How to Study

My last college semester ever officially starts on January 24th, but I've started the work already. The massive amount of reading required for 300 and 400 level courses in English and History means that work needs to start as soon as possible, which is what I've done. I'm about half-way through the second chapter in my first book for my "The Old Regime and French Revolution" class and have started some preliminary work on my major paper for my Feminist Science Fiction class, which is especially important since I'll be presenting it at a conference.

One thing for which I'm grateful to my Magic Realism class last semester-- it finally taught me how to properly study a book. The fact that I managed to get through three years of college without that knowledge is both daunting and discouraging, but now that I finally do know, I'm getting a lot more enjoyment out of the work.

You have to own the book. Underline (not with pen or with highlighter, or I slap you in jail for book rape), straight and neatly. Also, joking aside, highlighter and dark pen lines often distract from the actual text of the book and make it hard to read. Stick in post-its with thoughts, notes, alerts, et cetera. rather than writing in the margins of the book. Bring your own experiences in: it'll help you remember later on. If your book is badly written with convoluted sentence structure, like that first "Old Regime" book is, try to write a summary after each chapter to figure out what the main point is. Studying should be careful, painstaking work. I, personally, find that fun, but I've been told that I'm strange.

My three stories for the Dell Award are out now; I should hear back in early March one way or the other. Hopefully, I win, and then I can go to Florida! Whee! I've also been given a brief note on my story in at Dark Discoveries-- it's been a year and they're not done, but hey, it's gone up a level to the editor himself! Everything is sunny on the writing front so far this year. (Though who knows what February and March will bring.)