Two options: Machiavelli was a political realist who believed that fear was the key to the survival of a prince. Or, Machiavelli was a political realist who thought that love was the key, but much har

All of us have read books. And hopefully we’ve enjoyed most of them. But I am referring to books which were horrible reads. While each of us personal tastes in writing styles, a well written work can be at least enjoyable, if not fun, even when we are required to read it.

Horrible reads in college often include ill-chosen words, misspelled words, run-on sentences, especiallywithout spacing or commas, or other punctuation markd. How’s it going so far? And those are only poor mechanical problems or typos. Let’s forget about my bad. Colloquialisms! Do not use them. And feel free to use a dictionary. One should always be nearby for clarity.

Then their papers which use too, too, many words that really aren’t really, really needed.

How is this short paper reading thus far?

So here is the thing. The paper is an assignment, and the final draft will be yours. So, read the question or statement (prompt). Then think and jot down a few ideas and notes.

Research, taking notes as you do. Then, write. Read. Stop. Go do something else for a while.

Return, read, edit, read. Stop. Go do something else for a while.

Repeat. And when you believe you have finished, give the paper to someone who has good experience with reading and writing a college level paper, preferably a grad student or upper classman. Even better, a journalist, book writer.

If that person is a friend, he or she must someone who feels comfortable telling you the paper needs work, perhaps using more colorful language. If a family member, the same. You want to know if the paper is poorly written. Someone being to nice or trying to make you feel better is not the best choice. Whomever the person is may be the difference between an A or perhaps a D, or worse.

The message is simple. You will be doing research, writing papers. And I am going to read them. Many of them. I truly enjoy reading a well-written paper, with new or different ideas, rather than a repeat of what was found in the reading.

But papers with typographical errors, bad syntax, bad construction, missing what is needed, or reads like it came directly from the book? Papers that seem to have been typed in a rush?

Those papers don’t score well. So again, do us both a favor. The paper contains is your thoughts, your ideas, it is your work. Do it well.

Having provided a few thoughts, I’ll add a couple more. I always ask students to ask questions. The best students ask questions. Often this takes place in class, which allows us to talk, develop ideas, deal with concerns. Due to circumstances beyond our control, we do not have that option this semester. We have email, but email has limitations. None the less, use it and ask.

Thankfully, we can have a conversation using Zoom. I am quite willing to arrange to meet on Zoom to discuss a question which needs a bit more discussion.