Ha ha, tell me about it. When there's a model answer or example essay given to you as a guideline, you can become so paranoid that people might think you plagiarised it that you completely deviate from it. And through this determination not to use the same points or concepts, you leave out key material that you may otherwise had included had you NOT seen the model. A sad situation indeed. :(

Oh yes, Alina. Plagiarism is a worry, and something I'll certainly be discussing over the next three weeks. Also the concept of originality (although there's more room for it in some topics than in others). Thanks for your comment - if there's anything special you'd like me to address here, please let me know.

Currently in the swamp of 2 essays competing for my time and deadlines approaching..i'm pondering on just how many distractions i can make for myself (making this list is, in itself is, of course, a fab distraction!).
Seems i'm driven to do all sorts of 'stuff round the house' before will settle to work.
List so far: check emails, tidy up every room, do washing up, cook kids meals for next week, check emails one more time, etc. etc.
How can i train myself out of this??!
Ali
ps..also i'm really good at 'pretend' working i.e. surfing the net, library visits, reading 'an essay evolves'! etc.

Hi Ali, I've never been a displacement activity before. It's sort of flattering to my ego. No, but seriously, the amusing way you describe your dilemma belies the misery that can be caused by our resistance. This is such a pressing and present issue that I think I'll devote a whole blog post to it. Of course, I have no universal panacea for this, but I've developed some strategies which have helped me get down to writing and study. I'll share them on the blog a wee bit later. Good luck with your work.

What you describe here and in your blog about innocently absorbing some concepts and finding that you might have plagiarized is interesting, especially when your work is on memory. What do we really remember? I am more and more convinced that we need to reconceive how we really learn; can it be that our reading, even our "pretend work" like surfing around or browsing in the library is a more powerful way to learn? I recommend a recent essay on this topic--the title says it all: The Ecstacy of Influence: http://www.harpers.org/TheEcstasyOfInfluence.html

Thanks for inviting us into your process.

Thank you Michele, both for your comments and for an excellent article.