tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5827968588643415787.post6017934674405708053..comments2024-03-27T06:58:00.659-05:00Comments on Balancing Jane: Blogging to My PhD: Information Overload or Peak of Intellectual Power?Michellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07801229525416203656noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5827968588643415787.post-51829867103380283592013-05-22T07:15:36.481-05:002013-05-22T07:15:36.481-05:00Thank you! That seems like excellent advice, and I...Thank you! That seems like excellent advice, and I really do think it will be my hardest part. I've always been a very thorough reader, but I'm figuring out that I'm going to have to find a way to temper that. For one thing, the amount of time it takes me to read a book the way I want to read a book would make it impossible to remember anything by the time I got to the end of the list. <br /><br />I'm sure I'll come back to read this comment more than a few times as I move closer and closer to actually writing the dissertation!Michelle (Balancing Jane)http://www.balancingjane.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5827968588643415787.post-13236729994234480222013-05-22T06:37:34.322-05:002013-05-22T06:37:34.322-05:00I was just looking at De inventione yesterday as i...I was just looking at De inventione yesterday as it had an anecdote concerning Cornelia, the mother of the Gracchi, that I thought would be useful. Turned out to be not as useful as I thought it would be, but still helpful.<br /><br />The idea of being "well-read" is a HUGE trap when it comes to the dissertation- it is so easy to read something and realize you need to read something else, and that gives you three more pieces of bibliography in the footnotes to chase up, etc. etc.<br /><br /> I'm hopefully a year or so out from defending, and the three best pieces of advice I've received on writing the PhD (two from the same person, and one from my husband) were these:<br /><br />1. "I hate the term 'writing up'. No one should ever decide to write up. You should just always be writing."<br />2. "It's a waste of time to do too much reading. You have to write because writing actually tells you what your ideas are and shows you what you actually still need to read. If you read too much you'll waste time by reading things that ultimately turn out to be irrelevant."<br />3. "No one ever finishes a dissertation. At a certain point they just decide to stop."<br /><br />I know you need to get through the comps first, but these words (the first two anyway, I only just heard the third last week, which came at EXACTLY the right point for me) have made a huge difference in keeping me to task, keeping me focused, and keeping me from drowning in the literature. I write them in the hope they will be helpful to you one day.Turianoreply@blogger.com