Literary Practices Assignment
Assume that I was doing a research paper for Jorge Louis Borges’ “The Garden of Forking Paths.” Everything about the research methods and writing process is just like any other assignment. The first thing that I would do is delve deeper into the text. I want to make sure that I understand the inner workings of Borges’ work. Furthermore, I would read the story two to three times in hopes of clearing up any misunderstandings of the text. Once I have a decent grasp of the story, I would then pick a research topic. Since this is a hypothetical situation, let us assume that the topic is that of whether or not the story was talking about parallel universes. Once I have my topic and I fully understand the intricacies of the work, I can begin my research. Once again, looking deep into the main text is always important. After that however, one must look at other sources. In a normal situation, I would head to the library and peruse for possible sources. I would not really limit myself to a certain section of the library, as there are various different genres to work with. One could potentially find something important in the history section, and then find a science paper on multiverse theory. Both of these topics would benefit the paper, so in this situation, I would pick them both up. As we are in the midst of a pandemic however, I would likely have to resort to the use of databases to find my work. This leads to the problem that Carr describes in which people who read over the internet tend to think differently than those who focus on reading from books. In short, the internet has made us think differently.
For me however, this problem has never been present in my reading methods. Whether or not the source is print or web-based does not matter to me. What makes a larger difference is whether or not I can take the time to read the full source. For instance, last semester I had many different classes and things to focus on. I worked on the Writing Center podcast, I was working on an Honors Thesis, and I was trying to complete my Spanish Minor. So whenever I was handed a source to read for my Spanish papers, I often looked at the length of the work and what I needed to answer. If it was a shorter piece, or if I needed to have read the entirety of the work to answer a question, I would work my way through it. If I did not have to read the whole thing, or if it was a longer work, I would instead look for keywords and go from there. Moreover, I need to be invested in the subject matter of the work to fully enjoy and read said work. For example, I absolutely love J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and am able to read through the entire book within a day or two, assuming that I have the time, of course. However, if I were given the opportunity to read Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, I would likely take much longer to read through it because I am not interested in the subject matter. It all depends on what I am reading and how long I have to read it.
Back to the hypothetical situation of writing a research paper about the multiverse and Borges, once I have my research, I then have to dedicate a certain amount of time to read it. Again, how much time do I have? If this is the ideal situation and I have ample time on my hands, I would likely read through the whole source, regardless of whether or not the source was a physical copy or a digital one. Now in the case of me not having much time to read over my sources, things would be a bit different. For one, instead of reading over the whole work, I would start by looking at the table of contents; I may find a general area to start looking for things that will support my argument. Then, I will start looking for keywords. In the case of this topic, such keywords might be that of “multiverse,” “choice,” or “branching paths.” These are just examples, but this does give an idea of how my mind works when researching a topic with little time to do so.
In conclusion, I do not think that I am the kind of researcher that Carr describes. For one, I do not have trouble focusing on the subject matter, but rather choose what needs to be focused on when time is limited. I do not have trouble reading longer works, but I need to be invested for my mind to truly grasp what I am reading. This is both a good thing and a bad thing for my career choice. I want to be an editor/publisher, and considering that I would have to be doing a lot of reading of various works, I need to be able to focus on what I am reading. Fortunately, I am also an employee of the writing center and therefore engage in a similar type of reading on a daily basis. Because of this, I know how to adapt to what I need to read and have learned the skills necessary for picking out important information in an essay or work of fiction. In short, I know what to do when I get to that point.
