... in SuperSearch! It's limitless possibilities and endless connections to obscure fricking journals with tiny wee undergrad papers AND book reviews (what use is a BLOODY book review???? ) is driving me to the point of BASHING ON MY KEYBOARD VERY HARD, pushing my temples to stop my brain from exploding, grunt loudly at the computer, push my fingers as far into my stomach as I possibly can without it really properly hurting and wanting to jump out the window.
How am I EVER going to find a flipping article I can use in my essay when there are probably ten trillion billion to choose from?
Maybe going to University in the times before the internet was actually easier? Maybe that's why my friends actually had FUN (yes, you heard it, FUN!) at University, because there weren't ENDLESS LIMITLESS POSSIBILITIES. Can I make it any clearer as to how difficult for a perfectionist ENDLESS LIMITLESS POSSIBILITIES actually is?
I think I need to rename something of mine ENDLESS LIMITLESS POSSIBILITIES. My anxiety? Too obvious. My brain? Not witty enough. My sense of reason? Untrue. My capacity for insanity? Aha, think you've hit the nail on the head there, House ...
I might just go post this at NODE and see what kind of a response I get. When is someone going to wake up to teh fact that I am slowly going C-R-A-Z-Y again and need help??
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3 comments:
bugger I closed the window too soon and it didn't save my comment. I said something like ... you are totally right, coz I never saw a journal article in first year (think I didn't know what it was). Do you reckon other first years now are also doing this or are you going above and beyond? I would just go with the 80% good enough rule.
And BTW, CALL ME!
I'm going to disagree with the 80% rule. If you're aiming for 80% you'll end up 60% satisfied!
Um, only thing I can think is to ask your tutors for direction constantly, like all the time. They'll point you in the right direction, that's what they're there for!
Otherwise, when you come across something that talks to the subject directly, use it. After doing that a few times and being dynamic with how you view your subject as the paper progresses, you'll have written enough words and can hopefully draw some conclusions.
This might sounds counter-intuitive, but IMO its the best way to learn about how to find and use secondary sources (you'll progress naturally from this point to a style more aligned to the way you think and move through ideas academically).
And remember, you'll never feel like your papers are 'finished', so don't aim for that, just aim for a coherent discussion that exists meaningfully within the continuum of all the work ever done on that subject.
"Research is never completed, it is only ever abandoned!" (quoting my thesis supervisor there!)
I dunno. I think that not everything in life is SO important that you have to give 100% effort, because that's likely to drive you crazy. In a perfect world it'd be nice, but when there are many things competing for your time, I don't think it's realistic. If I hadn't adopted an 80% rule I never would have finished uni, for a start :-)
But I like the quote on research never being completed, just abandoned - we say exactly the same thing about writing novels!
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