~Close Reading and Research Skills~

I have always considered myself to be a critical reader when it comes to reading texts and analyzing things. So I think I came into this class with the skills to do close readings, but I definitely think I made strides in learning how to further synthesize sources and make connections that speak to the larger academic conversation. That's definitely what I would say I am taking away from this class the most is a larger understanding of disciplinary awareness and how to make arguments relevant and connected with the bigger picture. I sometimes found it difficult to balance close readings with skimming and just general reading when it came to managing all of my readings for all my classes. My other courses are higher level and had a lot of reading to do for every class and I ended up actually reading all of it. This is a little amazing to me looking back at how I managed to read that much, but it was probably allowed by my extreme focus all quarter on school, which, like most things, comes with good and bad ramifications.

Researching and using articles to fuel my own argument is another skill I feel like I developed in this class during the quarter. I feel much more confident in my abilities to take completely different articles and draw connections between them and use them to fuel my own argument. I have found that doing this requires careful reading as well as thinking outside of the box to be able to see the broader scope of how very different arguments can fit together and speak to a shared concept. I have also found that time is essential to this process in being able to take time away to think about how different aspects work together. I find that many of my ideas come to me when I'm laying in bed trying to fall asleep and thinking about a paper or an idea will surface randomly in my head when I'm having a conversation with someone about something completely different. Allowing my brain to "percolate" and work on my ideas is really key to being able to dictate a fully formed argument. It really ties back to what I wrote in a blog at the beginning of the quarter that a professor last year in my Four by Shakespeare class shared with us about writers block. When you sit down and try to write a paper and force it out you can experience a "block" where you can't write because your ideas aren't formed yet. This block, our prof told us, is really just your brain thinking and forming your argument even if you feel like you have writers block and can't think of anything to write in your paper. But when you allow your mind to take time to think and develop ideas you can fully form your thoughts. Recognizing this phenomenon has allowed me to recognize when I'm doing this and how it fits into my writing process so that when I am randomly thinking about something in relation to my paper or have an epiphany in a random conversation I get out of bed and write it down or find a piece of scrap paper and make a note to myself so that I can use it for my paper.