Tips and tricks for writing (and finishing) grad school papers?

Post date: 2020-08-07 09:30:56

I'm struggling to write a paper for one of my grad school courses. It's for a Linguistic Policy class, and I'm feeling overwhelmed. The COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent disruption of in-person classes hasn't helped, but even without everything going on in the world, I would be daunted by the length of the paper (15-20 pages).

I have my research done and a rough outline and a couple paragraphs, but this was due in the spring semester (my very understanding professor gave me an incomplete and is flexible on when I turn it in).

Here's what I think the problems are:
- I've NEVER written a paper this long before. I'm sure for many students it's not even that long, but I don't have any experience with it (my undergrad major was a totally different subject).
- Anxiety about COVID-19 making it difficult to concentrate.
- Constant changes to my routine and uncertainty about work schedule
- Wanting to spend precious time doing other (more enjoyable) things - and justifying it because of all the craziness in the world

What has helped:
- Using the Voice Typing tool in Google Docs just to get some ideas down
- Setting a timer and working in little chunks

I would feel so much better if this paper was done and behind me, but I'm really struggling to concentrate. Any tips or tricks for getting papers done would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much :)

Please click Here to read the full story.