Week 6 Essay

Please choose one assignment from the following options to submit for this week’s response. Please type up your response according to the guidelines listed in the syllabus (12 point, Times New Roman font, with 1 inch margins and double-spacing).

Your response will be evaluated on the basis of: a) how well you demonstrate an understanding of and engagement with the course material; b) the clarity and quality of your writing; c) your overall effort on the assignment. Remember that quality of writing is valued over quantity. The assignment will be graded on a scale of 0-10 points, and the grader’s comments and grade should be available to you within one week of the original posting date.

The assignment is due on Saturday, February 17th at 3pm without being penalized.

The weekly assignments correspond with the assigned readings and lecture material for the week. The questions posed in each option are designed to help guide your thinking and response. You are not required to respond to all (or even any) of the listed questions, although your responses should be organized in some way. As with any writing assignment, providing sufficient background information to your topic and offering specific examples to support your views will make your ideas clearer and more convincing.

You are welcome to write beyond the minimum page requirement for the assignment.

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Option 1:
If procrastination is one of your more significant time-management issues, write a 2-page response in which you discuss what you get from procrastinating. Discuss specifically what you are doing when you procrastinate (for example, are you looking up your friends on Facebook, playing video games or spending too much time in the cafeteria?), what benefits you get out of this, and whether or not the benefits of procrastinating are worth it in the long run. If you think the downsides of procrastination outweigh the benefits, discuss what concrete steps you can take to reduce your procrastination. Be specific about what messages you will tell yourself or what action items you will take in the moment when the temptation to procrastinate strikes. Also discuss how you will feel when you resist the temptation to procrastinate and follow through with the tasks and goals you set out for yourself.

Option 2:
Both the lectures for this week and the assigned readings give many suggestions about how to better manage your time and improve your study skills. Go back to your lecture notes and to the book (Chapter 3 of Andreatta) and review specific study, reading, note-taking and time-management strategies. Which suggestions do you already engage with? Are they useful strategies for improving your time-management and study skills? Which tips are unfamiliar to you, but appeal to you? Why? How can you implement them for the remainder of this quarter? What challenges do you think you might face in undertaking these strategies? How can you overcome these challenges to practice these academic skills? Write a 2-page paper responding to some of these questions.

Option 3:
After reading the assigned texts for this week, think of one upcoming major assignment in one of your current classes. Break down the assignment into smaller tasks and list each step that you will take towards completing the assignment. Also list what study/academic skills (see Andreatta, Ch. 3) you need or will be helpful for you to use at each step of the assignment. Give yourself due dates for each ‘smaller’ step of the assignment, and one for completing the assignment. In a 2-page paper, describe the assignment and discuss how you have broken it down, what skills you listed as necessary (and why) and the mini-due dates you’ve given for yourself leading up to the assignment. Discuss any obstacles that may still stand in the way of you completing the assignment as you laid it out, and what you will do to avoid those obstacles. 

Option 4:

Look at the ‘@myU’ box on pp. 73 of Andreatta. Read the directions and fill out the textbox accordingly, to reflect upon the study/academic strategies you used to complete your first set of major exams/assignments in 3-4 of your classes this term. If you did not do well on your first set of major assignments, jot down what you did to prepare for those major assignments, what need to change in order to improve your performance, and how you will make the proposed changes. If you did do well on your first set of assignments, explain what specifically you did in order to do well and what you should continue doing in order to ensure future success. Write a 2-page paper responding to some of these issues.