Thoughts of LoWriter

Down with Homework and Taking Classes When No One Else Is

Well, it is 10:12 PM, and I have finally finished my "draft" of my paper. Given the fact that I missed
A) Swaction
B) Beer
C) Sushi
D) Dance, Dance Revolution
E) Movie or other activity
F) Fun in general with my non-homework bound friends,
I have to say that I am relatively pissed, especially because I'm done, with just enough time to do absolutely nothing before it's time for me to go to bed so that I can get up and go to class tomorrow.

Basically, I looked at my paper before I left work and thought, "Oh, heck yeah! I'm only about an hour from done." Then I got home, took a shower, came out to read it to find that it looked like someone had cut paragraphs from about twelve different essays and pasted them down on four pages of blank paper with little to no regard for whether or not the ideas had anything to do with each other. Also, said person apparently had no concept of chronological or logical order or paragraph organization.

At first, I thought I could merely move things around and be fine, but the more I read the paper and tried to move things, the more I found reasonless repetition and a complete lack of transitions/cohesion/controlling idea/thesis. So, pretty much, I had to re-write the entire paper. From scratch. Then I cut and pasted the lines I liked from the old paper and built new paragraphs around them. It was a nightmare. It was the single worst paper I've read in months, and that's saying something. It was the worst paper I've written in... I'm gonna go with EVER. I never tell anybody to start from scratch. There's always a way to salvage a paper. Not this one. It was more like notes to myself about all the possible things my paper could be about.

I re-wrote it, but I refuse to re-read it on the grounds that three times is quite enough re-writing for a draft that I will have an opportunity to revise before it's officially graded. I know it still has a split focus, but I have no idea what to do about it. I'll have to keep it in the holding pen of ideas for awhile and see what it becomes. It's as good as it's going to get tonight.

I don't know what it was about this assignment. In my proposal, it went so well, but in practice, it was a complete mess. I think I let my form be dictated too much by his two page checklist of requirements. I finally said to myself to screw it and did what I wanted and went back to look at the checklist afterwards.

And all of this bugs the hell out of me because I remember when my Friday nights were filled with what I wanted to do and not what my class dictated I must do. B-O-G-U-S!