During the course of your studies, you will spend countless hours reading and creating bibliographies and databases for your own classes and research or for a contract. Here is some advice of to help you do the best job you can and save as much time as possible.
One of the professors who taught me in my first year in university used to say that to be able to fully understand a paper you have to read it three times: once to know what it’s about, twice to actualy get understand it, and a third time to highlight the contents and take notes. I admit I never read a paper more than twice in arrow, but she made me understand the importance of fully understanding a document. Over the years, I developed a strategy to prepare for class as best as I could. Here are some of the key points.
I have spent the last 6 years of my life in university. If I move on to doing a PhD, as I plan, I will probably study for another 4 to 5 years. And if my career plans are successful, I will spend the rest of my life working in a university. So you can probably guess that I love anthropology and that I feel very comfortable in an academic setting. Of course, having been in university for so long, I have had time to realize what I did well and what I could have done better as a student. I wish to share this knowledge with you. Hopefully, you will put it to good use either by taking my advice of by being inspired by it to develop your own ways of working and planning your efforts. The most important thing, I believe, is not so much to stick to one specific way of studying and working, but that you plan your system, respect it, and thrive to improve it.
This first post is especially aimed at bachelor students but can be interesting for master’s and PhD students as well. I’m sorry I didn’t post it earlier this semester, but it’s never too late to improve your methods!
The Geek Anthropologist 