Need help ASAP on paper.

[Waterstiller]

I was supposed to graduate last Spring, but the paper I had turned in for my History seminar was shit. It was one of the rougher patches in my life, but I still had managed to do rather well and thought I'd be graduating. Unfortunately, the professor ended up not liking my paper so much that she was going to give me an F. I persuaded her to give me an incomplete so that I could get my shit together. I was supposed to have done the paper by mid August.

I've been unable to do it. Technically, I've got till the end of this quarter (this week) to change an incomplete before it turns to an F. I haven't had the guts to contact the professor, however. It has been tearing me up that I can't write the damned thing.

It's truly a herculean feat for an INTP, too. I didn't even want to take the class; I was more interested in History of Science, but my school wasn't offering a minor in History of Science and so I had to do European History which I ABHOR but had already taken my share of classes. It was supposed to be one last push.

The particulars: ESTJ professor, 25 pages, based solely on primary texts, the text is Leonardo's notebooks. It's open-ended. My previous paper was written in a rush, and I had written 75 pages total during the final week of school. It was 5 pages short and she despised it, saying I could do better. She gave me a B+ in another class I had her in.

My question to you is how should I approach this? I am completely lost.

How do I get through 25 fucking pages? What argument could I possibly stretch to that length? What would you find interesting in Leonardo's notebooks? Anything that I could back up with great detail that wouldn't go extremely out of line with a traditional view of Leonardo (estj prof)?

If you can't think of anything, please motivate me. I'm on the fence as to whether or not I want to live, and the whole notion of doing this and not getting a job because A) the economy and B) me being a tranny is really putting me off.

 

[Auburn]

Waterstiller, I can't pretend to know anything about the subject, but I have no doubt you can do this. We INTPs can talk for days straight (it seems) if just the right question is asked, or if the right topic is poked. I'm sure that with your insight you can find an impressive pov that is rarely considered by the majority and elaborate as much as possible.

I'm on the fence as to whether or not I want to live, and the whole notion of doing this and not getting a job because A) the economy and B) me being a tranny is really putting me off.

Hang in there! you're part of the family here, remember? There are people here who sincerely care about you.

 

[flow]

Try to break the paper into 5 arguments (1 per 5 pages) maybe? Figure out a way to break it down so that each portion of the paper is feasible. Papers are seriously my worst area as a student. I've had to write nearly 100 pages in papers this semester (usually no more than 8 at a time). I've never written anything longer than 10 though, and I've dropped every class that requires me to. I'm a terribly under-motivated writer, I don't start until the night before/morning of. And usually what I turn in is rushed and worthy of only a C. I'm just trying to get my BA and get the hell out of here (college).

GODSPEED.

 

[EloquentBohemian]

Though I have links to his notebooks and have perused some of them on occasion, I'm not familiar with them enough to make any comments.
The only thing which stuck in my mind is that he wrote them with his left hand, which was also his drawing hand, and from right to left. I always wondered if he was painting at the same time with his right hand.

Here are a couple of links with others people's thoughts on his notebooks which may trigger some inspiration.
http://www.bl.uk/ttp2/ttpleofacts.html
http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/roller/D100/entry/jessica

 

[Ogion]

If you can use your original verson: Try adding some definitions of terms you use, reference that with some sources. Perhaps in a introduction to the times or region in question. Perhaps you can tell some things extra about the present status of research to the topic. Maybe there is some argument between researchers and you can elabourate on that a bit, showing the different sides...

I'm sorry to not be able to offer advice concerning that actual topic, but maybe these structural ideas can get you a fwe pages...

We'll be here to help you as we can.

Ogion

EDIT: BTW, you are talking about Leonardo da Vinci?

 

[Waterstiller]

If you can use your original verson: Try adding some definitions of terms you use, reference that with some sources. Perhaps in a introduction to the times or region in question. Perhaps you can tell some things extra about the present status of research to the topic. Maybe there is some argument between researchers and you can elabourate on that a bit, showing the different sides...

I'm sorry to not be able to offer advice concerning that actual topic, but maybe these structural ideas can get you a fwe pages...

We'll be here to help you as we can.

Ogion

That was part of the problem and why this whole thing is so damned frustrating. She initially got mad at me for using other sources and giving background on Leonardo's family and personal history, as well as the environment and his patrons. It's supposed to be 100% based on the primary source and she'll be pissed if I even spend a paragraph outside of that.

I really like the idea of 5 separate mini arguments; perhaps I could try to pick an overarching theme and have 5 separate areas. I was especially fascinated that the majority of Leonardo's fables involved different types of trees; he really did give them a personality far more than he gave the animals in his fables. Part of me wants to center the paper around him being iNtuitive and citing evidence for that, but I am deathly afraid that my Sensing professor just won't get it. Even despite her Ne because I might be seeing patterns far outside the norm.

Keep it coming guys! Anything helps. I'm already a little more motivated.


(Yes; Leonardo da Vinci.)

 

[Ogion]

Oh, solely primary sources, huh? That's not nice. Maybe some images, graphs or something like that? I know, it's acheap method of gaining pages, some profs like it (here in my geography they swear to it^^) some don't. I am guessing your don't though.

When i have an idea i will post again

Ogion

 

[LucasM]

Mainly, what question are you trying to address here with your essay? If you don't fully understand your scope, how can you write about it. Leonardo's notebooks seems kinda vague. Maybe it is just a summary?
Anyways, the fact that Leonardo gave trees personalities is interesting. I like to do that too, but when I told someone, he thought I was a total nutcase, though he didn't out and out say it. Maybe write how the notes reflect his personality?

 

[eudemonia]

This is just a quick thought Waterstiller. You seem to have identified a theme in his notebooks and I'm sure you can write about that, pulling out all the references and noting how he uses language with reference to that theme (perhaps contrasting it to the way he uses language in other parts of the notebooks). Can you identity any other themes that emerge in the notebooks. I don't know anything about him so can't help you there. If you could pick out a number of different themes (content e.g. trees, language - does he use particular metaphors, images, words a lot) you could analyse those in detail and maybe draw links between them.

I would confirm that the 5 arguments, with linkages between the them maybe, is a good idea. A lot of this depends on planning what you want to say first and then once you've done the thinking and structure just sitting down and doing it. If you don't know what you want to say, when you start writing you'll become stressed and then you won't be able to think straight.

Good luck.

 

[Jordan~]

Use filler words and unnecessary subordinate clauses and parentheses that include details that are only vaguely relevant, like:
"(at which time, he - having ..., with ... having been ... - was ... in ... [a ... in ..., where he had ...] for ...)"

 

[EditorOne]

Strive for clarity with the themes. Yeah, useless advice, but do this: Spend a LOT of time making sure you have an actual premise for each of those themes. If you clarify to your own logical, thinking satisfaction what each theme is, by reducing it to one short, cogent paragraph of three or four sentences, you'll find the rest of it flows naturally and quickly.

This is not advice in a vacuum. As a newspaper editor I've learned that the identification of a concise premise is the key to being able to write cogent, focused stories, and teaching others to do that is pretty much the core of my job.

(Premise = basis of argument or inference)

Premise for an endless series of stories starting in 2001: "Home financing fraud in the Poconos is fueled by the ability of unscrupulous marketers to sell mortgages they know won't be paid to government supported entities they know won't check." That paragraph has never appeared in any of the scores of stories we've written, at least not like that, but it's the operating premise. Ditto for what you come up with. It may not make it into your paper as its own set of words, but it will inform everything that follows.

Hope that helps.

If it doesn't, let me tell you that 38 years later I am still regretting not turning in the final paper for a semester of independent study. Do it, pay the price you have to pay to deal with ESTJs and other Muggles, and get on with the rest of your life. Just trust me on this, you're getting some very expensively obtained insight based on infinitely painful experience.

 

[FusionKnight]

If it doesn't, let me tell you that 38 years later I am still regretting not turning in the final paper for a semester of independent study. Do it, pay the price you have to pay to deal with ESTJs and other Muggles, and get on with the rest of your life. Just trust me on this, you're getting some very expensively obtained insight based on infinitely painful experience.

I'll second that. Probably the most valuable experience I had while in college was almost flunking out, twice. As ashamed of that time of my life as I am, it forced growth, and may have prevented a more serious and expensive (both psychologically and economically) problem further down the road.

 

[Ogion]

Hey Editor, you're still here...

I agree, that is good advice.

Ogion

 

[EditorOne]

Still here. Sometimes I have to stop and do actual work.

 

[EloquentBohemian]

Still here. Sometimes I have to stop and do actual work.

STOP THAT!!

Yur not s'posed to be doin' work while havin' fun and expandin' yur ability to procratinate!!

(...work is a 4 letter word)

 

[Agent Intellect]

another good filler is asking questions in the essay, and then proceeding to answer them. my teachers in high school ate that up. making lots of analogies helps too (and so does using parentheses, but thats already been mentioned).

 

[Waterstiller]

I worked up the courage to ask the prof if I could still turn in the paper and she said yes. I've a LONG day ahead of me today. But much shorter than it would have been thanks to the advice received on this thread. Thanks guys! Especially EditorOne.

I'm going to use the paper to understand Leonardo's personality (not type) through characteristics. So, really, I'm in the clear as to whatever I come up with as long as I can support the characteristics I attribute to him. And there's more than enough for 25 pages. I figured I might as well use what I've actually been studying and reading up on for the past couple months.

What I'm going to use as a guide:
http://www.geocities.com/lifexplore/mbintro.htm

 

[Waterstiller]

I just turned it in. The professor's in italy so hopefully she'll be able to turn my Incomplete into a B+ (I'm confident I did well) by Thursday or else I can't change it!

Seriously, thank you guys. <3

 

[EloquentBohemian]

Fingers are crossed!

 

[Ogion]

Fingers are crossed!

Seconded

Ogion

 

[Waterstiller]

I got an A.

There's no stopping an INTP when they actually try, I swear.

 

[NoID10ts]

Congratulations! That has to be a major relief.

 

[EloquentBohemian]

Damn excellent!!

 

[FusionKnight]

Nice! GJ!

 

[Decaf]

Congrats WS!

 

[Waterstiller]

Thanks guys. Seriously though, I couldn't have done it without you. You helped give me structure and direction that I wouldn't have had. EditorOne's advice enabled me to be extremely coherent; I feel like I could write a book now.

 

[Da Blob]

CHEAT !
Imitation is the highest form of flattery. Find some essays that others have already written. Cut and Paste' the best paragraphs unto an outline. Then just rewrite everything using your own words from your own perspective.
You don't have to be creative (if you don't want be)
You don't have to research
You don't have to be particularly original (a difficult task even if you tried)
You don't have to stress

 

[Waterstiller]

I'd never be able to do that. I did it once in high school and ended up not turning it in. I think it'd be a lot more stressful. It's easy to tell if something has been written by another (even modified) due to differences in coherence and argument selection. Papers are personal. Modification would be really difficult and painstaking work, if done properly. Finding a good essay to rip off of might be more difficult than just flipping through some actual references. In the age of being able to search through google books, cheating seems counterproductive.

I wouldn't trust another person to write a decent essay, and often professors will ask specific questions that are rarely (if ever) covered in other classes. All the references would be off target and it would be quite odd to simply not use more appropriate ones. Why trust that someone else knows what they're doing anyways? I wouldn't cheat off another professor if I were able to; most of the time I tend to think they're off in their perceptions.

And the biggest reason? I have a conscience when it comes to cheating; truth above all things. If I'm going to put my name on any piece of work, it must be my own work. And if I'm going to be kicked out of school, it would be for getting crappy grades and not plagiarism. One is considerably more admirable than the other. But that's just me.

 

[EloquentBohemian]

It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. - Herman Melville

Originality is not seen in single words or even sentences. Originality is the sum total of a man's thinking or his writing. - Isaac Bashevis Singer

Originality does not consist in saying what no one has ever said before, but in saying exactly what you think yourself. - James Stephens

Originality implies being bold enough to go beyond accepted norms. - Anthony Storr

Congatulations again on your achievment, Waterstiller.

 

[Da Blob]

My apologies, I was making a hyperbolic statement, when I suggested "Cheating'. What I meant to say (which was not heard) is that for 'busy work' projects which I could not feel enthusiastic about I developed a "quick and dirty' operating system to deal with onerous tasks...
I was not suggesting plagiarism, which would be unethical. My method was simply to organize Others' interesting thoughts on a topic into a "Thread", an outline - then I would just run down the thread responding with my own thoughts...
After all, if one had to write a paper on Shakespeare, after 400 years what remains unsaid? Sometimes, originality is a very difficult goal to attain...

 

[Ogion]

Hey, nice, congrats. I had a similar experience last semester. I wrote a paper of some 15 pages and though it to be really bad, but guess what? I got the best grade of the whole course. The problem though is, that i still consider it bad and think that probably the professor just applied low standards to meet

Ogion

 

[Waterstiller]

Hey, nice, congrats. I had a similar experience last semester. I wrote a paper of some 15 pages and though it to be really bad, but guess what? I got the best grade of the whole course. The problem though is, that i still consider it bad and think that probably the professor just applied low standards to meet

Ogion

Then I should hope that you always try to live up to your own standards and never try to work within theirs. In the least it might net you a nice GPA.

I want to go back to school now.

 

[Ogion]

I shall hope that i do
(Had to look GPA up )

Why do you want to go back to school? (Just to prevent misunderstandings: School as in kids and stuff, not university? I always get confused with the american words for all these things, because coming from German, there are quite some false friends in this. Student in german is a student at university, but student in English does not have to be one at university, but can be at school too. Then "Universität" is german for university, though college is also used, which in spanish means school... )

Ogion