The problems I faced when writing the paper
The biggest
problem I had when writing my paper is that I was so afraid of how to start the
work that – to avoid the problem – I simply didn't start it in time. I'm aware
of the fact that it doesn't make any sense putting off all the work but there
were so many other exams, papers and exercises that I just postponed this
paper, which, now I see, was a big mistake. As soon as I overcame my fear (and
of course, the deadline was coming as well), I realised that the whole work is
not that difficult if I do everything step by step. My first difficulty was
finding a topic which could be connected to the EU, which I find interesting and
to which sources could be found. As I managed the first step, I collected plenty
of sources to my topic and did a little brainstorming. I was very proud of
myself and stopped with the work, which I shouldn't have done. Though, I had
great luck in the library that I found all the books just a week before the
deadline. What's more, I even found very useful websites and statistics available
online, of which I haven't thought earlier. Unfortunately I had relatively
little time to spend with the actual writing. It took me more time to collect
the relevant information and to order them logically. What I didn't expect is
how much time the formatting takes. Now that I've finished writing the longest
academic paper in my entire life I have ambivalent feelings about it. On the
one hand, I'm relieved that I managed it despite being unable to manage my time
properly; on the other hand, I'm sorry I didn't devote more time to it. I found
the whole (pre-)writing process very interesting and I hope, next time I can
manage my time much better.
