Lessons I've Learned in the Slough

Well, it's been a rough few months at graduate school. It has been a huge adjustment. The work load (something which I was prepared for) and the competing psychological pressures (something which I wasn't) have taken their toll. Yet, even though I have a major deadlines to meet within the next couple of days, I feel oddly calm. Perhaps it is simply that I have become too used to the panic, or I have become numb to all of it. Still, there is a part of me that feels I can get all my work done under time without too much trouble. While all of the primary stress is a result of real problems that had to be addressed, most of the secondary stress was self-induced, and therefore, unnecessary. Learning how to properly channel the stress, aside from developing good work habits, has been one of the most important lessons I've learned this term.

I'm still keeping my head buried in work as this is final weeks, but I thought I would remind myself, and share with you, some of the other lessons that I have learned here:

Make bibliographic entries on everything you read throughout the term. Don't think of bibliographies as assignments that you have to work on a few weeks before the due date. If you are always working on them, you'll always be prepared. Research is an on-going process.

Know when your best times are for doing certain kinds of work. I find that it is easier to write essays and seminar papers when it is daylight, easier to read texts when it is dark, and easier to grade during the breaks I need to take when doing a marathon session of either reading or writing.

For Seminar papers:

Always have respect for the author. Do not assume authors are less sophisticated readers than yourself, that they were not as aware of the various elements in a text, or that they did not anticipate the various possible interpretations.

Eliminate the notion of author intentionality in your argument. Do not discuss what the author intended, did not intend, or should have said. Focus on solely on what the text is doing. Explore the tensions between elements.

Do not discuss your argument in terms of the response that a reader should or should not have, or how the author meant to affect a reader in a certain way. Every reader is different, and each “reading” is their own.

That's it for now. I know it is a lot of stuff, but that gives you an idea of the things I am trying to keep in mind when I am slogging through my piles of work. I'll check back in relatively soon to give you an idea of how things are going. Until then.