Preparing to Discuss Beowulf

Step 1 – Coffee

3 extra shots of espresso please 

Both before reading a long and sometimes drawn out piece of literature it is helpful to insure ones ability to stay awake.  This is especial important because I do most my school work at night. 

Step 2—Read

I will admit that I hardly ever read my textbooks. This doesn’t mean I don’t use them just that I don’t read them.   Literature classes are a huge exception because you pretty much have to read the text book.   Even still, I often read quickly for the sake of time and only look back if it is needed for an assignment.   When preparing for this discussion I actually tried to READ the text and come to some deeper understanding before I started working on the assignment.  Also, I marked up my book as I do even if I am just scanning.  My English 102 professor would be pleased to know he created such a habit, but I will point out that this tendency makes it really hard to read library books. 

Step 3—Research (attempted)

After reading I tried to some basic research on a few of the handout questions.  My basic Ebsco host/Google scholar search did not easily give me the answers I was looking for so I abandoned this mode of thought. 

Step 4 – Explore the questions

Next, I scanned and flipped through the text to answer the questions on the handout and in my head.

Step 5—Mark up, Write down

I then went through my book and further highlighted (I always write books when reading it anyways) the passages I might want to find easily in a discussion and tabbed the pages according to subject matter.   After which I wrote down answers for most of the questions on a piece of paper.

Step 6—More Coffee

Self explanatory!

And what did I learn?

Preparing for class/discussing literature is not in itself a difficult task.  It is overcoming my own innate and sometimes excusable (relaxing keeps a single mom from madness) laziness.  I have also once again noticed my undeniable knack for stressing myself out (to the point of a tension headache) over a school assignment when I have nothing to worry about.  I am not the brightest bird in the blueberry bush but if I even try I always end up doing fine.  So I was again reminded not to stress because most of the time it is not necessary.