Writing Guide from ChiChi

Studying Tips

1. quit fb asap. run away from it! turn off email too - life can wait while you write this paper.

2. get a spray bottle. the moment you want to sleep, spray it on your face. best if it’s face mist (has moisturizing effect), but water is okay too. no caffeinated water in the bottle - if any, this kind of liquid should be taken orally for maximum effectiveness.


3. get away from your bed. best place: go to wherever other procrastinators gather and unite in their misery.

4. if you’d rather work in your pyjama (like me), you can stay home, but trash your bed, strip off your bed sheets if needed, trash your floor, leave no surfaces to sleep on.

5. be really zen. believe that you can do it. panic doesn’t help. turning in something is better than nothing, so just keep on writing steadily, and you will get there.

6. try to have a mental deadline of one hour before it is actually due because you need to proofread the paper. proofreading can make a difference of a grade. italicize awkward sentences along the way so you can go back and revise them during proofread. check for grammatical errors, spelling check too (Word spelling check isn’t error-proof). polish your intro and conclusion because the first and the last impressions are important.

if you have time, print out the paper and do proofreading on a physical copy is better than doing it on computer screen because you will see the paper in a slightly different perspective and spot errors more readily.

7. have a general schedule of how much you need to achieve every other hour. keep in mind that getting through the intro paragraph is more time-consuming than finishing other parts of the paper, and know your writing speed so that you won’t overestimate the schedule (which will only make you panic), or underestimate it (which makes you less efficient). and remember the imaginary one-hour-early deadline!