I never really knew how hard writing term papers was until I started a history class in college. The first day of class I sat down quite excited to be learning under my new and apparently very cool teacher. He had an awesome southern accent — not the redneck kind of southern accent, but a cool Virginianish accent. The first stapled bunch of papers he passed out was a term paper assignment. I didn’t really know what I was in for at the time. Now a normal, garden variety research paper probably wouldn’t have been so bad. But this was not a normal, garden variety research paper. This was a term paper made by a professor intent on forcing all but the most hard working students to drop his class for fear of getting an F down on the transcript.
The first warning of the difficulties that lie ahead was the fact that we could turn the paper in as many times as we wished, and he would have it back to us the next class period entirely marked up. And he wouldn’t record any grade until we turned it the last day of class. He obviously didn’t expect anyone to get it at the first try. The other problem was that this was a term paper, and apparently term papers are harder than other types of papers. With term papers one is given the whole term, so one thinks that he has plenty of time to get it done. Papers that have, say, a two week deadline generally instill panic in the student, and so he gets it done ASAP (ASAP meaning the night before while high on caffeine). Term papers don’t instill this fear. They have more of a “sure it’s a hard paper, but I have the whole bloody semester to get it done, don’t I?” kind of feeling. So rather than doing the paper ASAP (the night before while high on caffeine), students will generally do it the morning before the class while really high on caffeine (think Redbulls. many.) This is not to mention, of course, that term papers are generally deceivingly difficult papers because they are of the “term” variety, meaning they are generally longer and consist of many more primary sources than you or I would care to know existed.
So I get my term paper assignment and quickly shove it into my folder, eager to get it away from me. I feel less guilty with not doing the paper when the assignment does not sit at the desk and stare back at me for long periods of time. In my mind I said “I’ll get to it later. I have other important things to do right now. Like playing games. And listening to music. After all, I have the whole bloody semester to do it.” And of course I didn’t touch it till now, when I have three or four weeks left in the class to finish it. And even then I still take my time researching it. After all I have a whole bloody 3 weeks to get it done, right?
