SMARTass

As I sat down to my computer this morning to begin writing my economics paper (that is due next week), I realized I had no idea how to write an economics paper. Do you write it like an essay? Do you write it like a business plan? Should you indent your paragraphs? Questions flew through my mind at an impossible rate. My professor, of course, provided no guidance in the effort.

"15 pages maximum, 12 point font, 1" margins, double spaced, make sure you cover everything."

Hmmmm. Thank you so much for the guidance. I fly through a SMART analysis hoping that will help. SMART analysis is a tool I recently learned in my applied communications class. It stands for "Situation, Message, Audience, Response, Tools"

Situation: must apply economic principles to Inspect International. Message: I know what I'm talking about when it comes to economic principles. Audience: Professor. Response: Wow! She's smart! She gets an A! Tools: Some sort of organized paper.

Hmmm. Well, good to know the SMART analysis helped. So I google "econmics paper writing tips" thinking that maybe that would provide me with guidance. Of course two sources of information were reasonably helpful, but generally not. They say such helpfully vague things as "Be critical, arguments should be substantiated and logical..."

Yeah, sure, but how do you format? What categories do you want? What tone am I looking for?

It seems to me that this class (communications) has ruined my life. I can no longer aimlessly and thoughtlessly write my thoughts out in a paper and then make them concise (except, of course on my blog :P). I spend half the morning pondering the best way to present my information. This isn't to say that I didn't do this before - it is to say that it wasn't a cognitive decision making process prior to paper writing.

I don't know if I am miserable or thrilled. Quality of papers increase with time spent pondering them. The correlation is undeniable. My grades better increase with the quality and time spent or I'm going to be miffed. The problem is, that it's unlikely to occur that way. 80% of professors have no idea what goes into a well-designed, well-written paper consists of... they just want 12 point font, double spaced, one inch margins, no graphics.