Another adjustment I’m slowly having to make for grad school is the way in which I read an essay. How the author gets to his conclusion is now just as important as what the conclusion is. I can no longer skim through a piece and then focus on the last page where he makes his point. In class we talk more about the steps they took to get to their point than what the overall theme is. This means I have to take a lot more time with each essay, and unfortunately a lot of time is not something I have these days. Still, I do think it’s a good way to go about things. It really comes down to the logic and reasoning behind an argument and that can have much bigger implications than anything else. Sometimes an author’s final conclusion will be really boring and mundane, but the steps he took and method of approach will be really innovative and interesting. It also really teaches you how to write essays of this magnitude, which is an important skill to learn if you ever want to get through grad school.

I guess you could compare it to John Cage in a way. His music isn’t always that great to listen to, but his approach to making music and methods of operation are always fascinating, and can really make you re-think a lot of things.