LeAnn has asked a great question--how to handle the mountain of reading and reams of notes. Really it's a matter of your assuming the authority to decide which texts you'll declare to be important and which not so much. Much of that comes from which ones just get you a wee bit more excited (or less bored) than the rest, texts that strike you as the ones you think you want to use for sure in your dissertation. Then when it gets closer to exam time, you can also come up with a "disclaimer" for the ones you decided not to focus on--e.g. an answer to the question, why these texts and not those texts?
This will come after you've done much of your reading and go back over your notes.
Did that help at all????
Anyone else have suggestions?
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When I first started getting ready for the comps I had a huge amount--like I threw out a big net and grabbed everything that caught my eye. Then I felt very overwhelmed. I focused in the end of just what would be useful for my dissertation, not just what I found interesting but what I found interesting and what was useful. In some cases I further narrowed down to some chapters in books rather than the entire book (though I did read the whole book so I had an understanding of it, but I studied and ruminated over specific chapters).
Sorry I misspelled LeAnn --
actually, the comments I received from all of you on my posting, and the ones here are really helpful - it's good to get the feedback from those of you who've already done the comps process - thanks!
and Kent - don't worry about the spelling - happens all the time :)
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