Drafting the Assignment

The easiest way to remember what your paper is arguing is to have your thesis statement written down on a post-it that you can stick to the side of your computer or on your writing station for quick reference. The thesis is what drives the whole paper; it is the thing that will keep you on task and prevent you from sliding off topic. With each new paragraph, check in with your thesis. Does the new line of thought match up to what you're supposed to be arguing? Are you still trying to prove your ultimate claim or have you deviated? Check in with the thesis often, and you will help cut down on the need to remove pieces of your paper later.

Sometimes breaking the argument down across multiple documents can help (a.) maintain focus on the smaller topics as you develop them and (b.) trick your brain into thinking that you have done more work in a shorter window.

Technically, this falls into the above category, but it is more about maintaining your morale while you're writing. By not deleting anything, you are basically making a list of possible information that you might still need at some point while you're writing. The set aside information may ultimately be useless, but that's fine too. As long as you don't delete it, you don't feel like you are purposely shorting yourself in your own writing.

While it might seem counterproductive, changing the spacing of your document from double-space to single-space can help remove some of the anxiety regarding the ultimate length of the paper. How long does the document need to be? 5 pages? 10? 20? Well, if you start working on a single-spaced document and write ten pages, once you change the document to double-space, you have a twenty-page paper.