2/2/05lecture031 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, 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 minutes. Assume that you ALSO have to do all your “regular work”.

2/2/05lecture032 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: You’re 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.

2/2/05lecture033 Does this work once you’re 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). SO…when you know you have a deadline, you HAVE to PLAN FOR IT! Hopefully, you will have a “reasonable” deadline.

2/2/05lecture034 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!

2/2/05lecture035 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?

2/2/05lecture036 Sample schedule Turn it in!May 22 weeks for final fixes Have final draft written April 182 weeks for minor revisions, fix figures, get bibliography done etc. Complete 2 nd draft April 42 weeks for major revisions INCLUDING reading by faculty. Complete 1 st draft March 21 2 weeks to write 1 st draft? Might not be enough time. Start writingMar 7

2/2/05lecture037 Bottom line…you 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, you’ll be doing many of your normal work tasks in addition to writing. You have to find time to write!

2/2/05lecture038 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.

2/2/05lecture039 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)?

2/2/05lecture0310 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!

2/2/05lecture0311 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. Don’t stop for improvements! Turn off the phone and close your door to avoid being interrupted. It’s your flow of thoughts and ideas that gets interrupted!

2/2/05lecture0312 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!

2/2/05lecture0313 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!

2/2/05lecture0314 “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

2/2/05lecture0315 “just do it!”