Lecture 10: You, two, can be a A stoodent…

    Hints to help you get the most out of your time at the University of Ottawa:

       Read your assignments carefully

—  Don’t do any assignment without a trip to the library, preferably in person

—  Don’t rely on spell check

—  Don’t leave things to the last minute

—  Don’t try to do an assignment, even a short one, in one sitting.

—  Show up for class. You simply cannot do well in this course unless you actually show up.

—  Budget your time.

—  Get your priorities straight. Do you really want to be a university student?

—  Develop a work-life balance as quickly as possible. That means getting enough sleep, eating right, and avoiding time-wasters.

—  A simple way to do this is to devote your days to school work – a full six to eight hours – with evenings and probably most weekends off.

—  That means finding a quiet place to read, study, think and write.

—  Let yourself be creative. Take intellectual risks but be prepared to explain how you came to conclusions.

—  When in doubt, ask for help.

—  If you have trouble writing, take advantage of the Writing Centre. After all, you’re paying for it.

—  If you were smart enough to get in here, you’re smart enough to get out with a degree.

—  Have someone read your work oner. No one can be their own editor.

—  Really put some time and effort into your work. It always shows in the finished product.

—  Watch for both big and small mistakes.

—  There’s no excuse for spelling names wrong – especially when it’s done all the way through the paper.

—  Try to actually think about what you are doing. Come up with some ideas.

—  But when you do draw conclusions, back them up.

—  Use common sense. Remember the idea of the dog that doesn’t bark, i.e. the idea that St. Ignace was easily captured, yet 10 Iroquois warriors are dead.

—  Try to remember that people in the past were real, with feelings and motivations – along with strengths and weaknesses – like ours.

—  There’s no such thing as a dumb question. Seriously, if you don’t understand something, please ask.

—  Feel free to ask questions in class. We’re going through a huge amount of material in a very small time and many people will have questions.

—  If you find yourself falling behind, let me do what I can to help you out.

—  The university has support for just about every kind of problem you can think of – financial, writing, research, legal. As long as you’re willing to try, you can get whatever help you need.

—  Try to finish your assignment a few days early, then let it sit for a while and re-read it. You’ll be amazed at what you will find.

—  Read the comments on your paper.

—  If you got a D, you better see me today or next Friday, or make an appointment.

 Some common problems:

—  $50 words/jargon attempts

—  Using words that sound like other words so make it through spell check

—  Names and dates

—  Bias/biased

—  Who’s – whose

—  There-their-they’re

—  “Huronian” (check proper names)

—  Semi-colons

—  Commas

—  Apostrophes – huge problem

—  Lazy titles, bad puns, and titles that have nothing to do with the actual material

—  Papers that were far too short

—  People writing essays saying Edna Kenyon wrote the Jesuit Relations. (Careless reading of the question, which can make the entire effort an embarrassing waste of time and result in tears for both of us.)

—  Inconsistent usage – i.e. “Church” in some paragraphs, “church” in others, use of “Catholic” and “catholic”.