Research Skills II: Electric Boogaloo.
Yesterday was my second class in Research Skills. Which we spent the majority of time learning about the resources we have access to, and the skills of searching the internet which I seem to be already well-versed in. The use of boolean logic (AND, OR, and NOT) in the search engines, and some of the search engines I'm already well-versed in... the others, well, they use the same protocol and if you take the time to read the front page of any online search engine, you can find out how to use it fairly easily.
Next week, on Monday, we are going to visit Shakespeare's Birthplace Trust and their library there, and on Tuesday we are headed to Birmingham to see the main University Library up there. Both of these places have exceptional collections, and I'm really looking forward to seeing one, if not all three, of the first folios the SBT have in their library. I'm a sucker for old and rare books, and this happens to be one of the oldest and rarest books in the world... not to mention, the containment of some of the greatest stories ever told, and no, I don't mean the Bible.
At the moment, it doesn't seem that Research Skills has really taught me anything new just yet, but it has sparked some new and pretty fantastic ideas for my research, and given clarity to some old mangled-up thoughts as well. It's hard not to think about "what you are going to be researching", when you are hearing all about how to go about researching that mythical dissertation you are supposed to be writing. Mostly though, I was intimidated. I know that everyone around me is just as scared, and putting on that front of assertive-rightness so that they might be seen as brilliant by some passing Shakespearean scholar, and asked to write a paper about "something awesome"... I'm just admitting my scared-ness, so that I can move on to the writing "something awesome" part.
That's it for today. I'm doing homework (John Jowett's book, Shakespeare & Text ; Comparing two versions of the same scene) for Textual Studies tomorrow... and reading as much stuff as I can for my weekend class Shakespeare's Legacy which goes up in two weeks.
Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale
Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man. -- King John, Act III, Sc. IV.
Year 1, Day 10 -- Words Written: 0
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