I'm currently in the midst of writing a ten-page (minimum) research paper for my English 102 class. For the last two months, this paper has consumed my life. We're now in the home stretch of the thing; within a week and a half, I will be done with this paper and will never have to think about it again. I'm only a little excited about that.
Of course, this paper hasn't been completely without its uses. Besides the obvious value of being worth a major part of my grade in the class, working on this paper for the last eight weeks has taught me a lot about the nature of writing papers.
1. Even if you get to choose your topic, you will get sick of it
Our class got to choose our topics, thank the English gods. Well, technically, there were a few parameters on what the paper could be about, but as long as our topic fell within the guidelines, we could choose whatever we wanted. You'd think that would make the topic so much more enjoyable. After all, I got to choose this topic! This wasn't a topic forced upon me by English teacher! This was something I actually wanted to research.
As it turns out, researching and writing about any single subject for two months--regardless of if it's a topic you picked--is a sure-fire recipe to absolutely loathe your topic. By around the two-week mark of writing this paper, I wanted to vomit anytime someone mentioned something even remotely related to my topic.
Me whenever anyone talks about this year's election and/or millennials
2. That said, you become a mini-expert on your topic
It's kind of difficult to research something for eight weeks and not acquire at least some substantial knowledge about it. So as much as you may hate your topic, you'll know way too much about it and can spout off information about your topic whenever the need arises. If anyone wants to talk about millennials and the 2016 presidential election, hit me up.
3. MLA is the worst
I'd just like to say, from the bottom of my heart: SCREW MLA. There are not words enough in the English language to express my deep, abiding, and passionate hatred for MLA formatting. Especially with the new 2016 updates. I went through all of middle school and high school mastering the art of MLA to the point that I probably could have whipped up a flawlessly-formatted paper in my sleep. And now they're just going to throw some new updates at us? Why? Who cares? Was anyone clamoring for an update?
Actual footage of me trying to format my paper according to MLA guidelines
4. An epic movie soundtrack playlist makes everything better
I highly recommend making a playlist of film scores for paper-writing. It's up to you to determine what "epic movie soundtracks" are worthy of your playlist. For me, this means The Lord of the Rings soundtrack and anything John Williams wrote. It makes the paper all the less painful. With the Jurassic Park theme playing in the background, you can pretend you're writing some amazing adventure story and not just a stultifyingly dull research paper.
5. You will hit a point of not caring
Sooner, probably, than later. I don't want to fail this paper. It's a massive part of the final class grade. But at this point, I don't care about getting an A. As long as I don't bomb the paper, that's all I care about. When you have an assignment that takes up two months of your time, you hit a point where you say, "It's not great, but who cares?" and turn it in anyway.
And now I should get back to writing my paper. Pray for me.
