CSUF MSW STUDENTS SPEAK ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCE STARTING THE MASTER PROGRAM [15:08-20:15]

This could be better. The thing I think I would emphasize is that instructor feedback is like such a gift and I feel like it's often taken as an insult or a slight instead of like this instructor, especially if they give you really good feedback that's like really detailed or this is how you could do better or like it's such a gift of time and attention for them to do that based on how many students how many of us there are that has to happen. It's like wow this professor cared enough to give me this feedback hopefully written it in a way that's very still encouraging and constructive might be a way to help sort of see the different side of that. And then like also the conversation doesn't have to be over when you receive that feedback. I take it digested but then go back I remember my first semester with Hogan's policy paper I big struggle I have is running out of time and we get to the time management conversation I'm going to stay quiet and let other people talk about that but I ran out of time for the Hogan paper and so I didn't meet the page limit. I forget one particular section about the agency was too short and he being me for some points on that. And I reconnected and was like what what kind of information were you looking like should I have filled it out with because mostly I was just like exhausted and tired from the situation I got myself in for procrastinating too long and I was like this is good enough. But then when he shared sort of like a slush it out for me a little bit I was like oh I definitely could have done that even with a little bit of energy I had left I got in my own head about how had to be perfect. I was like he was just looking for a little more context that was very easily identifiable from the website and I just didn't think it was interesting enough to include. And so you can really get in your own head and talking with your professor about the feedback they give can help bring you back out of it and be like oh this is actually more simple than I was thinking and not you know it's not this huge Mount Everest I have declined. I want to sorry I want to emphasize Gavin's point about like detaching yourself from the content that you make you make because I'm I often hear people in the program talk about like I don't understand I try this hard I spend as much time I got this grade like at the end of the day like. I mean you kind of get it on effort but not really like you get it on what you produce and I like that idea to get them brought up like that identifying with your work and like having that healthy distance and just emphasize that before we move on. The great idea I wish I could actually practice it some days I do and some days I don't. For me um I because like when it comes to writing a lot of the time we're able to choose like not like whatever we want to write about but like within the broad theme like we can kind of see what we want to write about so like you can choose a policy or you can choose like a research topic or things like that you're able to choose what you want to write about. So for me it's always been of finding something that i'm interested in or have passion towards because that makes it so much easier because like if you're being told right a 12 to 15 page paper on a topic that like you're like me about that can be that can seem like daunting and be a little hard but like if you have the option to like choose whatever you want you can within a certain set of parameters like. Find something that interests you find a piece of legislation or policy that that either you can personally align with or you have like some sort of invest like you're invested in a little bit or have interest in it because the more you can relate and the more you can identify with the topic you're writing about in my opinion it just makes it a lot easier to do that writing because you're like oh like I want to say all of this and I want to explain all of this and I think it just. It makes it go by little easier. And so I think for me I don't have a lot of confidence in my writing and so there's a few like strategies that over time I found really work for me to get things started and so the first thing I do is like when I wake up and the tour can talk myself out of. Starting an assignment like I just sit down and I write and I get it over with and I suck it up and I just do it like there's no kind of like I don't know fluffy way around it it's just a matter of like sitting in front of my computer and then. Also if you're able to start things early enough and you just have to write two pages per weekend or one page a day that also sort of makes the bigger assignments easier to. I don't know like accomplish and tackle if you know that it's just these like short little bits that you have to do and then it all adds up and then the paper is done so. I mean can I ask you so I wonder if you can expand on what it means right because like. France you said you wake up and you do it right but if the it is an entire paper sometimes i'm like I have to write this paper I have to write this paper I have to write this paper I sit down and write the paper and there's like. 8 things I have to do before I can actually start typing things and I try to do them all at the same time where do you how do you start yourself.