Dear Research Diary,

It is so hard to let go of the traditional way of writing that I know and love. I think writing has always come rather naturally to me. I am not FANTASTIC, or particularly talented, but I can get away with writing rather good papers without really trying much. (Of course, I do put in extra effort to get those exceptional papers I actually want.) Often times, I can just jot down a few key points (or make a more detailed outline) I must remember to mention in a paper, and I can build around this…simply writing the paper from start to finish, then going back and messing with it. With particularly dense research, I gather a number of sources, and as I read through them, I take diligent notes..writing the page number after each section of note taking. Then around this I construct a paper which flows and has support for its argument from my research. This is basically how I have been doing things since I learned to write papers. Bolker’s soup suggestion is so hard for me to adopt. Yes, it helps me get ideas from my brain onto paper, but once they are on the paper (rather computer screen), I just get lost in all those words! As I said, I tried to write my paper for my Italian Politics class by first making a very messy, stream of consciousness zero draft, but the result was a panic!!! I literally had to abandon this mess and return to my way of writing. But I guess it did help me find some interesting ideas. I guess we’ll see when I get my graded paper.

Meanwhile I am reading some things from Prof. Dohna’s recommendation: Primitivism, Cubism, and Abstraction in Modern Art. Very cool…