Wracking my brain…

I have a British Literature take home exam; it’s due Tuesday evening and has to be 750-1000 words. Over Medieval Literature, I’m trying to come up with a thesis statement on Courtly love. I want to talk about its historical context, versus how popular contemporary authors treat “love.” I just can’t come up with a thesis statement and it’s driving me crazy.

Oy…

Always trying to fix things

I’m always trying to improve my writing. Yet, I find myself always stumbling around the same mechanical and grammatical errors. I don’t know what to do. Frankly, I suck at proofing and editing my own work, and that doesn’t bode well come term paper time. I usually get C’s and B’s on my papers because I cannot get the hang of things. 

Here’s where I get lost: 

• Comma overuse: how to combat using the comma, too much.
• Semicolons: is there an easily way to remember when to use this punctuation? 
• Comma Splice: these things kill my papers, how does one get rid of them? 

There is hope for me, right?! Any assistance/suggestions/thoughts/encouragement would be greatly appreciated.