Student's guide to writing college papers, Fourth edition - Kate L. Turabian 2010

How to plan your time (no one-draft wonders allowed)
What researchers do and how they think about it
Writing your paper

Have you ever heard the tale of the one-draft wonder? That's the student who starts writing a paper at midnight before the deadline, knocks out one quick yet perfect draft, and then receives the best grade in the class. The one-draft wonder is one of the more enduring school-based urban legends: the two of us hear such tales all the time, but we've never seen the real thing. We couldn't pull it off when we were in school, and we've never taught a student who could do it either—though we have taught too many students who hoped they could fool us with weak drafts that were all too obviously written the midnight before.

You can't hope to write a decent research paper if you begin the night or even the week before it's due. This is confirmed not only by the thousands of students we've known but by studies of successful and unsuccessful writers. This research shows that the most successful writers tend to share some writing habits:

✵ They start drafting as soon as possible, before they think they have all the evidence they might need.

✵ They write in regular short periods rather than in marathon bursts that dull their thinking and kill their interest.

✵ They set a goal to produce a small number of pages every time they write, even if those pages are not very good.

✵ They report their progress to someone else if possible, or on a chart if not.

✵ They anticipate that everything will take longer than they think it should.

To make these insights work for you, you'll have to back-plan from your due date to set interim goals with specific deadlines. Start by giving your self at least one working session to proofread; then set aside time for a final revision—at least two working sessions for a paper under seven pages, twice that for a longer one. Depending on how long your paper is and how quickly you draft, set aside enough time to compete a draft, then add 20 percent. You'll need at least a day before that to review and revise your argument. Next, set aside the time you'll need for finding and reading sources, then add 20 percent. Finally, you'll need a day or two to find and test your research question. Plot these interim deadlines on a calendar, and keep track of your progress as you go. If you need a deadline to motivate you to work, find someone who will get on your case if you miss one of these interim deadlines.

One of the pleasures of a research project is the opportunity to discover something new, at least to you, perhaps to everyone else. It's a thoughtful process that requires you to consider and reconsider what you learn, both when you first find it out and again when you pull everything together. That kind of reflection takes time. To get the time you need, you need a plan that lets you start early, progress steadily, and reflect regularly.