Friday, March 30, 2007

A quick word on lengthening papers

I was looking through some Facebook groups earlier when I came across (and joined) one called Writing Papers Single Spaced First Makes My Double Spaced Result Climactic. Now, I've done that before, and it's a GREAT feeling to watch your material double in length. I've also done my share of BSing papers before...but not even close to the sophistication of the group members. Holy cow. When I'm strapped for time - and more importantly ideas - I will rely *heavily* on quotes. They're fantastic for making points.

In addition, it's possible to base a paper around quotes. Cheating/plagarism isn't necessary - in fact, citations can take up a HUGE chunk of space. When I was strapped for time once, I simply found a few good quotes that answered the questions the assignment was asking, and just started typing as much as I could think of that was related to the quote. It can really help eliminate writer's block. Granted, the particular paper I'm thinking of didn't get finished - but I still handed it in for partial credit.

But these students? Genius. I've played with the document settings before - occasionally 'adjusting' (read:widening) the margins. I never really did much with fonts, but toward the end of my college years I started to see a lot of my teachers start to specify the font and size to use for the papers. There were many...other things that gave me a good laugh, things that never occured to me. Some of my favorite wordplay suggestions (out of a very long and impressive list) included using long synonyms, and also using the passive voice for sentences.

I didn't get very far in the lists, but it's definitely worth looking at those message boards. Their ideas were BRILLIANT, and I can in no way take credit for their ideas. If you have any other ideas you didn't see (between this post and their message boards), leave comments! :) I would be willing to share - privately - the more...clever tricks I saw. I don't know if I would personally be comfortable using ALL of the tricks that were mentioned, but I'm not you - and I'm not the one writing your paper. Use whatever you found useful (or necessary), and good luck in your paper writing! As I discover more, I will update the blog. Good luck!

1 comment:

J W 'Gigawood' said...

http://www.castletonspartan.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=b8e51560-9f00-4ed8-b5fb-7baf9dfc2bc3

I would have to agree with most of what was said in this article here. You would spend as much time blowing up periods as you would adding content...be advised.