Sometimes, when I’m not feeling so familiar with the content, I have the tendency to want to read obsessively on it. However, even after reading adequately, and in principle, ready to write, I still feel the need to hold on to the readings for a sense of security – as if holding on to the original phrasing will assure me that I can communicate my appropriation of their ideas in my writing. I have learnt that oftentimes, after a binge-reading session, what I really need to do is to put the readings aside, and just write it from scratch – to a person who hasn’t read all that stuff. I think, all too often, we may imagine our reader to already know all the stuff that we’ve read. However, it may be much more productive to assume the opposite. Afterall, if we’ve borrowing ideas from stuff people have already read, then we aren’t really contributing so much?

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~ by moz on May 6, 2016.