Theme: Plan constructing. Writing data in different modes

A STRATEGY FOR TIME MANAGEMENT

Murphy’s Law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, at the most inconvenient time, and in the most inconvenient place.

Most of you have been studying at the IELTE for four years, and your qualification paper is your final assignment. As an American might say, this assignment is “for all of the marbles”: in other words, if you complete this assignment successfully, you getyour baccalaureate degree and your four years of work will have paid off; if you do not complete it, well . . . .

When the second sememster begins in February, you will have only one assignment to work on, and this assignment is the most important one you have ever had while studying at the IELTE. You will be working exclusively on this research paper for about three and a half months, and you must be prepared to give it your total attention—from early February through the middle of May, almost nothing should
be more important to you. This project will require much time and hard work, and you will get tired and want to take a break—don’t. Anyone can work hard for three and a half months, and you can rest as much as you like when your paper is finished. The schedule allows enough time for you to complete your paper, but if you start missing deadlines, you will quickly fall behind.
Be sure that you meet every deadline. Twenty percent of your grade is for submitting the various sections of your paper on time. But if you miss deadlines, there are consequences more serious than seeing your grade go down. First of all, your supervisor will be giving you feedback on the various sections of your paper as you write them, and she or he needs time to evaluate your work. Your supervisor is a very busy person, and if you submit a section of your paper late, your supervisor is not going to be happy. Worse still, she or he may have little or no time to give you feedback. So, when you submit your work on time, you are helping your supervisor help you. Second, if you don’t submit your work on time, you can’t expect your supervisor to return your work, with feedback, on the scheduled return date. This delay, of course, will probably mean that you will have less time to work on the current or subsequent section(s).


Make the most of the time you have. One thing in life is certain—time goes by. There will be times during the term when your supervisor has your first draft of a section of your paper: don’t just sit and wait for your supervisor to return it—work on some other part of your paper or make necessary preparations. Here are some suggestions as to how you might make the best use of your time:
Feb. 3 Your supervisor gets the first draft of your Literature Review and Bibliography and has them until Feb. 10.