Writing Your Term Paper In Ten Days Or Less

founder www.speedread.org

I. FIRST DAY: TOPIC

A. Choose a subject to write about and narrow it down to three basic specifics you’ll cover. Be sure that you don’t create a monumental task.. Remember this is only a five hundred word piece you’ll be creating. When your term paper or thesis is assigned-say 1,000 or 10,000 words-you’ll simply expand the body of your work and allow more time for creativity to work on each part. Let’s say that your paper needs to be on
the four main techniques used in speedreading, for example. Again, you simply expand the body of your paper.

B. Let’s work on narrowing down the work. Let’s say that you are in an American Lit lecture and your lecturer assigns you a paper, where you get to select the topic. Writing about ALL of American Literature is ludicrous; the subject is too broad. So you select just one author to write about: How about Hemingway? There is a lot you can write about Hemingway. So you need to decide what is it about Hemingway you going to write about? Make lists of potential topics. Now looking at a few things on this list: novels, short stories, charisma, multi-toed cat collector, war
correspondent, game hunting, fascination with bullfightinq, his characters, his writing style. Then review the list choosing only one item. You choose characters in stories. Narrow that down. Can you? Sure, the code hero, the Hemingway hero, the bitch.

Diagram this; the thinking process you went through to narrow things down would look like this: (keep the inverted pyramid shape in mind when you are going through your own thinking/narrowing process).
AMERICAN LITERATURE
Hemingway
Characters
Code Hero
Hemingway
Hero
BITCH

II. SECOND AND THIRD DAYS: BODY PARAGRAPHS

A. Enter a semi-lighted room with pencil and blank sheets of ruled notebook paper. If you are more comfortable using a tape recorder and transcribing a tape later that will also work. If you have a voice dictation program for your computer, that will also work, but dim the screen,
if you can, until you are finished. Sit down in a comfortable chair, with spine erect and feet flat on the floor. Take ten deep, long, breaths with your eyes closed. You are now entering the Alpha, the state of creativity, the reflective pre-sleep state of consciousness. Do not do this when tired, you may fall asleep.

B. Now just let your thoughts flow. Let them stream out of your head—totally effortlessly. (Before you go into Alpha you must have clearly determined, while still in the conscious level, what the specific elements are that you are going to write about). As your thougnts flow, write them down on your paper or record them.

DO NOT TRY TO EDIT, CENSOR, JUDGE, OR EVALUATE ANYTHING AT THIS POINT. JUST ALLOW A COMPLETE STREAM OF
CONSCIOUS THOUGHTS AS THEY FLOW THROUGH YOUR MIND.

C. When your river of thought. has run dry, put the light on fully. Review all that you’ve written or listen to your recording. If you’ve written, NOW edit, categorize, cross out, sort, sequentialize, all the material that your alpha level thrown up. If you’ve recorded you’ll need to type the information or have it transcribed by a transcription typist.

1. Make up to five lists (2-3 may do) on a large sheet of paper. Head each list with the name of the topic you want to write about.
2. Read the list over, twice, adding what you feel appropriate.

D. From lists you get the facts, details, illustrations, ideas to creatively write sentences. Now write the sentences next. When you’ve written a few sentences for each list, using separate sheets of paper, you’ve created paragraph structure for the text body of the paper. Review each paragraph. Notice if all the sentences are in logical or sequential order. If they are, more onto E.

E. For each paragraph you’ve written above, create a topic sentence. This topic sentence educates readers what your whole paragraph is going to be about. It’s that simple!

Example: I think the most intriguing of Hemingway’s characters is a male that the critics have called the code hero. (Code heroism is therefore the topic of your first body paragraph.)

III. FOURTH DAY: CLEANING UP YOUR PARAGRAPHS

A. Review each paragraph specifically looking for the following:
1. A clearly defined topic sentence
2. Each sentence in the paragraph proves, supports, discusses, relates to the topic sentence, and makes smooth transitions into the next sentence.

IV. FIFTH DAY: CREATING CONCLUDING PARAGRAPHS

A. Think about the formulation of your thesis statement. Write it down. This statement tells what your whole paper is about.
B. Put this statement at the beginning of your concluding paragraph. Use your thesis statement as your first sentence for concluding paragraph. Through the text of your paper, you have spoken about the characters in the following order:
code hero (a),
Hemingway hero (b),
and the bitch (c).

Now you REVERSE the order when you state the thesis for the conclusion. You must REVERSE the sentence, putting the last idea first and the first idea last. Notice that you do not state the thesis in exactly the same words that you stated it for the introduction. (see below under V. Part B).

Example: The Bitch, The Hemingway Hero, and the Code Hero are familiar characters the reader meets over and over again in Hemingway’s fiction.

C. Create the lead sentences. Draw conclusions, suggest innovative ideas, enter your personal comments, etc. for the reader to think about.

V. SIXTH DAY: CREATING THE INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH

A. The last thing you will be writing is your introduction. Now that you have created everything else regarding this paper, you should, by now, be able to introduce it. (Be aware that It is extremely difficult to create an introduction to some research paper you haven’t already completed:)

B. Realize that you already have one sentence - the thesis sentence - ready to be used in your introduction.

Example: Hemingway often utilized characters who had personalities that put or made them fit various categories: i.e. the Code Hero, the Hemingway Hero, the Bitch.

Put that sentence last; then simply create the sentences that move towards it. Those lead and must prepare your readers for their journey through your thesis with background material and/or orientation to the subject.

VI. SEVENTH AND EIGHTH DAYS:

A. Put your paper away and forget about it entirely. Get it out of sight and out of mind. R-E-L-A-X.

VII. NINTH DAY:

A. BE YOUR OWN GRAMMAR CRITIC. Read your paper OUT LOUD and preferably into a tape recorder and play it back to yourself. If you can read it to a supportive family member, or a friend that would be beneficial. But, if you have no one to read it to, then read to yourself (out loud). Listen to what you hear and look at the paper for appearance and mispellings. By doing this you will become actively involved as a
listener and proofreader. You’ll find that you can hear and see your errors, whether they are omitted words, garbled sentences, sentence fragments, run-on sentences, faulty punctuation, awkward and/or imprecise wording. This shows you where corrections
are needed.

B. Make your corrections, revisions, and edits.

C. Read it aloud again. Do any further revisions.

VIII. TENTH DAY:

A. Type your final version, polish it, make it gorgeous. Desktop publishing creates beautiful works.

B. PROOFREAD, 5 TIMES. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR TYPOS. These are standard instructions, make sure to follow the instructions for your school, department, and course. Double space on medium weight cotton content (25% or higher) bond paper. Use inch margins on all four sides unless instructor gives different formatting. Do not put a page number on the first page, but do put page numbers in the upper right hand corner on subsequent pages. Use a cover sheet on which you center your title in capital letters. Do not underline it or put quote marks around
it; in the lower left hand corner-one inch from left edge of paper and one inch above bottom edge of the paper-endorse your paper thusly:

Jonathan L. Edwards
American Literature 101
10:00 MWTHF
April 12, 2006

Staple all pages of your paper in the upper left hand corner.

STANDING RULE FOR ALL WRITING ASSIGNMENTS:

Pretend your readers are as dense as mannekins. That they’ve never heard of your topic. By using this pretense you assure yourself that you won’t leave out pertinent data and will include everything that is necessary for a clear, coherent paper from beginning to end. ASS-U-ME nothing about the reader. You must get the message across to him/her. (Don’t be one of those students who keeps half of their thesis tied up in the gray matter of their brains, and then wonders why no one understands their writings.)

For more information contact: Dr. Jay Polmar (founder) http://www.speedread.org