I have really struggled with college English papers, and I think this might apply to high school, too. The teacher doesn't want me to just say what I think about the piece, and he or she doesn't want me to just summarize it.
Sometimes the professor likes for me to find a major or minor theme through the piece, and quote from the writing itself in support of arguing for this theme.
And there's another way which I learned in a college class in African-American female writers when I was twenty-eight. The teacher wanted at least two references by critics on the novel. Alright, and I think I got lucky in that the two critics had really different views. I just summarized each and said where I came down on the disagreement, and it was amazingly easy. I quoted some from the text, but I didn't feel I needed to milk the text in order to obtain the required length. With the two critics, there was plenty of material. In fact, I felt I was making editorial decisions of what to leave out in order not to exceed the length by too much. This was a much more satisfying way to write.
And I have typically written papers late at night. And something like a bibliography, that's fine to slog through when I'm really tired. But I have also a little bit experimented with the method of setting the alarm clock like at 5:15 am. This is better for such things as writing the conclusion and one final proof-read. It's a little bit taking a chance, but sometimes that energy also works in my favor. And sometimes I have used both the alarm on my watch and the alarm clock set ten minutes later to make sure.
26 May 2015, 2:08 pm
