Junior Theme Part 5: The Writemare

As you can probably tell from the super creative title, I have now begun the process of compiling all of this info into comprehensible paragraphs. This has proven to be difficult, to say the least.

    My first section, on discrimination, is probably my best so far. This is mainly excuse I was young and full of hope. That hope has dwindled the further I have gotten into this paper. Now, I'm at the stage where I've gone "Screw it, I'll just type up whatever comes to mind and edit it later."

       And that is why I now have 10 pages of a train wreck to edit this week. I have to search for all my sources(which I haven't properly cited yet), write a conclusion, and also make my paper not look like crap. It's a tall order, but hopefully desperation will be my motivation.

Junior Theme Part 4: The Gathering

        So, I finally did manage to secure an interview with a woman that my mom had worked with on a woman's leadership seminar and she responded to my questions with not the best answers, but I did get a link to one of her powerpoints which was pretty helpful.
        Now, I have to start actually writing the paper. I'd categorized my information by cause, but as I began to write the intro, I realized that the answers to my "why" question were going to be a lot more complicated than I'd thought.
        I have now redone my intro a total of three times, and after I met with a teacher I decided to also change up the order of my paragraphs. I was originally going to focus on historical context first and then go to how that history related to the issues today, but I have now decided to talk about issue today first and then focus on history.
          I have so many piles of notes and articles that sometimes I get overwhelmed in trying to make a coherent paragraph out of them. I worry that I may be so overwhelmed with this draft that I won't get to do any others. I do type very quickly, which seems like it would be great for a paper like this, but really the speed of my fingers means that I make a crap ton of typos. One of my teachers was walking by today whilst I was typing and asked "Is that parseltongue?"
         Tune in next week to hear more complaints about writing this paper!

Junior Theme-Part 3: In Limbo and My Nemesis

        We are now entering the midpoint of my junior theme process. Just as a reminder, I have spent the last week or so researching the causes of the gender pay gap. I am currently in limbo, stuck between finding information and making that information into a paper. Honestly, this is a very overwhelming part of the process.

        First off, I now have to organize my numerous pages of notes and absurd amount of articles into a coherent thesis. I spent over an hour today just dividing up my research into topics, and I am now worried that I may actually have too much information.
       Furthermore, everyone in my class is also required to secure at least one interview with an expert on their subject. The interview can be done in any form possible. I have emailed five people at this point, and only one person has responded. Her answer was no.

      I am also feeling a bit pressured because I recently found out that another student in the class is doing, word for word, the same topic I am. And me, being a standard, insecure, high school girl, I feel the pressing need to do better than her. I will try not to flip a switch if my paper sucks, but I make no promises.

       Anyway, tune in next week for the exciting (read: anxiety inducing) process of writing the paper.

Junior Theme- Part Two: The Highlighting

I never really understood the point of highlighting when you could just write stuff down until I started this junior theme assignment. I always thought that highlighters were obnoxiously bright and totally pointless when it came to note taking and annotating. I thought that, until I ended up printing out several 20 plus page articles that were packed with full paragraphs in single spaced, 12-point, Times New Roman.

I realized that, in the context of the monstrous paper I would eventually create, it would be in my best interest to highlight all the necessary information and just come back to it later.
So, my last week has been full of neon pink ink and fine print, and I've actually gotten pretty far in finishing  most of my articles. They've got some good stuff in them, but sometimes I have to remember what my topic actually is, especially so that I don't end up highlighting everything and giving my future self an aneurysm.

I think I've run through these articles pretty fast, at least until I print out more. But, this is far from over. My next task? Taking notes on an entire book, which is probably what my next post will be about. Get excited!