Lehman Social Sciences Library. Photo credit: Columbia University Libraries
It’s the start of a new semester and you’re drowning in new syllabi. Luckily, you glance at the reading list for your niche major seminar, and feel a glimmer of hope: the readings somehow look both interesting and manageable. This is a common Columbia experience, as almost every humanities and social sciences field requires one or two seminar courses that most students take in their junior or senior year. A class that only meets once a week and doesn’t have a midterm… what’s the catch? But there, at the bottom of the syllabus, you see it. Almost all of these courses culminate in something along the lines of a 20-to-30-page paper, due during finals, that accounts for the majority of your grade in the class. It can be a daunting task, but one that feels very distant at the start of the semester when you have months to write this paper.
