Graduate Study Challenges and Strategies for Success - Free Essay Example

[The words â€Å"Running head:† must be included in the running head on the title page only. ] Graduate Study Challenges and Strategies for Success Mark Baravik HCS/504 September 3rd, 2010 Jill Grundy Graduate Study Challenges and Strategies for Success Graduate education is a decision, which must not be taken lightly. It [Reword – Do not begin a sentence with the word â€Å"it†. ] is an important goal I took after; I had to understand all plusses and minuses of this exiting journey. Decisions should be made after serious consideration of personal and professional goals (Kramer, 2007). Graduate education involves in it itself multiple challenges, which require an individual to come up with strategies to overcome this problems to succeed. Some of the obstacles that I may anticipate while completing my education are: difficulties with family especially children, work, and procrastination. [Good introduction. ] [Level 1 heading missing. ] Family is a challenge of an emotional kind. These There [spelling error] are most important people in my life, [remove comma] for whom I want to give everything I can: better school or daycare, clothing, house, life [Add comma (Use commas between items in a series. Place a comma before and in a series)] and so on. In my culture [Add comma (Use a comma to set off most introductory elements)] people say that if a child has a better life than a parent than the parent’s life was not wasted. In addition [insert comma] higher education in nursing is an expensive commodity, but it already brought lots of happiness and success to my life, [Use period instead of a comma. ] I look for ward forward [spelling error] to learning and growing with my family. Family is very demanding part of my life, around which it revolves. So the challenge is: how would steel [unclear] be there for them and keep my educational obligations. When I was about to apply to the FNP [Use abbreviations only after writing the term or name in full, with the abbreviation in parentheses—e. g. , Return on Investment (ROI), Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT). ] program, my wife and I spoke about this very topic. We have decided that our daily living would revolve on time management and teamwork. Specific goals were set and we decided up on tentative plan of action, [change to a semicolon] it would be a fluid process based on open communication and time management. I take all the time when our children are in daycare on days that I am not at work to study. Two to three hours each day after the children go to bed are given to homework. And so that we would not lose our sanity two weekends a month are devoted to family entirely. [In formal writing do not begin a sentence with And or But. These words make your writing seem too informal and conversational. ] Because the process being an ever-changing plan if there is time becomes available outside of the plan it would be used for family or education depending on circumstances. In addition [insert comma] my wife is my primary support system, [semicolon] we are each other’s spotter. All of the decisions, schedules, to do to-do list lists, and time management are done together: [semicolon instead of a colon]we are a team. [Level 1 heading] Second very important challenge of graduate learner is a full-time job. It provides recourses to sustain my family, but it is the biggest time taker and energy drainer. Please, do not misunderstand I like my job very much, but in addition it is a source of stress. Sometimes I feel like I am leading double life. One of these two lives is at work being a nurse with procedures, patients, doctors and nurses; concentrating on common goal. At the same time a second life of a graduate student, who locks himself in the office plugs in his laptop and prays that the pager or a telephone would not go off. Like a support system at home I needed to create one at work. I have built a good workin g relationship with my immediate supervisor by keeping open lines of communication. Happy A happy manager is an informed manager and because she knows that work is being done she does not mind seeing me reading read. I, the student can find some quiet time for reading and research. My motto at work is: an unlimited supply of favors to all, try not to say â€Å"no† [insert comma] and at the same time do not let anybody to take advantage of me. People see and feel goodwill, and most try to repay with same. I try to avoid politics and conflicts like a plague because they drain time and increase stress. It all comes down to time management, planning out my day. [Insert level 1 heading] The third and final challenge of my academic carrier and educational sin is procrastination. According to Finnigan (2008), â€Å"There is no way for you to sit down and, as in the famous advertising slogan, â€Å"Just do it,† [Nike’s slogan. You need to mention where the slogan came from. ] and the intermittent realization of this apparent fact tends to make any work seem rather pointless or futile, thus heightening the attraction of other more pleasant or practicable diversions† (p. 5). I often catch myself, putting off assignments, drifting away in a daydream or an idea, which is not relevant to the subject. It turns in to a major problem when situation involves a deadline. I tend to press on during final hours before a deadline to complete an assignment. To combat this problem, I pay close attention to deadlines. I keep a calendar, which is synchronized with my phone, my home page, and work schedule. Thankfully technology sends me reminders and keeps me on track. Occasionally I would move a deadline closer by one or two days, sort of a white lie strategy, which helps if an assignment is specially difficult. [Level 1 heading – Conclusion] In conclusion all this cChallenges are the parts of one broad skill of time management. This is a n indispensable skill for a graduate student and professional alike. An ability to organize properly ones time greatly impacted by the success level of the project. [Sentence fragment. ] According to Misra and McKean (2000), â€Å"Time management behaviors had a greater buffering effect on academic stress than leisure satisfaction activities. Important relationships were found between some aspects of time management and academic stress† (p. 8). [Your paper will benefit from a stronger conclusion. A concluding paragraph summarizes the main idea, ties the main points together neatly for the reader, and ends with a sense of finality. Avoid introducing new ideas in the conclusion. ] [The acronym SEES may help you write a better paragraph. S = Short sentence that states the main idea. E = Explanation of the main idea in more detail. E = Example or quotation given to illustrate the main idea. S = Sum up the main idea in a way that leads to the next paragraph. References Finigan, T. (2008). Expect Delaysdelays: Procrastination and the Graduate graduate Studentstudent. English Studies in Canada, 34(2/3), 4-10. Kramer, L. (2007). A personal reflection: graduate Graduate study challenges and strategies for success. Dimensions of Critical Care Nursing, 26(4), 158-159. Misra, R. , McKean, M. (2000). College students academic stress and its relation to their anxiety, time management, and leisure satisfaction. American Journal of Health Studies, 16(1), 41.