Welcome to a special episode of College Focus. Today we welcome several highly successful college students to share some of their practice advice and secrets of academic success. Enjoy!

College Focus Podcast

From Black Dog Scholars LLC

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Podcast #15 How to Step Away and Refresh

Ahh, welcome to winter break. I love this time of year. I love the rhythm of the academic year—working intensively for months followed by a clean break for a few weeks. Today we are going to talk about how to really refresh yourself.

There are four key points in refreshing yourself after difficult, challenging, competitive work.

First, it’s time to get some sleep. Your best sleep comes when you go to bed at the same time each day and get up at roughly the same time. The quality of your sleep is not the same as the quantity of it. If you fall asleep at 3 a.m. and get up around 10 a.m., you will not have the same quality of sleep as you will if you fall asleep around 11 p.m. and wake up around 7 or 8 a.m. Yes, you need hours, but you also need to stop fighting your circadian rhythms which regulate many aspects of your body such as hormones. Set yourself up for deep sleep. Keep the room cold, but have plenty of blankets so you are warm. The cold air, warm body will set you up for hours of good sleep.

Next, it is time to physically move. Go outside, even in the cold, and take a walk. Wake up your senses and enjoy the holiday lights. I am a huge fan of snow and one of the things I love is how a fresh snowfall deadens the sound, making everything quiet. If you want to hit the gym, don’t wait for January 1st, go now. Play with dogs, run a race, go Christmas caroling. Get outside and get moving. Set up a schedule that does not feel like punishment – end your day with a walk outside; hit the gym for just 30 minutes right at noon each day. Remember, you are not punishing yourself; you are rewarding yourself.

Another important way to refresh: connect with human beings personally and in real time. Yes, we are still dealing with COVID right now, but you can figure this out. Call a friend and speak to them; don’t text. Invite a friend out for coffee. Get together and go out for breakfast. Go for a walk. Make dessert and bring it to a friend. Just because we need to avoid large crowds doesn’t mean we cannot find ways to meaningfully connect. Rekindle those friendships that faded when you were so busy or strained with the pandemic. Don’t forget the older generation. Who is your favorite aunt or uncle? Is it time to reach out to a grandparent? If you live far apart, pick up the phone and call. Write a short note and mail it. You need genuine communication to build and maintain relationships. Invest in it.

Finally, help your fellow human. There is no refreshment like the feeling you get when you help someone else. What random act of kindness can you do? Can you write a short compliment and slide it under someone’s door? Can you volunteer somewhere? Does a neighbor need a little help? Many communities have an online list of organizations that are looking for help. Do you have older neighbors in your building or street that could use a little assistance – a trip to the store, a light bulb changed, the floor vacuumed. Are you going to the store? Grab a few extra items and drop them off at the food pantry or community center. There are needs all around you – you just have to lift your eyes.

These are some new things and new habits to invite into your life over winter break. Here’s one way to find more time and more peace – let go of social media. You don’t need to know what other people are doing. You need to focus on the people in front of you. You will find more peace and more energy that way.

I wish you a peaceful and refreshing winter break. Merry Christmas.

Copyright 2021. All rights reserved.

In this episode, we welcome our guest Nathan into the studio to share his incredible story of how he built rich and lasting relationships with his college professors that have fundamentally shaped his college experience. Enjoy!

Want more ways to write fast? Click this link.

#13 Write Fast: Introductions

The single most difficult part of writing a paper is writing the introduction. In part this is true because the best introductions are written AFTER the body of the paper is written. You’ve explored the ideas fully and now you are ready to write the intro.

However, most students don’t take that road. So if you find yourself dreading starting that paper, here is a way to go from blank page to finished intro in fifteen minutes.

Develop a couple of go-to patterns for your paragraph and use them. Instead of starting with nothing, you will start by using a pattern for a solid paragraph.

Do not begin with an “attention-getter.” This is so sixth grade and it brings to mind disastrous missteps of prose. Instead, set the scene. Here are three ways you can set the scene for your reader.

#1 – The Essential Issue.

Many courses are organized around an essential question or several essential questions that drive the readings, the discussion, the assignments. What are the essential questions for your course? Turn one of those questions into a statement like this:

Every modern civilization has struggled to reconcile safety with freedom. The more citizens have of one, the less it seems they have of the other.

Look for the pivotal controversy, conflict, mystery, or problem your course returns to again and again and you will find an idea to use as your essential issue statement.

#2—Context

Context means the historical, economic, societal, religious, political, and/or scientific situation that is present. Identify what else was or is going on as your topic arises. Again, paint the picture. Don’t begin with dawn of time (unless your course begins there). Instead, give us the wide-angle lens view of the general situation. Where can you get a sense of the larger context? Look at the introduction to your textbook or look at your course syllabus.

#3—The Situation Vignette

Set the scene with just a bit of creative writing. This works best for political science, history, or sociology papers or similar courses. Start by thinking of a situation – could be true but it could also be a hypothetical – and write it in a way where you use sensory detail. The situation should be something that illustrates an idea in your paper. Now this takes a bit of writing technique – you have to move smoothly from narrative into academic prose, so it is not for a beginner writer.

If you would like examples of these and my absolute #1 favorite way to start an introduction, look in the show notes for this link, click it, give us your email, and we will send my FAVORITE introduction pattern to your inbox immediately.

Now, here are two things to avoid at all costs. Never use a rhetorical question. These are best left to master writers. It always sounds contrived and amateurish. Every writing teacher has nightmare stories of rhetorical question introductions gone wrong.

Also, never start with a quotation. You know, the old “Plato once said . . .” Your quotes are for evidence. If you want to use a quote from someone else –say a favorite poet or thinker – that is better for the start of a chapter of a book, rather than a standard academic paper. Again, it can feel contrived and out of place. Worse, it becomes a crutch. You could weave such a quotation into your conclusion toward the end, but definitely not at the start of your paper.

Once you have set the scene, add a sentence of transition, and then your thesis. Your intro is done.

Good work.

Want MORE ways to write faster? click the link

#12 Write Faster: Writing the Compelling Thesis

You need three things to speed up the process:

1. You need to fill your mind with ideas.
2. You need a main idea (a thesis) that responds to the prompt and explores the complexity of ideas.
3. You need a method for creating your introduction.

Today we are focusing on Step 2.

Start by crafting your thesis, your main argument. If you are given a prompt, re-read it several times and zero in on the key task you are asked to do. Look for the writer’s verb. Does your prompt ask you to analyze, evaluate, synthesize, differentiate, assess, define, prove, recommend, or critique? Each of these words means something different – make sure you know what that verb means.

If you are not given a prompt, you can create your own topic and thesis. Start with pondering what you find interesting, fascinating, or compelling about this portion of the course. What questions or issues have caught your attention in lecture? What part of the discussion or seminar surprised you or made your wonder? What theories did you want the professor to say more about when class ended? Grab some scratch paper and make a list of sentences beginning with the phrase I wonder. I wonder what would happen if two black holes collided? I wonder why Shakespeare’s history plays are so centered on men, when his country was ruled by Elizabeth I? I wonder how the mind changes when we are confronted with the unexplained miracle? I wonder how creatures at the bottom of the ocean on the edge of underwater volcanoes evolved to survive such extreme conditions? I wonder how much of the North’s financial empire was ultimately based on the economics of Southern slavery? I wonder how much the early European painters’ ability to invent new pigments influenced their art?

To make your thesis more compelling, you want to make sure you are wrestling with complexities. Where are the complexities in your topic? Where are the opposing ideas, the paradoxes that cannot be reconciled? Look for the antithesis, the mystery, the inconsistencies, the contradictions, the paradox, the impossible, and explore that.

Word your thesis so you begin with a dependent clause that recognizes the complexity or counterargument, then move into your main idea. Start with despite, in spite of, even though like this: Even though crowds can include hundreds of independent strangers, they behave in strikingly similar ways as a group. Now you try it! Start with despite, even though, or in spite of.

How do you know it is the PERFECT thesis? You don’t. You will learn more as you write. The very act of writing will lead you to deeper discovery and may well lead you to revising your initial thesis.

What if you don’t know the answer to your thesis – you don’t know how to prove it. The writing process may help you see the evidence.

In the show notes today is a special link – I ask you to click the link and I will send you a simple, yet sophisticated way of starting your introduction to your paper. If you want to write faster, you need to find a way to knock out your introduction fast. I have it and I want to give it to you! Again, check the show notes for the link.

#11 Write Faster: Uncovering Ideas

Want MORE ways to write faster? click the link

You have been dragging your feet starting that paper. How can you jump into this task and finish faster? If you want to cut down the time you spend writing, this episode is for you. You will need scratch paper and a pen, your syllabus or course description, and your assignment.

I’m going to assume a few things here. I’m assuming your writing task is the usual 3-5 or 4-6 page paper for college. I’m assuming this is not a chapter in your doctoral thesis. I’m also assuming you have not left this task until the last few hours before your deadline. Finally, I’m assuming this is not a creative assignment, such as writing a short story, but largely an analytical one.

By the way, if you want some fantastic resources for writing faster, just go to the show notes and click the link, give us your email, and you will receive my favorite method of writing an introduction in your inbox. This could change how you approach your next paper, so check it out.

One reason why college writers struggle to write in an efficient manner is that they feel that they have no ideas, no direction. This can cost you time, time, time. Instead of actually drafting the paper, you find yourself just spinning, unable to decide on one idea or another. Without any direction, you give up and procrastinate.

Let’s solve this.

Writing is thinking, remember?

Start by adding ideas into your mind. Before you can pour something onto the page, you need your mind full of ideas. Go back to the readings for the course. Re-read an article or skim a chapter or two. Set a time and give yourself no more than two hours of re-reading time.

Even better, there’s a secret for uncovering great ideas in a shorter period of time. Limit the amount of text you are going to focus on. Instead of reviewing the entire novel, you are only allowed to review the last three chapters and use those as evidence. Instead of all the readings for your course, tell yourself you are only allowed to use these three articles and no more. The more you give yourself boundaries and borders, the more your mind will dig deep and find patterns and ideas in that limited text that you can then apply. Giving yourself strict boundaries actually makes your mind more creative and helps you think more deeply.

As you re-read, tell yourself you are only allowed to underline one sentence, the most pivotal sentence in the piece.

As you read, tell yourself you are only allowed to highlight one phrase, the most critical phrase the writer uses.

Do you see how setting a boundary not only saves you time but also fires up your brain and helps you start to think more creatively about these ideas?

A few points of caution – do not burn up valuable time consuming the readings or texts for hours and hours. You have limited time, so spend it wisely.

Lastly, if you have a few days, do this exercise and let those ideas resonate in your mind for a day. Even though you are doing other tasks, part of your mind will still be mulling over these ideas and when you return, your insights will be richer.