Even under the best of circumstances, the process of writing can be challenging for both professional and novice writers alike. For novice writers such as university students, the difficulties associated with writing can be further exacerbated when it is combined with their tendency to procrastinate and delay starting a paper till the night before it is due. Unfortunately, it seems that regardless of what an instructor may say or do, many students still inevitably get caught in an endless loop of continuous research and debilitating procrastination, to the point of total paralysis. So how can we, as educators, help our students (and ourselves) break out of this loop and start working on their research papers earlier and more consistently? 

This post will describe two different solutions (policy-centric and system-centric) that might help some students overcome their tendencies to procrastinate on large writing assignments.

The post is available at http://anatoliygruzd.com/home/?p=94 

~Anatoliy Gruzd