Essay Writing Tips

Being an English and Journalism major I have a lot of writing to do; however, I would rather write an essay than do 80+ Spanish activities (I actually had to do that for every Spanish test…worst thing ever). I've also been writing research papers since middle school and perfected my technique in high school when I had to write 4,000 word research paper. Today I am going to share my tips which can be catered to people who work better with a pen and paper and those who prefer technology. I also figured that now would be a great time to tell you how I write essays since it is finals and I have an English essay due this week. Here is my writing process and tips that I've figured out along the way.

#1 Know your topic

Regardless of whether or not your teacher or professor assigns a specific topic, a list of topics or you have to create your own topic, you need to make sure that you know your topic. Make sure you pick something you are interested in or can argue for/against if you are able to choose your own topic. If it’s not something you enjoy learning about and writing about then the writing process is going to be tedious. However, sometimes you won’t be able to choose your topic and it sucks but it’s still do able.

#2 Research

This is, in my opinion, the most tedious part of writing. Even though research has gotten easier with technology, there is so much out there that it can often be overwhelming. Many teachers now require paper and electronic sources and require that those electronic sources are credible and aren’t just google searched. Most universities and a lot of high schools have subscriptions to databases like Academic Search Premier and EBSOHost that can provide credible articles and research. Also, your public library may be subscribed to some databases that one can use. Learning to use these can be difficult, but most librarians should be willing to help you learn how to use them to get the sources you need. Take advantage of the resources your school has. Finally, do more research than you think you will need. It’s better to have too many sources than too little.

Citations, I feel, would also fall under this category. Citing sources is terrible, but it’s something you have to do. If you do not do it correctly, then you may get expelled or kicked out of university forever. That’s a lot of pressure. However, Microsoft Word can take some of the stress off of you. My teacher in ninth grade told me that if have 2010 or above you can go to the References tab and then to the Citations & Bibliography section and choose your style and then click on insert citations; all you have to do after that if fill out the form for each source! Word will take care of all the pesky periods, commas, italicizing, and all the other things that come with citing a source. After you have everything cited, go to your citations page and then click on bibliography and it inserts all the citations almost formatted. All you have to do now is change the font and size, double space, and do a hanging indent and you’re done! Isn't that so much easier? The first picture is how I compile my research if I'm keeping it together in a Word document. The second two pictures are what I do if I'm doing index cards.For the index cards, I organize it to have the source card on top and the quote cards for that source behind it; then another source card, quote cards etc. 

#3 Outline

A lot of people skip this step and admittedly, for small essays, I don’t make a detailed one. But I do find that having some kind of outline or plan before you start writing so that way you have a little bit of an idea of what you’re going to talk about and you don’t repeat and write in circles. For long essays I do like to do a detailed outline because…all you have to do is add fluff and the essay is done! When I wrote my extended essay for high school, I did a detailed outline and the paper pretty much wrote itself because all I had to do was add fluff to the quotes and it was done. I still do that now even though it seems pointless while I’m doing it but when it comes to writing it actually does help.

#4 Let’s get writing

I don’t have any tips for the actual writing of the paper except just write and don’t worry about how it looks or sounds. Get all of your ideas and explanations and fluff out onto paper/screen. Starting is the hardest part so maybe don’t start with the introduction and start with the body paragraph. Also, depending on your teacher, you may not have to write a full paragraph for the introduction. Often I just have a sentence or two in order to introduce the reader and then go straight into the thesis; although none of my teachers mind that make sure that it is okay with your teacher.

#5 Finishing up

Edit, edit, edit. Send it to your friends, sometimes if you get the essay done early enough your teacher might be willing to read it and edit it for you. If your university has a writing center where they edit essays for you, then make an appointment and take your essay there. Sometimes in the act of writing one might make a lot of silly mistakes that could be marked off, so it’s important that you or someone else reads the essay for those mistakes. Finally, make sure you turn it in as soon as you are finished! Don’t wait. I waited once and was like I’ll turn it in later tonight (it was due online) and totally forgot! I e-mailed my teacher and luckily she was really cool about it, but it was terrifying! Take my word for it, turn it in as soon as you finish completely.

I hope that these tips help you out during this stressful time of finals. Good luck!

Thank you for reading!

Kylie

Dorm Room Christmas Decorations

I know we just had Halloween and it’s not even thanksgiving yet, but I’m already super into the Holiday spirit. I’m one of those crazy Christmas people, am I the only one? I love the Holiday season, it makes me so happy and it’s amazing. I already have Christmas music in my car (Michael Buble anyone?) and it’s beginning to look like Christmas threw up all over my room. I have a baby Christmas tree all decorated, skirt and all and garland on my window. Part of the reason I have already decorated my room is because I will only be in my dorm for two weeks after thanksgiving so I won’t have enough time to enjoy a Christmas-y room. The other reason is just because I’m a super holiday freak and I love Christmas. It makes me so happy :).

As for what this actual post is about: I’m going to be talking about the decorations in my room and different idea that I may or may not be doing in my own room but would love to do. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of all the garland, but I will still tell the price and what not. Just so I don’t have to say it for everything, all of the stuff shown in the pictures is from Target. I don’t know about you guys, but Target is my favorite place ever. I can spend so much time in there and they always have so much for the holidays.

MY TREE

Before my most recent payday, I went to Target just to kill time and because I was bored just sitting in my dorm and I saw that they had small trees! I wanted one last year but couldn’t find a really nice one for cheap. So I got one from Old Time Pottery and I loved it but I was small, almost like a Charlie Brown tree so my ornaments looked huge on. I also left it at home so it wasn’t doing me any Christmas goodness at the dorm so I got a new one. So when I go home my room will have two trees :). You should be able to find it in the Christmas section in the back of Target. They also have Silver, Gold and maybe pink? Or Blue? I don’t remember but they have a variety of colors. It’s $8 and is a garland material instead of pine-y.

Near the tree at all targets near me they have garland and baby ornaments that you can use to decorate your tree. I got silver garland (I’m sorry I forgot pictures) for $3 and one was enough to wrap the tree. I got Gold, Green, and Red mini bulbs and some blue, pink, and green stars both sets were $3 and came with plenty bulbs; 1 pack should be enough but if you want variety like me then 2 packs is plenty. I also found a tiny tree topper in the same area, I got the Gold one but they have a bunch of other colors and it was only $1! Finally, they had mini tree-skirts hanging up which I also thought was just adorable. Like everything else, they had a variety of colors and patterns. I got a simple, kind of traditional green one that says Merry Christmas and Let it Snow on it with little Christmas designs. Here are pictures of the set up and the final tree <3.

EVERYTHING ELSE

Right now, the only other Christmas decoration I have in my room is garland lining my window. I found some garland in the dollar spot at Target. I got two of them, a green and red and a silver. I originally planned of having one around my window and one around my door. But then I got back and unraveled it and it was really, really short. It could be used on the tree honestly. So instead of having both my window and door lined. I have my window lined with half of it being green and red and half being silver. It’s still really pretty though. I want some decorative Santa Clauses, snowflakes, penguins, snowman, etc. to hang on my wall but I don’t have the money for that right now. But over the years I’ll build up my collection of holiday decorations so it’s okay :)

I hope you guys enjoyed reading this. What is your favorite season and are you as into the holiday season as I am?

Thanks for reading!

Kylie

How to get good grades!

The new school year is in full force now. Most of us have started school within the past month and the work is already piling up and stress is reigning. I always strive to get the best grades that I can and over my 13+ years of school, I've found some tips and tricks that have helped me.

#1 Use a planner!

I cannot stress enough how important it is to keep a planner or calendar of some sort whether paper or electronic to help keep track of assignments, tests, dues dates and activities. I could not live without mine. I use a paper planner from Target that I write all of my assignments that I need to do in the weekly section along with due dates, tests, work schedule, and club meetings. In the month view I only keep due dates, tests, and club meetings so I can glance and see the most important things coming up. Without this I would probably miss meetings and forget about my tests and homework and I would be completely and utterly stressed…then probably fail. We can’t have that.

Whether you use google calendar, a Filofax, a store bought planner or anything else. Something to plan your days, weeks, and months is essential.

#2 Color-code

If you aren’t someone who likes color or someone who works with color well then this isn’t required but I found that it helps a lot! I don’t write my notes in color, I just use a black pen or pencil so that I can highlight and not have the pen color interfere with the highlight color. However, in my planner I love color! I love being able to look at my calendar and see that there are four days with pink, 6 with light blue, 8 with light blue etc. I don’t have to read everything looking for right item. I also have a highlight color-code for my notes so if I’m trying to find something I can look for that color and find it quicker. Here’s my color-coding system. You can take mine, alter it change it, create your own if you want to.

#3 Go to Class

I know this is obvious, but I’m serious. It’s so important to go to class even those dreaded 8:00 AM classes. If you don’t go to class you might miss important information, hand-outs, notes, or even syllabi changes. Make sure you also pay attention in all your classes and take notes. Plus, once you skip class once for no reason, you will continue to skip class and then you will fail. So even on those cold, rainy mornings make sure you get up and go to class.

#4 Utilize your syllabus

In high school, the syllabi you receive aren’t as important as they are in college. In college these tell you the weight of your assignments, due dates, tests and exams, the reading schedule, textbooks and other books you may need, the teacher’s office hours and e-mail and basically everything you need to know for the class. As soon as you get them for all your classes, plan out your semester. Write all due dates and exams in your calendar so you can see how much time you have to prepare for all of them. But after you do this don’t just not look at the syllabus again for the rest of the semester, make sure you continue checking back on it to make sure you are on track and not forgetting anything.

#5 Use a different notebook or binder/binder section for each class

This helps to keep things organized so you don’t mix up notes and handouts from one class with another class. I will later put up a post about how I organize my notebooks and binders. But whichever method works for you, make sure you have one or a section designated to each class so that you can keep track of your notes and handouts.

#6 Make sure to do the reading before going to class

This can be difficult, with so much reading for college it’s difficult to do all the reading before class. But doing this is important, it gives you an overview of what will be said in class, you will already know what topics you understand and what topics you do not understand and you can be prepared to ask any questions you might have. I also like to take notes on the reading and then take class notes in class so that I can see what the teacher though was important and have to different ways the topic was said. While talking about notes, I like to re-write or re-type my class notes after class to fill in any empty spots and get it engrained in my head.

I hope this helped! What kind of tips/tricks do you guys have to get good grades?

Thanks for reading!

Kylie

School Year Goals!

I’m back! This past week has been craaazzzyyy. I went school shopping on the 17 for the last bit of school stuff and dresses for rush week. Then on Tuesday I moved back into my dorm, I’m in an apartment style two person suite, so I have my own bedroom and bathroom (woohoo!). I drove myself to college and it took me like 5 trips to get all my stuff up to my dorm and I only had a few hours before I had to leave for night 1 of rush! We only have four sororities at my school so rush week is only 4 days: 3 days of meeting the sororities and then bid day where hopefully you get into a sorority and hopefully it’s the one you want! It was crazy stressful, overwhelming, and amazing! I found my home and my sisters with Alpha Xi Delta :). Now that all the craziness of moving in, rushing, and getting ready for classes to start I will be posting regularly again!

So anyway, to today’s post! Every year I make goals for the school year and I sometimes make them (like getting good grades I always meet) and sometimes I forget about them and don’t do them. Maybe this year, actually posting them online will help me make sure I do them all!

Goal #1: Make straight A’s

Last year I was an engineering major and I had a horrible time. It was so difficult and I learned too late that I don’t like science so I was struggling like no other.  I was miserable! So at the end of the year I changed my major to English and felt so much better. Even though I didn’t do terrible freshman year (I have a 3.28) I didn’t do as well as I would like. So since I’m in classes I enjoy and I’m excited about school this year I want to make straight A’s to get my GPA up to a 3.5.

Goal #2: Not procrastinate

How many of us make this goal every year and always start out well in August and January but then by the second or third week of school all that motivation to not procrastinate goes away and you find yourself waiting till the night of to do your work? Yeah that’s me every year. Sure I do well anyways, but it’s so stressful. Freshman year of college, at the end of every semester, I would be freaking out because I was scared that I wouldn’t make the GPA cut-off for my scholarship. I don’t want that stress this year. So I’m going to make sure that I don’t leave my essays and homework until the last minute so I don’t stress during finals week (at least not as bad)

Goal #3: Go to every class and be at class 5 to 10 minutes early.

Skipping class is easy, we all go through the cycle of “I’ll just skip this one class today and it’ll be a one-time thing” only to end up never going to that class. Let’s not do that this year, let’s go to all of our classes and even be kind of early!

Goal #4: Get up and to the gym a couple times a week

We have a really nice rec center with a rock wall, a pool, and apparently a sauna. There are also many different classes, I want to go to the yoga class in the morning (7:30 AM…ouch) but I think it would be good for me to go through a relaxing yoga class before going to my actually classes. Plus yoga is good for the mind and body and is actually really toning and strengthening.

Goal #5: Finally, Get involved on campus

I didn’t do anything last year, I didn’t make any friends, join any clubs etc. This year that’s changing, I will be joining clubs and getting involved. The first step for me was going to rush and joining a sorority, so I guess I can like halfway cross this off because being in a sorority means being super involved in college life. We’ll see what else I join.

Tell me in the comments what your goals are for this year? 

Thanks for reading!

Kylie

This week I will...

So I decided this morning that I want to start doing a weekly post on Sundays or Mondays where I write about my weekly goals and possibly cool things about the past week along with how I did on my goals for the previous week. I know it’s Tuesday, but I still want to do it this week. Since this is the week before I head back to school I have a couple school related goals.

Goal 1: Clean!

Since I’m leaving for school next week, I don’t want to leave my room a mess. It also really helps to have a clean room to pack because then you have room to put your boxes and you won’t forget anything. Plus, who would want to pack dirty clothes to school so make sure to do your laundry. I know I have a lot, I have clothes from the past week or so and then my new sheets and bedspread to wash so I can just put them on my bed when I get to school and make my room start feeling like home. I have the cutest bed spread this year so I’m really excited.

Goal 2: Pack!

I am terrified of forgetting something I desperately need at home when I drive back to school, although my parents will be coming down the weekend after or the weekend after that but still…I want my stuff. I have found that every time I pack to go somewhere such as camp, I always forget something. One year it was a hairbrush, another year it was my towel! I created a packing list to help so that nothing will be forgotten click here to view the blog post to get a copy of your own!

I will be going through the packing list and reorganizing stuff to fit the most amount of things in the least amount of space as possible. I will probably do a packing tips list within the next week.

Goal 3: Finish my book!

I have been reading Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson for a while now and I love it! But I don’t want it to come to school with me because I want my mom to be able to read it too. I also want to read the second and third and I can’t do that if I’m still on the first one! Plus I want to write a review on it so other people might read it and enjoy it too :)

Quote of the Week

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” 

                                               -Mark Twain

Thanks for reading! What are your goals this week?
Kylie

(Beginning title picture was made on piZap.com)

Back-to-College Packing

     I don’t know about you guys but I am excited to go back to school, I absolutely can’t wait. I’m starting a new major this year, I’m living in an awesome apartment style dorm, and I’m joining a lot of organizations this yearJ.  This is my second year of college and after living in a dorm last year, I have a better idea of the things that are needed and not needed. I also know how stressful it can be to have to pack up everything and move it to your school; so to help keep the stress down to a minimum I’ve made a packing list. I cannot live without lists, I make lists for everything! If I don’t have a packing list, whether it’s for a week-long trip somewhere or a year at college, I will forget something; it never fails (one year at camp I forgot a towel! It was terrible)! I have attached my packing list to this and it comes in two sizes: Letter paper and A5. This is a list of things I need and it may not be the same for you (I have my own kitchen and bathroom) so feel free to take away and add as you believe is needed. I hope you enjoy!

     Here are my top 10 college essentials and are in absolutely no particular order, look at the end for a full packing list!

1) Composition Book                             

These are a classic. I didn’t use them much until I got to college but they are amazing. For one they are super cheap so they won’t break your bank…especially if you’re a broke college student. I also realized that I don’t spiral notebooks because they ALWAYS break! Mine always wrap around each other or get caught on things in my bag or start unraveling and it drives me insane! I love that composition books don’t have that issue and they last forever. I have one that I have all my calc 1, 2 and soon to be 3 notes in one, science notes in another and will continue this trend. I also use washi tape to mark which composition books are for which class. It really helps when I am in a rush.

2) Command Hooks and strips

We can’t use nails, push-pins, double-stick tape or anything of that matter on our walls at my school so instead I use the line of command products. I love them, I use the hooks to hold my purses and anything that needs a hook to hang (maybe an extra towel?). I also use the plain strips to hang up any posters and pictures on my wall. I tried using the regular 1 lb. tested strips to hang everything up, but learned when one of my frames can crashing off of my wall and almost impaled my roommate that I needed something stronger to hold everything up. So I went and looked and found 4, 6, 8, 12, and 16 pound tested strips! I got the 16 lb. just to be safe, I didn't want something to come crashing down again. Everything stayed up really well after that :) .

3) Over the door hooks and closet organizers

Dorms do not come with much storage or space in general. These save space and provide more much needed storage. I like these over the door hooks that I got from target for 3 dollars! I plan on using one for scarves and one for my purses. Also those hanging closet organizers that act as shelves add more space to hold shoes, folded clothing, or anything you think you would want to put in it.

4) Planner

I cannot live without my planner! I have been using a planner for as long as I can remember. In my middle school and high schools they provided planners for us to use. I never liked them much though so I would go purchase my own from Target, Wal-Mart or Staples. When I went to college, I tried a new format: Monthly and weekly but the weekly had a time format. I liked that for a while but then I realized that it wasn't what I was looking for. So my Mom told me about this thing called a Filofax and after watching a billion YouTube videos about them I decided to give it a try and I love it! You can do so much to customize it and you can keep everything in one book, it’s a lifesaver!

5) Colorful pens and highlighters

I love color-coding, I mainly use color pens in my planner to easily see when I have tests, or what homework I have etc. I use highlighters to color-code my notes. For example, in my math classes I use Yellow to highlight the chapter number and title, blue for definitions and important stuff, pink for formulas, green for examples and orange to highlight homework problem; I then use a variation of that for every other class so it stays consistent. My favorite highlighters are the BIC ones, especially since their 5 pack with blue and green is widely available. I am also lusting over the Staedtler Triplus fine liner pens.

6) Rain Boots

My campus floods, not like feet of water but enough inches that if I walk to class without rain boots my feet get soaked. It’s miserable walking through cold rain and having cold feet all day. A cute pair will keep your feet warm and dry but are also very cute! I would love a pair of Hunter Rain Boots, but I just don’t have the cash to afford some. So I am going to have to settle for some cheaper rain boots. Do you know that it is nearly impossible to find plain black tall rain boots that aren't over 80 dollars? Ugh.

7)  Flash-Drives/External Hard-Drive

Things go wrong with computers, it’s inevitable! I have a 16 gb flash drive that I keep attached to my key chain/wallet organizer I got from Barnes and Noble for 6 dollars. I lost a flash drive last year that had everything from all my years of schooling since freshman year of high school! I was devastated L so to keep this from happening again I got one that attaches to my key chain so I won’t lose it again. Remember when we had floppy disks that only held like 128 mb of date

8) Reading Novels

I love books (as I’m sure you can tell from my previous posts) so having a lot of fun novels is a must for me. I read a lot during my free time at school and go through books like nobody’s business. I also always have one in my backpack in case a professor is late, I have off time between classes but not enough to go back to the dorm, or if I go eat and I’m alone. Seriously, this is one of the most important things for me.

9) Water bottle

I drink so much water at school. Well I should drink more, but I do carry a water bottle everywhere I go. It’s nice for class after walking across campus to class, after going to the gym, after eating snack in class (only if your professor is okay with food in the classroom) or eating at the commons. I like ones that have straws, I find that I drink more when I can just sit and drink through a straw, I can even drink while writing notes. Haha, but I can’t live without one; I lost mine a couple weeks ago and I’m dying without one.

10) Laptop

This is my most used item in school and out of school. I have a Lenovo y510p and I love it. It does all I need it to do and never runs out of space. It’s also super powerful so I can play all of my games (The Sims and Skyrim). Now you don’t need a super powerful, expensive laptop but I would definitely say a laptop is a must have. I take mine everywhere on campus (even though it weighs like 6 pounds) and I do everything on it. I also have a wireless mouse because the touchpad mouse’s can get annoying, a laptop fan, a case and a lock. Those aren't essential but are nice to have. 

Here are the two packing lists, since I can't actually upload the files the link will lead you to the Google drive .pdf document. If you want the original or the A5 size in Microsoft Word (any year), comment and I will send it to you via e-mail!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B76oPrrrCybxTjRicmcwemVvMUU/edit?usp=sharing

I hope you guys enjoyed this. What are some of you college/school essentials?

Thanks for reading!
Kylie