Procrastination: The Vicious Cycle Discussion 5

Procrastination: The Vicious Cycle Discussion 5

Delayla has a major paper due at the end of the term. It’s now past midterm and she still hasn’t started to work on it. She keeps telling herself, “I should have started sooner,” but she continues to postpone her work and is becoming increasingly anxious and guilty. To relieve her growing anxiety and guilt, Delayla starts doing other tasks instead, such as cleaning her house and returning emails. This makes her feel a little better because these tasks keep her busy, take her mind off the term paper, and give her the feeling that at least she’s getting something accomplished. Time continues to pass; the deadline for the paper grows dangerously close. Delayla now finds herself in the position of having lots of work to do and little time in which to do it.

Reflection Questions

What do you expect Delayla will do at this point? Why?

What grade do you think she’ll end up receiving on her paper?

Other than simply starting sooner, what else could Delayla (and other procrastinators like her) do to break the cycle of procrastinationv?

Can you relate to this student’s predicament, or do you know other students who often find themselves in this predicament?

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.