Lit Reviews

I've been reading non-stop for about three weeks now...on a paper I've already submitted drafts of twice. Before grad school, I thought paper writing a pretty linear process. You have an idea, you read about it, you write the paper and turn it in. Of course I knew writing involved revisions, but I guess I had no clue what revising actually entailed. I've now realized that even after drafting a paper, there's still more thinking to be done. Not only thinking, but rethinking. Part of my rethinking this paper entailed the realization that I'd neglected an entire portion of the literature about punishment in the U.S. Not only that, but in the course of searching for this new literature, I found a bunch of stuff related to my old ideas about public opinion on mandatory sentencing. Unfortunately when I read that, I realized I couldn't frame my paper in the same way I had been thinking about because the literature actually did mention what I said it did not.

On the bright side, I've actually enjoyed this process of discovery. I'm reading what I want. I don't want to continue on with this exact topic after this paper, but I've become more of an expert on the subject of punishment and mandatory sentencing. Even though all the ingredients for a brilliant paper still wait to be mixed in just the right proportions, I feel like I'm on the cusp of an idea that will send me flying into the rewrite without looking back.

Today's Grad Gravy: Enjoy the process of discovery we call paper writing.