BUS421 Capstone OL/GS - Which Professor?

[Merlin]

Sorry Merlin, I did not intend to say that you were any of those things (of course I wasn't, because it's obvious by your writing on your forum that you aren't any of those things).

No worries. I know I tend to be wordy on the forum as well, but I usually do it to provide additional clarity since the audience is so varied.

I was trying to tell people (in a badly worded way) that some people can write great short papers, and some can write great long papers - and both are fine.  The real key to all of it is to use your strengths, and know that the guidelines are just that - guidelines, not hard and fast rules.  They give you an idea of what most people are doing.  Then use your judgement to decide if those work for you.

Agreed. A lot of people tend to be nervous about writing academic papers... particularly when it comes time for the capstone. I was the same way when I started the capstone as well. But I find that if you relax and take it one step at a time, it comes easier.

For me, I find that once I start on the research, my mind automatically starts categorizing things. This helps to logically organize my paper based on what I've learned. The further into the research the more coherent the final product becomes. It's almost like the papers write themselves in my head and I'm just translating them into words and making it look pretty.

And Merlin, I'll bet when we sit down to write a paper, I will STRUGGLE to get my paper long enough, while you will struggle just as hard to try to shorten it!

That is true. I hate it when there are hard and fast page limits. For me, it is easy to make a paper longer, but it's hard to make it shorter without losing detail. Then again, for a couple of the papers I write for my MBA, I ended up being well under the page limit because the writing prompt didn't require research or the topic was too simple to need much detail. So I can write short papers when called for.