In Freshman English, I sat next to a kid named, tragically, Sebastian. Living up to his name and his parents’ expectations, he was a pretty quirky kid. For example, Sebastian told me, in no uncertain terms, that he was going to write every one of his class papers on pizza.
I thought he was joking; this was college, after all. At least, I did until he turned in his first paper: “Pizza – The Metaphor Of Modernization”. Sebastian went on to write paper after paper about pizza. He argued various pizza styles, used toppings as metaphors, even wrote a thorough review of “Pizza Making – The Sport.”
Even more stunning than his bravery, was Sebastian’s grade – a solid A+. This was in college. They don’t exactly hand out A+’s. I was in awe. Seeing as I was facing a probably C, I asked Sebastian to teach me his skills. So, he taught me his 3 not-so-simple tricks for getting an A+ paper in college:
1 – Creativity
Apparently, professors read a lot of papers. To their sorrow, most students write the same thing in very similar words. This isn’t because they all think the same, but because they are afraid to say it differently. Sebastian told me that he got A’s on his papers, simply because he wrote about pizza. It was something different. Sure, sometimes he had to stretch to make the logic fit, but that only made it seem more clever. Apparently, he actually had to understand what post-modernism was, in order to make a pizza recipe that would describe it. Even better, even if his logic wasn’t sound, the professor was still going to give him credit for simply brightening his day.
2 – Outlines
We’ve all made them for class. Let’s not pretend we don’t know how they work. Theoretically, they should make visual the way our ideas fit together. If only they didn’t look like a bunch of randomly types bullets. It turned out, that Sebastian was a fan out the outline. He thought out every paper – he drew pictures on pizza boxes, he made special pizzas to demonstrate, he drew Hangman-type diagrams. In fact, although he outlined extensively, none of his outlines fit in word perfect. They were often single ideas connected with lines, or written in recipe form, or written on cards that he dealt out in a Tarot pattern. The trick was, he made outlines work for him. Find an outline that works for you, and it will help you organize your paper to sound brilliant.
3 – Writing Centers and Revision
Your professor has probably talked about the writing centers. You may have even tried to get some of the hot librarian seniors who staff it to go out with you. You can get a lot more than a hot date out of those centers. If you are really devoted to getting a top grade on a paper, writing centers can be a lifeline. It isn’t just that they are people who really understand the complexities of grammar and the weirdness of the English language. They are also a second pair of eyes. After all, your connection between Pepperoni and Freud may seem airtight to you, but may make no sense to anyone else. Getting another set of eyes on that paper before your professor’s, gives you a chance to polish things up.
Of course, that won’t work if you leave your paper till the last minute, and write it overnight. Then again, you weren’t really expecting to get an A on a paper like that, were you?
About the author: Kathryn is a writer for MyCollegesandCareers.com. My Colleges and Careers, a site for you to help you choose the best online master’s degree programs for what you need.