I Need a Stapler! It's an Emergency - Essentials for Academic Happiness
Jun 14 '00 (Updated Jun 16 '01)
The Bottom Line My goal in writing this epinion is to provide you with what I believe to be the essentials for that most time-consuming of tasks -– writing a research paper.
You've been dreaming about it from the moment you got the acceptance letter: being on your own. No longer will you need to share the bathroom with a sister who has been in there since 1992. You can enjoy having space from your family. Then, you arrive at school and realize that you have no space. You will be spending four years of your life in, what is essentially, a cubicle. Not exactly what you expected. Where will you fit your first-edition, leather-bound collection of the works of Shakespeare?
There are many epinions on what to bring with you to college. My goal in writing this epinion is to provide you with what I believe to be the essentials for that most time-consuming, headache-inducing task of all -– writing a research paper.
Computer Age
The majority (though not all) of college students will bring a computer with them to college. So much of college is writing papers, that neglecting the computer basics will only cause you stress (and a very necessary trip to your nearest open-all-night drugstore).
Printer Cartridges
You never think about your printer cartridge, do you? However, this very neglected printer component will become the center of your universe if you run out of ink at 3am and your paper is only half-printed. So, to avoid faking a coma in order to get an extension, always have extra cartridges on hand. At the beginning of the school year, bring three printer cartridges (not including the one already in your printer) with you. Then, periodically, check to ensure that you have at least one extra cartridge. If you don't, go out and get a new one immediately. You won't regret it and you can save the coma ploy for a more important occasion.
Printer Paper
You can never have enough printer paper. Never. You will spend the majority of your four years printing something (a paper, a lab report, a fake transcript for your parents). For this reason alone, I have a continuing appreciation for Staples, the Office Superstore and Office, the other Office Superstore. They sell plain white printer paper in cartons. One carton should last you a year-and-a-half to two years. Avoid getting the paper that has sheets attached together. First, it is a major pain to tear off the sheets and, two, the paper is usually of poor quality and not worth the back strain. Get a carton. You’ll thank me later.
Floppy Disks
Unless you have a laptop, you will be splitting your time between your dorm room and the computer lab. When inspiration (or desperation) strikes and you need to continue some of your work outside of your own computer, you will need to have a floppy disk handy. Have a box in your room and a spare one or two in your backpack for emergencies. (If you are in the computer lab and you are without a disk, just send your work as an attachment from your school account to your personal account or, if your dorm computer is part of the school’s network, just send an email to your school account.) Also, computers do experience moments of, um, difficulty. If you have saved all your information on your hard drive, you may have lost all that work you put into your paper. So continually back up your information.
Judge a Book – Read Its Cover
Your college library is an amazing resource and one that will serve you well. However, you should have you own personal library so that you can avoid going to the library just to look up minatory (my personal favorite word after Luddite).
Dictionary
Yes, I know. If you want to look up a word or check its spelling, you can use one of the online dictionaries. That’s great if you want to be online all night just so you can check that definition. However, the Luddite in me (I knew I would eventually get to use that word in an epinion) believes that there is nothing better than have a solid dictionary at your fingertips. Being the eternally bizarre person that I am, I actually have a favorite dictionary - The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. This is an extraordinary dictionary. This is as comprehensive as a dictionary can get outside of a library. As usual, comprehensive means expensive. Though not many people consider spending $35 to $45 on a reference, I would highly recommend it. You will have this dictionary for years.
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (Fifth Edition – the most recent version) by Joseph Gibaldi
For many entering college students, writing a research paper is new territory for them. So much of their high school years were spent regurgitating textbook information for multiple-choice tests that they never had the opportunity to develop this important skill. This where MLA comes. MLA takes you through the process of writing a research paper- from developing the topic to writing the bibliography. The book is highly detailed and develops each step of the process meticulously. The section that was of the greatest use to me was the section on writing the bibliography. If you think that all you need to write down is the name of the author and the title of the book, you are in for a really big surprise. There is even a special way to cite a web page as a source. Never has writing been so, uh, detailed.
Miscellaneous
I Need a Stapler. It’s an Emergency!
No one ever has a stapler when you need one. It’s a rule of human behavior, so don’t say I didn’t warn you. For your sanity, have two staplers – one for your room and a miniature one for your backpack. It sounds like such a simple, mundane thing. However, you don’t know desperation until you had to run from the computer lab (ten minutes before class) up to the professors’ offices, looking for an open door and a stapler. It sounds funny but never in my life has something so minor meant so much. Avoid my humiliation (for it is a pain that never leaves) and always have a stapler.
Time’s Up. Please Pass Your Papers Forward
Writing a paper is a time-consuming process. But that first paper is always the one that causes you the greatest anxiety, no matter your experience. Hopefully, with the help of this epinion, you can focus on the paper itself instead of trying to figure out where to buy a printer cartridge for an HP DeskJet at 4 o’clock in the morning.
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Epinions.com ID:
nylawgirl
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Location: New York, NY
Reviews written: 38
Trusted by: 129 members
About Me:
Giving my unsolicited opinion since October 1977. Being paid for it since April 2000.
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