Paper Writing

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Ok, I believe there is nothing in life which I find more displeasurable than having to write a paper for a humanities class. They are so horribly uncreative, require us to read all this literature, but don't give us enough time to full analyze and understand them. I am more than capable of writing on subjects that actually interest me and that I understand, and don't have to reach a specific page or word count on and cite a specific number of sources, but the type of writing which I am currently having to do seems completely incompatible with my mode of thought. I have a major class paper which I need to have written today, and several others I need to write in the very near future. I am scheduled to graduate in one month, and then I am done with this, but between then and now is currently standing several major papers as yet unwritten by me that I am truly dreading. I have managed somehow to put up with all this crap for the last four years, but it seems now to be coming to a head and I just can't seem to manage this anymore. I am not good at bullshitting. These papers seem to require quite a lot of that. They require pages and pages of BS interspersed with a few paragraphs of actual content. I am truly appalled that so much of the future of my life is based on these draconian grading systems that reward so much busiwork and so little actual content.

I done a few times here as well and I learned to deal with it. Ironically, in my Conflict, Trauma and Healing course this semester, I actually began incorporating the ideas from the course in my papers like reconciliation is linked to forgiveness for a short theoretical essay. Also I did a good amount of research on Illinois and Virginia about their political culture along with their state and local government structures. I'm just use to writing papers now.

Writing papers sucks indeed. Although doing so for humanities is much better than, say, writing research papers in biology. You may not be "good" at bullshitting (I'm not either), but with scientific research papers it's pretty much impossible. I remember writing 8 1/2 pages on the evolutionary functional adaptations of the retinas of owl monkeys and it hurt my soul. It was supposed to be 10 pages, but how can one possibly write 10 pages about a retina? The fact that I got 8 1/2 out of it was nothing short of a miracle.

Scientific papers are not as tricky to me. I once wrote about 8 pages for an introductory physics lab. Humanities papers hurt my soul.

Ah, it sounds like you are probably majoring in some sort of science? I was more used to the "humanities" style because I was in anthropology, but my focus was in bioanthropology and evolution, so I had pretty much an equal slate of both. Doing lab reports was like pulling teeth to me. I liked engaging in the actual labs, doing experiments and stuff, but the write-ups were brutal. I tried my best to avoid such courses, and for the most part I was successful in that.

I don't mind papers. I certainly prefer them over taking exams- you can refer back to your notes any time!

Maybe do several pages of real content, rather than trying to put a few paragraphs of content in a pile of BS. It's much easier to write if you're sticking with "real" writing rather than trying to BS something.