By: Clarisa Colton

Writing and I tend to be in a constant battle. Whenever I’m assigned a writing assignment, I tend to procrastinate until it’s almost no longer feasible for me to finish on time. The hardest part for me is always starting. Once I get a good start, it’s usually just a matter of me concentrating for an hour or two and just getting it done – then I can go back and change things. If the assignment has been one I especially hate I tend to edit very minimally, which I know is bad, but I’m usually just happy to have it over with. As for prewriting, I’ll usually do that if it’s a paper or essay that’s pretty lengthy and requires a sense of organization.  Mostly I’ll just make an outline on paper, which is usually really helpful for me. I think the starting part is so hard for me because I have such a hard time doing anything that’s not perfect, and if I can’t get my start right, I can’t move on or do anything. A lot of it is me not wanting to write something that I don’t think will be correct or good, and I usually am able to get started if I can put that aside. I definitely need to be somewhere without distractions to write – be it a room by myself or a coffee shop where I can at least get away from friends who might distract me. I’m a huge snacker when writing. I have this vivid memory of writing an essay my senior year of high school at my dining room table with a bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs by my side helping me along the way. Deadlines stress me out as well as push me to get things done. As my mom likes to say, as a fellow procrastinator, we’re just ‘deadline driven’.

I used to make cookies or something similar a lot in high school to procrastinate, but I haven’t really been able to do that since coming to college because I haven’t had a kitchen that’s very convenient to cook in. Perhaps next year that will change since I’ll be in an apartment. Instead I just order cookies from the many cookie delivery services available to us here.

P.S. Tiff’s Treats does half off codes on Tuesdays and free delivery on Sundays.

By: Ahad Khatri

What I hate about my relationship with writing is my tendencies to procrastinate on assignments, even though I tell myself countless times to finish an assignment ahead of time. Procrastination is a skill only the many college students have mastered. What I love about writing, however, is the final product, after much effort, polish, and organization.

I think my ideal writing practices are dedication and hard work; if this weren’t the case, then a lot of the assignments I usually turn in would be unreadable! Even though I continuously try and instill values of dedication and hard work into my mind whenever I write, these ideas have been results of stress and procrastination. Without stress and procrastination, I would not be a student equipped with the necessary tools and skills to convey my thoughts formally and fluidly. I would not be a person who enjoys writing today!

I recall staying up the entire night fatigued and anxious about a written exam I had to take for my IB Higher Level Math class, near the end of my senior year. A score of four was required to pass the class and earn credit towards an IB diploma. I was constantly practicing late night, mentally telling myself that I could ace the exam I had to take in the afternoon. After a lot of mismanaged time and lousy preparation, I barely passed the class, getting the four that I needed. However, as I write this blog entry and look back to my senior year, especially to that May of 2017, I feel that with proper time-management skills, rest, and confidence, I could have aced that Math paper.

I feel as though my past experiences, such as the one outlined above, have really pushed me to become a writer. This year, I have turned in chunky lab reports, completed meaty group assignments, and have annotated an incredibly informative document. I can say that my writing and time-management skills have really evolved and have made me into someone who enjoys and appreciates the writing process, someone who enjoys editing, fixing, and manipulating bits and pieces of a sentence to try and produce a vivid paragraph, and a unique essay.

As a final note, a lot of what has made me into a better writer has been the environment and mindset I have put myself into. Whenever I put on white noise, have my favorite tub of ice cream on my table, or sit in either the CULC or my house, I feel like nothing can stop me from completing, revising, and turning in my finished work. I hope that my relationship with my paper, pen, printer and PC will continue to blossom, as it has during my first year in college.

By: Keval Bollavaram

My ideal writing practices would include working in a quiet place for several hours with the ability to finish any writing assignment in one sitting. In actuality, I usually take breaks and complete writing assignments after several days. While I would not consider myself to be much of a procrastinator, I have a tendency to only writing what comes to mind before switching to a different task. This extends to my research style as well, where I am a more efficient at learning/internalizing new material rather than paraphrasing a cited source. This way I am able to quickly transition from thought to thought without much hesitation.

I find that I am generally able to work in any sort of writing environment. My writing process is mostly internal, uninfluenced by outside distractions. On one hand, this is great because I can work around friends and family without feeling inefficient. On the other hand, I cannot simply find a new place to work whenever I feel stuck. Moreover, I do require different thought processes for different writing prompts. For example, over the years I have mastered analytical and technical writing by learning to be more direct and specific. However, I believe I still have room to improve my creative writing skills to avoid being too banal and misunderstood.

I thrive on deadlines, but I rarely finish any assignment a night before it’s due. For me, deadlines keep me organized and convince my brain to stay ahead of schedule. Although, I would not complain if a deadline for an assignment were—hypothetically—extended. Additionally, deadlines allow me to keep track of my prewriting schedule. For prewriting, normally I jot down a list of ideas then begin to write. As I write, I integrate new topics by adding them to the bottom of the page. After completing a few paragraphs, I revise and reorganize my work.

Some of Hamilton’s greatest contributions to American literature were his essays in The Federalist Papers.

Blog entry 4
By Ye Jun Kim

image: https://www.travelandleisure.com/food-drink/restaurants/chicago-cafe-no-laptops

My favorite place to write is a cafe. I go to the table at the corner of the room, preferably with good sunlight, putting my back against the corner of the room, and put in my airpods to listen to chill music. i can listen to any kind of music, except genres such as EDM, rock, and country. You might ask why not country? Well, I just don’t like country music. I think I like to drink while I write, but not eat. The biggest reason is that I dont want to get my keyboard messy. Drinks, on the other hand, dont get your hand dirty so I can work with drinks. I usually get either coffee or a refreshner to accompany my writing.

Before I start writing, I take out my sketchbook and try to organize my thoughts into drawings so that it is easier for me to put them down into words. I always carry around my sketchbook and often draw my thoughts or anything I see on that sketchbook so when I am stuck, looking through the sketchbook also helps with coming up with ideas to write.

My revision process almost always involves a third person. I have that person read through my writing, ask questions regarding the topic, and have them note any mistakes I made either with the content or the grammar.

I think I live my deadlines. Although I do hate deadlines, without them, I don’t think I will be able to get anything done. With that being said, before I actually NEED to get started on my work, I usually just watch a whole bunch of videos on youtube, explore new music, and just lay on my bed doing nothing.

Although I procrastinate a lot, especially when it comes to things like writing, I really like writing. When I am tired of all the things going on in my life, writing and drawing those thoughts down really help me get myself organized and back up to my feet. I guess it’s one of the healthy ways for me to cope with my feelings.

If I had to define my writing practices into a phrase it would have to be “all or nothing”. When I have a big writing assignment to do I can’t just break it up into little chunks before the due date. I have three to four massive chunks that I end up breaking it up in to. When I am writing I have to be in a writing mindset which doesn’t just come naturally. For example, I did the Historical Annotation project in about four or five days of work, but on each day I spent from 4-8 hours on it. I get all of my other work done in order to leave a whole day or afternoon for writing. This allows me to be prepared for the process, accessing the “writing mindset”. I’m not making this up and hope you guys understand that mindset. It’s real for me. I think the down side to this method is that after a couple hours my mind starts to feel like jello, and my writing gets sloppier and sloppier. I honestly don’t really procrastinate, always leaving a couple of days for editing before the due date. The setting I need is a nice table and my feet propped up. Propping my feet up helps relax me and keeps me focused on my writing instead of constantly moving around. I do work on a heavy reward system. Usually I take a phone break every paragraph, or in the case of the annotation project I would take a break every annotation. I also have a constant supply of trail mix to keep the energy up. I would definitely say that I like deadlines because I am a total planner and deadlines allow me to schedule those big chunks of time into my routine. I don’t do any prewriting. In fact, when research is involved, I tend to jump into writing way before the research process is done, adding a lot more editing time in the end. All in all, I am pretty happy with my writing process. If I could change one thing I would pre-write, getting a general guide for what I wanted the final product to look like before I start writing it out. I also wish I could improve my typing skills because they are definitely sub-par and require a lot of backspaces.

By: Adair Garrett

My ideal writing practice is to first outline, write all of my ideas in a stream-of-consciousness manner, then reorganize my paper into a more logical structure based on the ideas I’ve written.  After I have a close-to-completed work, I like to go through my paper and consider grammatical structure and word choice. I enjoy editing (my mom is an English teacher and it fulfills some sort of itch I continuously have), so I’ll spend a good bit of time on this step of the process.  Before I turn it in, I read the document all the way through twice, with at least an hour in between. This gives me time to have a set of fresh eyes when I review my work, and this step often allows me to catch small or tricky mistakes.

I do not like to write with snacks because it often distracts me from the task at hand, but I normally have a big cup of double-bag green tea with me.  I like to listen to Lo Fi Hip Hop Radio on Youtube and I work normally in the CULC or during my free time at work.  I do not get anything done in my own house because my little sister and I are best friends, and it is impossible to get anything done when your best friend is asking you to color with her.

I know the next paragraph will cause every other student in this class to hate me, so please read at your discretion.

I am not a procrastinator.  For some reason, if I know I need to do something and I don’t immediately begin to do it, then I feel terribly frustrated and unhappy.  I remember specific times in my life when I have procrastinated because I was so shocked by the feeling of not wanting to do something that I should be doing.  Last semester, the day before my last final, I procrastinated. I got out of my Statics final and walked back to my dorm to start studying for my Multivariable Calculus final the next day.  No matter how much I told myself that I needed to study, I could not find the motivation to start from anywhere. A friend of mine in an earlier section told me that evening that the test was “ridiculously easy”, which was a comment that somehow did not help my situation at all.  Eventually, I worked out and went to sleep, and the motivation did not come until during the test, where I found it exceedingly difficult and stressful. This is honestly the only time I can remember procrastinating this past year and it reminded me why my conscience never lets me procrastinate.

As an example of my complete lack of procrastination, I started this post on May 26th, have written the majority of this post on June 4th, and will turn it in after editing on June 25th (even though it is due June 26th).  As a result, deadlines are complicated for me because sometimes I have done something so far in advance that I’ve finished far before I can submit something.

By Grace Griggs

In an ideal world I would be able to ignore the internet entirely, listen to some instrumental music and churn out an essay in one shot. In reality, I am much more distractible than that. Although my struggles with distractions (especially the internet) often lead me to procrastinate, but once I get started I am able to write at a good pace. Deadlines are essential for me. That small sense of urgency helps to reduce my tendency to procrastinate significantly. If I am not given a deadline or have a long-term project with multiple parts, I create deadlines for myself in order to stay on time.

I generally do not do any prewriting, but I do a substantial amount of editing. I find it speeds up my process substantially to write out as much as I can and then trim it down rather than carefully wording each sentence in my first draft. I have used different methods of prewriting before and while I found outlines to be helpful, other methods like mind-mapping were not especially useful for me.

I find it helpful to write at a desk or table with good lighting and a comfortable chair. This puts me in the mindset that I am actually going to get work done. For that reason, I also don’t like to eat while writing because it takes me out of the work mindset. A good bonus is having a window with a nice view nearby. As a lifetime glasses-wearer, I can attest that giving your eyes frequent breaks from screens and close up work is very important. A nice view makes it easy to remember to take those breaks. I find music helpful while reading and writing, but anything with words messes up my train of thought, so I generally listen to instrumental music. I especially like to listen to soundtrack music from movies and video games because they are purposefully designed to sound good but not be distracting.

The exception to my instrumental music rule is this Canadian band. A lot of their music is instrumental, and most of the songs that aren’t are in French anyway. I’ve found their music very good to study and write to.

By: Arfa Ul-Haque

My ideal writing process for assignments like our Historical Annotation Project is to research a topic, categorize the research into subsections, use the subsections to make an outline, and then write. When I am writing about a topic, I usually break it down into the aspects I want to discuss in order to get an idea of what I can fit into the writing and what I can’t. Categorizing information into subsections allows my writing to be more organized and gives me a clear idea of what my final piece will look like. Once all of that is complete, I can edit my document and make sure that my writing is in a logical order. My actual writing process pretty consistent with my ideal writing process. However, depending on how long I have to work on the assignment and other tasks that I am managing, I sometimes do not have time to formulate a structured outline. My favorite part of the process is to go through different sources to find as much information as I can on my topic. It is always interesting to find obscure pieces of information, especially when researching a historical person or event.

For freehand writing, I usually write down as much as I want, before cutting out the sections that don’t fit in with that particular piece and saving them to use in a later piece. The environment that I work best in is quiet settings and during the daytime. It makes me feel more focused as there are less distractions around and I have more time to write.

I like working better with multiple short-term deadlines rather than one long-term deadline, as it makes sure that I stay on the right track without making me feel overwhelmed. It also makes me feel more in tune with the project and like I am working out of my own interest rather than just to get things done on time.

When it comes to writing or my process of writing, I tend to do things that are seen as unorthodox. I have certain steps that I follow every time I write but I don’t have a specific order. Usually when I am assigned a writing assignment, I block everything out at that exact moment and think of ideas of how I am going to approach this certain type of writing. I ask myself what the topic is, if the topic is something I can make interesting or a topic that I would be better off writing in a generic form. The biggest question I ask myself is how much time I would have to effectively complete the writing without taking too much time out of my daily routine. Once I am clear of what the topic is, I usually get straight to writing. I don’t believe brainstorming is effective. I’d rather just put the idea I have in the writing then later seeing if it works with the message I am trying to relay in the certain writing. Plus brainstorming means that I am spending more time than necessary on the writing. I just try to write whatever comes to my mind on the topic. I find it to be effective because I tend to overthink when trying to find an idea and then I just end up sitting there with a blank mind. I just let whatever comes to my head flow onto the paper. This method could be described as a free write in a way. Once I felt that I have thoroughly completed my writing, I then go back and change some ideas that I put down earlier but usually the finishing product isn’t heavily revised. When it comes to writing, my main goal is create and interesting, creative and informative writing in the least amount of time possible.