Hi Donna, and everyone else -
I hope this format will work for everyone. I'd love to get some feedback/ideas/suggestions from anyone else in this process on how to manage it all....
My first question: I have this big (probably average size!) reading list, and I know I'm not going to be finished with everything on it before my September comps date. Hunter has told me to read the items that are critical for my dissertation study first (done), read the things I think will prove most useful to me next, then skim the rest for main ideas, major points, etc.
Good advice, surely, but how do you KNOW which things are in the middle category (most useful, after the primary texts)??? That has me in a bit of a quandary, as I suspect that might change as I read more. Help? Advice? name of a good therapist? ;0
here's where I am at this point as well - as I am reading I am making notes in margins, typing up quotes or other thoughts/ideas that the reading generates, and trying to piece some things together to see how it all fits in with Conrad....is there anything specific anyone can suggest for a way to keep track of all of this? right now I have a bunch of Word documents saved in a folder on my computer....
Thanks for any/all advice, guidance,etc.
LeAnn
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Hi LeAnn,
Is your computer a laptop? If not, I'd suggest printing out all of your notes and keeping them in a notebook that is easy to carry, manageable wherever you eat, and comfortable to sleep with. Such a notebook is ready when you are. Now, if you have a laptop, you might consider a program like Microsoft One Note.
Good luck!
wjs
LeAnn,
I think you should first try to make the middle list what is most manageable for you, what you think you have the time and resources to learn well. You can only do what you can do.
scott
LeeAnn --
What helped me was to realize comps are about breadth of information and not depth. You will not have time or room to write more than a sentence on most works and maybe a paragraph on a few major works. Know a little about a lot rather than a lot about a little. Show you have a grasp of the field.
Hope that helps. Anyway its my tip'o-the-day.
Kent
What's useful to remember is that you don't have to have every text committed to memory. In a certain sense the purpose of your comps is to help you write the review of the field section of your proposal and your dissertation. In both, you have to prove you've read mega-numbers of books and that you know your literary onions.
DDO
Post a Comment