<Portal:Writing Lab

• Don't start writing with a vague hope that you'll narrow your topic to a thesis as you write. Instead, take the time to brainstorm your way to a proper thesis. It may change slightly as you write, but the skeleton should be in place before you even write the date.

• Make a paper outline. This can be as detailed or skeletal as you prefer, but it will keep you from haring off on tangents, writing yourself in a corner, or sinking into a depressive stupor at the futility of it all.

• Put in references as you write. It may seem easier to just put notes that say (look up exact quote, something something chickens, prob. Hamlet) but you'll find it easier to just get in the habit of putting inline citations in the correct format.

• Take a few moments to see what formatting your instructor prefers.

• Avoid playing around with margins and character spacing to fit your paper in the preferred page length. Instead, take the time to revise your paper. You will find many places where you've used 5 words where one will do.

• Revise on paper, not on the screen.

• Save your work. Computer crashes happen.

• Backup your work to your email account. Serious computer crashes happen. Especially the night before your paper is due.

• A good last resort to crippling writer's block is simply to take a nap or a walk. It may help to clear your mind. After all, Kubla Khan came to Coleridge in a dream.