This was the final of three. The big one. 25% of my grade dedicated all to this one essay. Seemed like a lot to me but who am I to say that. What I needed to do was write that paper the way I was writing the other ones. I was really satisfied with the grades I was getting so all I had to do was keep the trend going.

As I mentioned before, I couldn’t really get started right away. I couldn’t let the ideas flow instantly, which I didn’t like all too much but of course, it was for the better. I made the decision to keep the same community and issue for this essay as well, so all I needed to do before drafting was more research. This time, I needed to find sources that back my claim as well as go against it. It wasn’t just that though. I needed to go even deeper than that. I had to look for different types of sources. Regular articles, statistical sources, all kinds.

Once the research was over, the drafting could begin. At this point in the course, it came a lot easier to me. I’ve done it two times before where it mattered to my grade a decent amount so I was used to it. The difference this time however, was that this paper had double the word limit, increasing from 750-1000 to 1500-2000 words. I haven’t written a lot of long papers so I was wondering how I could get that many words down. The thing I didn’t realize is that we needed at least three sources. I had four, and that really helped get that word count up there, so I had that problem solved.

There were problems, and I knew I couldn’t avoid them. I became complacent. I’m not sure if my professor started expecting more from me because my grades were up there, or if I just didn’t produce. Or maybe I subconsciously don’t want to admit that I was slacking off, I’m not entirely sure. What I do know is that I got a grade I wasn’t happy with. It was one of those reminders every now and then to tell you, “hey you were doing great, don’t ruin it now!”

I needed that. That reminder to keep going, to not let up the pressure. I took your comments and tried to fix everything you mentioned. I took your advice, and then proceeded to read the whole essay and change everything that had something to do with your comment.

In some ways, this was the hardest essay of the three. Partially because of the weight it had on my grade, partially because of the need for good research, partially because of the word count, and also because of my complacency. The big one was the last one, but with the reminder from my professor via a mediocre grade, I got back on track and wrote what I hope to be another successful paper.