How to Become a Straight-A Student

by Cal Newport

  In addition to your professor, as David also suggests, “if you have smart friends, get their help too.” Friends from the same class are your best bet, since they will already understand the constraints of the assignment. If you aren’t close with any classmates, then tap a friend with a compatible academic background. For example, if your paper is for a history class, it makes more sense to talk to a liberal arts major than an engineering major. The former will be more familiar with this style of paper.

  Pick a half-hour period to sit down with each friend you chose. Explain your thesis and then run through your outline, touching on your main supporting arguments. Your friends will help you identify pieces of your structure that are unclear or unnecessary. As Jason, a straight-A student from the University of Pennsylvania, explains: “If you can explain why your argument works in a rational, step-by-step manner, and you have an arsenal of sources to cite to support the argument, then you’re ready to go.”

  One final warning: Before discussing with a classmate, make sure that collaboration of this sort is allowed. It should be no problem for research papers, but for focused critical analysis essays the professor may specifically forbid that you discuss your response with other people from the class.

  Step 7

  Write Without the Agony

  If you’ve followed the Straight-A strategy so far, writing should be the most straightforward part of constructing a standout paper. This step is not mysterious. At this point, you know what to say and in what order, so all you have to do is clearly communicate your already well-developed argument. “Once I have the outline, my brain relaxes,” explains Jeremy, a straight-A student from Dartmouth. “I don’t need to think anymore about structuring the paper, but rather just think about how to best articulate my thoughts.”

  Note, however, that this book is not about the mechanics of writing. This is a skill that you will need to develop on your own. In general, the more you write outside of class, the better; so, to improve your skills, try to write as much as you can. Also, don’t be afraid to plunk a Chicago Manual of Style above your desk or flip through well-known style guides like William Zinsser’s On Writing Well. These can help you focus and polish your writing, and professors appreciate clear exposition.

  This being said, there is not much left to cover. You know what you have to do: Put words on paper. It’s not easy, but, if you followed the previous steps, it won’t be nearly as agonizing as most students make it. I leave you with only three succinct pieces of logistical advice to help guide you through the process of combining your writing skills with your straight-A preparation to produce the best possible paper:

  Separate Your Writing from the Steps That Come Before and After

  As Greta, a straight-A student from Dartmouth, explains, when it comes to the writing process she “would map out a schedule, for example, write two pages a day for five days, and then edit one day.” Ryan, another Dartmouth student, admits that he “usually gave about two days for the actual writing, but the research part of the paper usually happened a few weeks before.” Both of these students’ habits are instructed by a simple rule: Separate your research from your writing and your writing from your editing.

  Of course, this is not always practical for a small critical analysis essay, but it’s crucial for a more substantial research paper. A fresh mind produces better results. It’s hard to write well when you’ve spent an exhausting morning researching in the library. It’s equally as hard to edit carefully when you have already spent hours that day writing the words you are about to review. “Having time away from the paper,” explains Jeremy from Dartmouth, “allows you to come at it with better concentration.”

  Write in Quiet Isolation

  Writing requires substantial concentration. If you work in an area with a lot of ambient noise, you will become distracted and your efficiency will decrease dramatically. Therefore, if you have a laptop, retreat to a distant, silent corner of a faraway building to work on your writing. “I am most productive,” explains Suzanne from Brown, “in a place where I have total silence and no external stimulation—for example, the library stacks.” As I emphasized in Part One of this book, avoid, if possible, study lounges, crowded areas of the library, and public computer labs. These places are noisy, and, as Rielle from Brown warns: “You’re always running into people and getting snagged by fascinating conversations.” If you don’t have a laptop, then work at the computer in your room at times when your roommates are in class or at meetings. If necessary, arrange in advance to kick them out for a few hours so you can work in peace. In addition, you should schedule your writing to correspond to your energetic high points during the day. For me, this meant working right after breakfast with my first cup of coffee. For others, this might be the early evening, right before dinner, or the afternoon after a post-lunch workout. The key is to recognize that writing is perhaps the most demanding (in terms of focus required) intellectual activity you will do while a college student. More so than reading, solving problem sets, or studying, writing demands all the energy and focus that you can manage.

  Follow Your Outline and Move Slowly

  Chris from Dartmouth offers simple advice for tackling the writing process: “I use the outline I’ve created as a guide and just sort of build from that, taking it one paragraph at a time.” Follow this example. Use your outline to direct your writing, setting up and expounding on each of the topics in a clear, cogent way, and copying and pasting quotes directly into your paper wherever needed. Keep your attention focused on the topic at hand. Your mind is free from concerns of structure and sources at this point, so you can concentrate on articulating specific points clearly and strongly.

  Always make sure your current point reads clearly before moving on to the next. Some students have success by writing their first draft quickly and sloppily, and then returning to clean it up in many successive editing rounds. In your case, however, because you’re working from a detailed topic outline, it will end up being quicker to write carefully the first time. Moving fast tends to produce time-consuming dead ends later on, and ultimately necessitates major rewrites.

  And, believe it or not, that’s all you need to know. So stop fearing writing! If you follow this system, this step, though still challenging, won’t take an excessive amount of time. Leave the all-nighters to the average students, get your first draft done quickly and effectively, and then go have some fun.

  Step 8

  Fix, Don’t Fixate

  Editing your paper is important, and this shouldn’t come as a surprise. If you hand in pages containing spelling and grammatical mistakes, the professor will be more than disappointed—she’s likely to lower your grade as a result. Even if your argument is brilliant, it’s really hard to get past those simple errors. This last step of the paper-writing process aims to free your work of these imperfections.

  At the same time, however, you don’t want to overedit. Many students fixate on these fixes, and end up devoting hours to reviewing draft after draft. This act of academic self-flagellation is especially prevalent when working on big research papers. After all the work you dedicate to crafting a masterpiece of an argument, you begin to fear letting your baby out into the world. It’s sort of like suffering from a nerdy version of Stockholm Syndrome—and it’s a drag. “You can edit a paper forever and still not be satisfied,” explains Frank from Brown. “So it’s important to know when to just print the damn thing out and send it off to its fate.”

  The goal here is to devise a simple system, something you can follow for every paper to help you root out the embarrassing typos and confusing constructions but also to prevent you from becoming a grammar psycho. Drawing from the advice given in my straight-A interviews, I present in this step a system that meets these criteria. It involves three simple passes through your draft. No more and no less. For those of you who are used to endless editing runs, the idea that three passes is enough might sound suspiciou
sly quick. Or, if you’re the kind of person whose idea of proofreading is hitting the spell-check button, multiple runs might seem hopelessly time consuming. But rest assured, the system is efficient and it gets the job done. As we will soon discuss, the key is the specific kind of attention given to each pass. Here is how it works:

  The Argument Adjustment Pass

  Your first pass through your work should be conducted on your computer. Read carefully, and focus on the presentation of your arguments—don’t worry about small grammatical mistakes for the moment. Take in the paper one paragraph at a time. If a section is awkwardly stated, clarify the sentences. If it makes a point you already explained earlier, ruthlessly cut it out. If the argument is lacking detail, add in more sentences as necessary to fully explain your point. If a transition is lacking between topics or paragraphs, add one.

  Also be on the lookout for any major structural issues. Sometimes you don’t realize until you finish an entire draft that your topic outline wasn’t optimal. Don’t be afraid to shift around major chunks of text. This is your chance to make serious edits to the structure of your paper, so take this seriously. Do this editing at a time when you are rested and unhurried by upcoming appointments. For a large paper, spread this pass out over several days if possible.

  When you’re done, your paper may still contain small mistakes. That’s okay. You’ll fix those next. The goal here is to tweak the argument until you’re satisfied that it makes every point that you want to make in the order that you want to make them. Once you’re done with this pass, these big picture details are locked in.

  The Out Loud Pass

  The Argument Adjustment pass is important, but not sufficient by itself. As Robert from Brown explains: “My papers always read differently on the page than on the screen.” And as Melanie, a straight-A Dartmouth student, adds: “having a hard copy to read and mark up was absolutely necessary.”

  Accordingly, for this next pass, you should first print out a copy of your paper, and then take it where you can have some privacy. With a pencil in hand, and this is the important part, begin to read your paper out loud. Don’t cheat. Use a strong voice and articulate each word as if you’re delivering a speech. For a long paper, it may take a long time to read the entire thing, so be prepared to split this into several sessions. You might also want water or hot tea on hand to prevent you from losing your voice. Whatever you do, however, don’t avoid actually articulating every word.

  Whereas the last pass focused on your arguments, the goal of this pass is to root out small mistakes that might otherwise distract a reader from your engaging thesis. While reading, whenever you come across a grammatical mistake or an awkward construction, mark it clearly on the printout. Then go back up to the beginning of the preceding paragraph and start reading again. After you have marked up the entire document, go back to your computer and enter the changes you noted on your printout. A word of warning—this process always takes longer than expected, so leave yourself plenty of time.

  The rationale behind this approach is simple. As Ryan from Dartmouth explains: “Reading it out loud helps you catch typos or strange wording better than reading it in your head.” No matter how many times you review a draft, if you’re scanning silently, there are certain awkward phrases you might skip over every time—our subconscious minds have a habit of patching over these mistakes when reading our own writing. When you say the words out loud, on the other hand, your ear will catch even minor problems and draw your attention to them. “Something that looks fine on paper will jump out as strange or poorly worded when you hear it,” explains Jeremy from Dartmouth. Therefore, by reading the paper out loud, you will catch most mistakes in your paper in just one pass—requiring much less time than the multiple silent reviews necessary to achieve similar results.

  The Sanity Pass

  Because the previous passes were so careful, you’re almost done, and you’ve only read through your work twice so far! Just to be sure that something embarrassing didn’t slip through, it’s a good idea to make a final, quick pass through a printed copy of your paper before handing it in. You don’t have to do this pass out loud, and feel free to move through it quickly. But definitely use a printed copy, rather than reading on your computer screen, since a hard copy has a better chance of revealing a typo. If possible, separate this pass from the previous two. In fact, it’s fine to do this the morning of the deadline. At this point, there should be no major mistakes lurking in your document.

  The goal here is twofold. First, as mentioned, this last pass catches stray mistakes. “I tried to always reread my papers before handing them in,” explains James, a straight-A student from Dartmouth. “I try to smooth out any last kinks in the flow during that final editing.” Second, and perhaps more important, it also provides closure on your paper. Because your work is so polished by this point, this final read-through should essentially go smoothly. As a result, you will develop a better feel for the flow and enjoy the experience of watching your argument unfold. This should help put your mind at ease. After all your work, think of this last pass as your reward. A final review before the paper leaves your hands, probably never to be read by you again. That’s why we call it a sanity pass. Once you hand in your paper, you can now confidently tell yourself: “Unless I’m going insane here, I’m pretty sure that I just handed in a damn good piece of writing!”

  The Plan in Action

  As in Part Two, we end our discussion with a pair of detailed case studies that show you how to put the straight-A system into practice. One focuses on a research paper, whereas the other focuses on a critical analysis essay. Notice how the students in the following case studies adapt the system to the demands of each assignment. And, in both cases, pay attention to how our system reduces the time required for writing, the step most students unfoundedly fear above all others.

  Case Study #1—Mindy’s Art History Research Paper

  Mindy’s class on Early American Art doesn’t have a final exam. This was, not surprisingly, an important motivation in her decision to register for this particular subject. But now, as the end of the term approaches, Mindy realizes her joy was premature. In place of the final exam, she must instead write a truly intimidating research paper—a thirty- to fifty-page colossus that is worth half of her final grade. The subject matter is wide open; the paper can cover any topic regarding any American artist before the modern period. The professor has made it clear that he expects a large and well-considered argument from each student. He warns the class to start early and work hard. Last-minute efforts will be easily identified and graded with a punitive abandon.

  Monday—One Month Before the Due Date

  With a month to go until the deadline, Mindy decides it’s time to initiate the early stages of the straight-A process. She has no intention of beginning serious researching or writing at this point—it’s too early for that; instead, she’s simply kicking off the nondemanding “thinking phase” of the paper process: choosing a topic, finding a thesis idea, and then getting a second opinion on the idea from her professor.

  For her first step, Mindy spends a half hour Monday night flipping through her class notes, trying to find a topic that piques her interest. Without too much searching, she comes across something promising. Early in the course, when they were studying the American expatriate painter Washington Allston, the professor made a comment about some similarities between Allston’s paintings and those of German artist Caspar David Friedrich. The connection was interesting because, as far as the professor knew, the two painters had never met. Mindy had jotted down this comment in her notes along with a little exclamation point. Perhaps this mysterious connection would make for a good topic? Mindy will have to conduct a thesis-hunting expedition to find out for sure, but it’s a good start.

  Wednesday—Three Weeks and Five Days to the Due Date

  Mindy has set aside a couple of hours to lurk in the library and seek out an interesting thesis
relating to her topic idea. She starts with the card catalog, and soon finds some monographs that focus entirely on Allston’s career. She is able to locate two of these books amid the stacks, and then settles into a nearby study carrel to go through them. For the first hour, she chooses one of the titles, and begins to read it. This helps her build a better understanding of Allston’s background and the significance of his career. She realizes, however, that it will be too time consuming for her to continue trying to read the entire book, so she next flips straight to the index. She hits pay dirt in the index of one of the two books: an entry for Caspar David Friedrich. Flipping to that page, she sees a quick one-sentence note about how some author (whose name she doesn’t recognize) has posited a connection between Allston and Friedrich. Mindy looks up the reference connected to this sentence and finds the title of an obscure book about philosophy and the early Romantic artists. She finds the call number for this new book, and dives back into the stacks to find it. Success! The old manuscript has a chapter devoted to Allston and Friedrich. In fact, it goes so far as to compare two of their paintings and offer an explanation for the similarities.

  Mindy makes a photocopy of this chapter and labels it with the information she will need to later cite the book. She leaves the library with her personal copy of this key source in hand.

  Friday—Three Weeks and Three Days to the Due Date