Reading, Writing and More Reading

Graduate school has changed me in many ways. The biggest—besides the fact that I moved countries and continents—is my study habits. In undergrad, I studied journalism and history and I’m not ashamed to admit that for the majority of my four years, journalism was the priority. I existed primarily within business hours calling people. Afterward I was constantly thinking of story ideas, sources to contact, new angles and deadlines, deadlines, deadlines. History was a great escape and fairly straight forward: go to class, take notes, listen to the professor, write 1-2 papers, take exam. This was the formula and thought it might sound boring, I enjoyed history immensely and excelled at it.

It became clear soon after school started that this pattern would be impossible to replicate in graduate school. So the biggest shock has been the reading. In undergrad I never read. Well, no, that’s not really right. I read for papers. I did extensive research for 10-15 page papers, but I never read to understand the material. I just had to listen to the professor to understand the events and their significance. But here I have to read, widely, thoroughly and constantly. I’m doing an MA in the History of International Relations, which is a mix of International Relations (or IR, how nations interact with each other) and history. But in undergrad where you are taught the events in class, here you are expected to be well versed in the events before you arrive at the seminar. It's like they skip steps one through three and expect to start at four and discuss the intricacies, questions and controversies of the events during a 2 hour seminar. That means reading lists 10 pages long full of required and subsequent readings.

This was a big adjustment in the beginning. In the past I'd read entire books for my essays and take painstaking notes. Within the first week I learned this wasn’t going to cut it. I needed to be strategic about my reading. The important thing is to read widely, from different authors with different perspectives, and only one or two key chapters. I’m not saying I’m a pro at it as I still manage to read only 1-3 sources a week (per course, and I have three of them) and that’s when I have no papers due. In any case, that was the challenge.

To deal with the new demands I had to adapt. In undergrad I always did work at home in my room. I didn’t like libraries because they were too quiet and I could feel the anxiety and the nervy energy of the people stressing out around me. I liked the quiet and privacy of my room where I could listen to music and go to the bathroom whenever I wanted.

But while my room was great for freedom, it was also plagued with distractions: the Internet, the books on my shelf, the window, postcards on my bulletin board, coloured pens, whatever was close at hand. If I’m being honest, it’s not really my room's fault. There are sometimes when no matter what you do, you’re determined to not do work. I also started to go stir crazy. The idea of going to school, coming home and sitting in my room and reading for five hours depressed me. I needed a change of scenery.

So I ventured to the library and it worked. So now I have a new system. Some days I go to Senate House Library (a 5 minute walk) and other days I head to the LSE Library. Each has their strengths and weaknesses. Senate House is cozy and small without many people and has that old-time library feel. It also doesn't have Internet, which is mostly good--though while writing a paper I distracted myself by listing the 50 US states (got to 48), 27 members of the European Union and the countries using the Euro (see, sometimes you'll do anything not to work). LSE is bigger and has more people but it accommodates laptops easier and has wireless Internet for when I need it.

The British Library of Political Science
aka the Lionel Robbins Building,
aka the LSE Library,
the spaced out stairs mean you can climb up the 5 floors
without being out of breath, but look like a pirate coming down

In the new year, I’m going to add the British Library also just 5 minutes away, to the list. Hopefully this will help me tackle my listlessness.

Photo: flickr