800 years of British literature, my prof spends TWO WEEKS on just TWO BOOKS of PL.

He offered a PL course as well. I knew better than to take it, and the other course I took from him was a seminar in 16th century literature, so I wouldn't have to deal with him talking about PL at ALL.

[celli]

One thing about Paradise Lost you might want to see, despite your prohibition: my friend serrico's Paradise Lost margin notes.

Round One

GOD: Kneel! Kneel before me, son of Jor-El!
SATAN: Bite me.

Round Two

Uh-oh! Satan got loose!
GOD: Whoops. Time to justify my shoddy jailing techniques.

Round Three

MILTON [SnakeSatan's tempting Eve]: For high from ground the branches would require/Thy utmost reach or Adam's: round the tree/All other beasts that saw, with like desire/Longing and envying stood, but could not reach.
MARGIN: Not even the giraffes?

[captainsblog.livejournal.com]

Better to procrastinate in hell than get an incomplete in heaven.

[missmp.livejournal.com]

I had two ways of beating the wall:

1. Playing with the font and the margins (totally cheating, I know)

2. Going back and adding a sentence to every paragraph I'd already written that restated everything else I'd said in that paragraph, with a slight change or two. That was usually good for at least another page or two.

And sometimes I handed in a two-page-short paper with a post-it saying "I ran out of things to say. Sorry." Okay, I only did that once.

[wock.livejournal.com]

One of the the biggest differences between undergrad and grad school: No one ever said a paper had to be a certain length in grad school.

Of course unlike undergrad days, when you might have to write a substantial paper once a semester, in grad school it was usually every week.... for every class. On the other hand, it's much easier to write 20 pages on a subject you actually care about that it it to squeeze out 5 pages on some incredibly trivial subject you needed to fulfill a group requirement.

Which takes me back to my very last undergrad semester and a course entitled "The Films of Jean Renoir"...

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, I am in grad school. But the profs tend to be much looser with the length guidelines. Still, I came in under the low end of the 15-20 page requirement.

[lyrainverse.livejournal.com]

Oh, do I ever know your pain. Why do papers even have length requirements? If you can say what you need to in 10 pages, why should you have to bullshit it out to 12?

Anywhere, here are my shortcuts: change the line spacing to 2.2. It's barely perceptible to the naked eye but adds a lot of length. Also, scoot your margins in to 1.1 or 1.2. Again, barely perceptible. There are also font options, although most professors have caught on to them. "Courier New" will give you a crapload more in length, but it looks pretty bad.

Can you tell I've had a lot of experience in this? I haven't had to use these skills in a couple months, but I need to keep them sharp for when I head to grad school next year.

[fmith.livejournal.com]

Icon love. <33

Promised PotO icons...

[w0rdinista.livejournal.com]

Just a quick note-lette -- since I used a few more of your Phantom bases to make some more icons, I'd like to share them with you (as is polite thing to do). I'd be happy to email them, as I haven't uploaded all of them (because having, you know, six LJ avatars all of a blood-red skull might get misconstrued). Would that be a problem?

On a side note, have you heard any of the new soundtrack? Christine sounds all right, but the Phantom... doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

Re: Promised PotO icons...

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hey, sure! You can get a photobucket.com account, too, if you want--that's where I store all mine that I can't use at the moment. I think my email's in my profile, if you need it.

I haven't heard the new soundtrack, but... well, the Joel Schumacher interview I read said, "Well, our Phantom, he's never been on stage, but--he was in a rock band for a while!" Yeah. I kinda knew where this was going from that moment.

[cateressea.livejournal.com]

Hmmm....last night's 'Lost' had this psychic named Milton, right? And you're writing about Paradise Lost, and this cannot be mere coincidence. Good luck finding those extra pages of filler!

[merewiper.livejournal.com]

It really sucks when that happens - happens to me all the time... Hope you'll finish it!!!!

[ladyortyger.livejournal.com]

From my experience, professors prefer a concise, well written, shorter paper, than a longer one that doesn't say anything.

[endril-lei.livejournal.com]

Funny, I'm writing an essay on Paradise Lost as we speak. >_< And the walls.... are evil. And then you just sit and stare at the paper feeling like you should have more, but there's nothing you can do to make the paper any better, you've done all you can.

[p-tripp.livejournal.com]

It's been a good nine years since I've had to write anything even relatively term paper-ish. But I do feel your pain. Oh, do I ever.

:D

[frodosgoosegirl.livejournal.com]

Poor Cleo. You have survived much longer than I have with Paradise Lost. Two weeks and I was done.

I'm all weirded out now because epicyclical linked to you. The two biggest lj personalities have come full circle. Is this weird to anyone else?

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

All immodesty aside... yeah, it was kinda weird. Like a confluence of planets or something. (I'm a very small planet, though. Maybe a moon. A moon rock.)

[yarha.livejournal.com]

Two words:

Long. Quotes.

Or mebbe:

Bulleted. Lists.

That is, if you can't just increase the font size, line-spacing, and so forth.

Yarha, Didn't Get a Ph.D. without Learning to Do Shitwork

[mustang-bex1126.livejournal.com]

awesome... yay! I had to concurrently write two (10 page) papers last weekend, one on Public Administration Theory and Mary Parker Follett (omg most boring major), and another one for Political Systems of Western Europe on Italy Legal History (omg so wordy and boring and complicated with the crappy Roman history)... I went I did the "add a line" trick, and included a few Quotes (which REALLY works for the Political Science dept) and had a bulleted list... WHOA

[mokeyhokey.livejournal.com]

I hate when that happens. It's like you're being penalized for having a better grasp of the English language than everyone else. So then you start debating with yourself whether to leave it ("It's not MY fault I can say ten pages' worth of stuff in five!") or dumb it down to make it longer ("But she really REALLY meant ten!"). I've always sort of had a gut feeling that my teachers/professors wouldn't penalize if a shorter paper was excellently written, but I'm a chicken shit and always water it down.

I've decided that if I ever become an English teacher (HA!), I'm employing the method my high school films teacher used to assign lengths to our essays and reviews. He always told us to "make it as long as a woman's skirt: long enough to cover the subject, but short enough to keep it interesting." Hee.

[waxpapervillain.livejournal.com]

It times like those that I just want to end my paper with an ellipses.

Like, there may be more ... or not. Oooh, mysterious.

[ter369.livejournal.com]

I never, ever want to hear anything about Paradise Lost again. EVER.

Milton's offspring probably never, ever wanted to hear about it again.

::pities you::

But The Faery Queen is a bigger honkin' bore.

[theendofallthat.livejournal.com]

Hey, dunno if you saw this. It's an article from the UK's The Guardian. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1369643,00.html)

You know, I already get enough ignorant questions about the time I spent living in Alabama ("did you see any lynchings?" perfectly serious, was my favorite) and have to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to convince people that Alabama! is! normal! just! hotter!
And you just ain't making it any easier, Rep. Allen.

[oasis-beatles.livejournal.com]

I absolutely adore your icon. =D

*fangirl swoon*

alright...now that that is over...

~Cheers =D

[bluewasabi.livejournal.com]

"Instead of handing in a paper, I've decided to demonstrate my thesis through the joys of interpretive dance! I call this bit 'Moloch's Mambo,' which will segue gracefully into 'Beezelbub's Boogie' . . . Why, what's the matter, Professor-- don't you support the arts?"

But seriously, Paradise Lost annoyed me because Eve was the original blonde bimbo. Maybe if she stopped her obsession with flower arrangements and started, you know, listening to the Angels, she wouldn't have been such a sucker for Milton's main man Satan. Honestly, that girl had a flower jones almost as bad as Ophelia. Can't you just see her after the Fall, walking around moaning "there's Rosemary--that's for redemption. . ."?

[moviechick14.livejournal.com]

I'm expiriencing the same problem right now with my paper...