English is more like math than you think

An English paper ought to be treated like math homework, a daily chore, but somehow many folk think an English paper happens all in one go, the marathon event that starts with a gun shot at noon and runs through research, swims through paragraphs, and cycles to the finish, leaving you exhausted and usually late. These papers lack planning, organization, creativity, and polish. They are also loaded with plagiarism. A much better approach to a paper is to think of it as daily homework, divided into stages of development. Find and read your research for two days, picking out favorite quotes and statistics and summarizing interesting ideas. The next day, make a plan for your paper, put your ideas into a logical order, and choose which pieces of research will go where. Next day after that, write a couple of paragraphs from your plan, and these could be any two paragraphs because you don't have to start at the beginning. Two more paragraphs per day in the days that follow will build a rough draft. Once that is complete, go get feedback from someone who is good at writing. Then spend a day revising what you have done. Polish your grammar and spelling the day before you turn in your paper. Print a nice new copy and walk into class after a good night's sleep.

Finding stuff in your textbook

Sometimes finding stuff in your textbook is like going on vacation in a foreign country without knowing the language to read the map! I have this experience often when looking at math textbooks. There are a few useful places to look when your English textbook won't easily give up its secrets. Let's say you remember reading about pronouns, but you can't find where that was. The back of the textbook will have an index, pages that list important key words from the book. The index is in alphabetical order, so look for the P's and see if "pronouns" is listed. Next to "pronouns" will be page numbers where you can find information about pronouns. Another place to look for specific parts of the textbook is the table of contents which you will see within the first 10 pages. The table of contents lists the chapters in order with some informational titles about what is located in each chapter. Cruise the chapter titles to find the area in which you read about "pronouns," and the page where that info begins will be listed. Finally, I also suggest looking at the end of your textbook's chapters to see if they have any "chapter review" page. A review page is usually laid out nicely with good visuals and reminds you what important info was located in that chapter. Actually, I like to read the last page of the chapter first (the chapter review) to get an idea of what I should be learning when I go back and start reading the chapter.