advice

“Writer’s block.” Two dreaded words for any student, first year undergrads and PhD candidates alike. Most other problematic writing habits stem from writer’s block; procrastination is when you’ve convinced yourself that you will write something, just not yet. The timing isn’t right, or you don’t have enough time to get enough of your thoughts down, or you need to perform your pre-writing rituals like binge-watching The Wire or cleaning the kitchen. Everyone is different, but the problem remains the same. Where to begin?

An introduction to university writing

You have graduated from high school and been accepted to The University of Waterloo. Congratulations! As you begin your university studies you will encounter many kinds of writing assignments. To help get you started, here’s a brief guide to expectations for university-level writing.

Writing at university follows specific conventions

Stephen King’s On Writing is a great resource for anyone who wants to become a better writer. Although King’s memoir mainly targets fiction writers, I believe that many of his opinions on writing can be used by all writers. Whether you are writing a blog, co-op report, literature review, cover letter, etc., King’s tips about writing will be useful to you.

Here are four of King’s tips about writing that will help you and your writing process.

Sometimes I’m not in the mood to write, y’know? And when I’m not in the mood (when I’m lazy (all the time)), writing becomes a thousand times harder.

I bet you communicate with someone somehow every day without thinking too much about it.  You text your friends, call your parents, speak with people in class, and use many other forms of communication within your daily life.  However, when you go to email your prof to set up a meeting, or go to ask them a question after class I bet you are just a little nervous almost every time.  You make excuses for not asking your questions; you make your questions sound less important, less needed, or even down right dumb.  Most students make their questions seem unvalued or unreasonable: “I don’t want

I knock on a door and am greeted by Meghan Fuzzen, a PhD candidate in biology whose research focuses on determining the impact of treated wastewater on the reproductive health of fish in the Grand River.

Stress can be caused by many different situations, but it can also affect many different parts of your life.  For me personally, it affects my food habits the most; specifically what I am eating and how much I am eating.  This then cycles back to being more stressed out because I am hungry, not eating the right foods, and worried about possibly gaining or losing too much weight, while still having to do all the things that made me stressed out in the first place.

Often when I listen to podcasts, I find myself unfamiliar with some of the terminology being used. Even more often, I find myself forgetting them after I’ve looked them up in the dictionary.

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I’m probably not the only one with this problem, so how do I retain this information?

When someone hears mention of the 3 Rs they usually think of reduce, reuse, and recycle (I do at least).  Well, I am here to tell you that there is another list of Rs you should look into if you want to survive university!  The list consists of being reasonable, being responsible, and being rational.  If you do not like using schedules for organizing your time, these 3 words will help you manage your time and think through choices you have to make.

I’m sure you know the stressful feeling when midterms are either just around the corner or already happening.  As midterms come around the corner, it feels like students simultaneously take out their blinders, put them on and think “no distractions, only study”.  Everyone becomes machinelike; you feel as if you can read the notes someone else studied the night before because they are etched so deep into their brain that you can see it in their eyes.