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PROFESSOR OF POP: On Writing A Grown-Up Paper:

Undergraduates in Media Studies often have problems with the writing of papers & that's in part at least because they are attracted to many different ways of writing & communicating, and so they often feel confused about which form to use, it seems to me. Add to this a new diversity in the range of types of writing & communication (email, blogging, etc.) and it is understandable that there is sometimes difficulty in changing gears from a journalism class to a blogging independent study to a creative writing class and the composition of a dense theoretical paper.

What is not understandable, however, is failing to make the effort to learn how to properly construct an academic paper while you are in college. Surely we can all agree on that.

And so, in a spirit of providing Right Speech guidance on papers (helpful, timely, truthful) here are some basic thoughts on how to write a grown-up paper (for a class with me, anyway) & they come with a reminder -- the last piece(s) of work you do, at the end of a semester, can often make a big difference. Learning how to find mental stamina in the last days & weeks of a project, and what a huge difference this can make to the final outcome, is one of the most important (but least heralded?) tasks that can be learned in college. ...