Deadlines

1
Deadlines!

• Kick-off task for today!
• You work at a private weather company. For the
  last 3 (three) months, you have been working on a
  task to measure pollution levels at various
  locations in the county.
• It is now time to finish up the project and
  write the final report.
• You are now (on Feb 2, 2005) tasked with having
  the final report completely finished on May 2,
  2005.
• Construct a timeline of when you will have
  various phases of your writing project completed.
• P.S. You also have to decide on the phases!
• Take 10-15 minutes.
• Assume that you ALSO have to do all your regular
  work.

2
Deadlines!How to set them up and deal with them!

• Often a deadline is imposed for you.
• You might owe a term paper on March 1.
• Typical student approach pull an all-nighter
  and get it done in one sitting (starting at 10pm
  on Feb 28).
• Problems with this
• Youre dead the next day.
• You miss lectures.
• You may not have left enough time to write a good
  term paper, and it might be full of typos etc.

3

• Does this work once youre employed?
• NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  !!
• You HAVE to be at work at 8am AND you HAVE to be
  ALERT all day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Conclusion all-nighters are for college only
  (and younger people)(and software engineers in
  start-ups).
• SOwhen you know you have a deadline, you HAVE to
  PLAN FOR IT!
• Hopefully, you will have a reasonable deadline.

4

• Example
• You are required to write a literature review as
  part of this class.
• This is NOT just a list of papers.
• Each will have to be introduced and discussed.
• You will also have to discuss the relevance of
  each paper to your overall topic/theme.
• This task will take some time!

5

• This task will (with 99.9 certainty) NOT be done
  correctly the first time through!
• You will therefore have to create more than one
  draft of your lit review.
• How many drafts should you expect to write?
• How long will each take?
• How long a break should you take between each?

6
Sample schedule
7

• Bottom lineyou will have to get started much
  sooner than you think on a big writing project!
• In college, when you write a term paper you ALSO
  have to keep up with other classes, and maybe go
  to work.
• After college, youll be doing many of your
  normal work tasks in addition to writing.
• You have to find time to write!

8
How to get started -and keep going!

• Getting started is often the hardest part.
• Start with some kind of OUTLINE.
• A bulleted list of ideas.
• A diagram such as a flow chart.
• Something tape-recorded!
• Next week we will look at ideas for structure of
  the document.

9

• Once you have an outline, JUMP INTO THE EASIEST
  PART AND START WRITING.
• Once you have done some writing in your life,
  think about the following
• Is there a better time of day for you to write?
• Is there a best location?
• How can you make yourself clear your mind and
  your desk and desktop (remove distractions)?

10

• Once you have done some writing in your life,
  think about the following
• Is there a better time of day for you to write?
• Is there a best location?
• how can you make yourself clear your mind and
  your desk and desktop remove distractions!

11

• Writing a large thesis or technical report or
  funding proposal can seem overwhelming, so
• Jump in and start writing SOMEWHERE!
• Again start with something easy or fun.
• Once you are writing, keep these practices in
  mind
• Keep writing (relentlessly) for a certain period
  of time.
• Dont stop for improvements!
• Turn off the phone and close your door to avoid
  being interrupted.
• Its your flow of thoughts and ideas that gets
  interrupted!

12

• Pay ZERO ATTENTION to
• Spelling errors
• Grammatical errors
• Structural things like where paragraphs being or
  end.
• Adding in correct references etc.
• Just put something like This has been shown to
  be a significant factor (add ref) and keep
  going!
• Try writing without looking at the screen!
• Just brain-dump!
• Edit later!

13
A word about editing

• Some aspects of editing are the LAST thing we do!
• Why?
• Because these sections may not survive to the
  final version of the document!
• So why waste time?!
• Be cautious with the last statement when you
  write your stuff!

14
just do it!

• Practice jumping in and writing!
• Start writing NOW!
• Write 1-2 pages on the topic of Climate Change
  and CO2 levels.
• You can use the figure as a prompt (e.g., write
  around this figure).
• There is no correct answer here write for at
  least 15 minutes and then take 5 minutes to edit.
  
• Format
• 1 margins top/bottom/left/right.
• Double-spaced
• 12-point font

15
just do it!
http//www.worldviewofglobalwarming.org/pages/pale
oclimate.htm