After E Hist

Bah really irritated with myself. Can't believe what I did today in E Hist...did the Dictators question and also the wildcard question, which was also on dictatorships. Well actually it was on the similarities and differences between Fascism and Marxism, but effectively because of that choice I did essays on all three dictators and effectively dumped three of my five topics. What a waste, the more I think about it, the more I think I should have done unification even though I never liked that topic. The thing about Dictators was that it was fun to do, the info was just there for the picking, but there was too much info and not enough time...no time to really organise it into a cogent and persuasive whole.

First time that I had to dump a point for an essay. There was just too much to write. And after the thing it suddenly occured to me that there was another point that I could have added in that was worth sacrificing a bit of the political analysis for. When you're doing the thing you don't have the luxury of time to decide what is really important and what is not. It's psychologically reassuring to just keep writing. And when you have too much information then it becomes dangerous and the argument can go out of control. What I shall do for I Hist is to stop reading new stuff now, and just organise my facts into usable units. Bah must prioritise the points next time.

I think I should have done the Prussia question. Had all the info, just didn't like the question, which wasn't very entertaining. In fact the questions in this paper were by and large not interesting...lots of listing factors questions. Doable, but boring. But next time I think I should just be pragmatic and not indulge myself. Just do what is doable, do it well, and force myself to like it.

Bleah ah well...should stop thinking about it. Exorcising myself of it here. It's not that the essay was bad per se, I felt it was passable. Just didn't think I did the question justice. Didn't feel like I was doing myself justice, by dumping one more topic than necessary. A waste lar, it was a waste. That's why it feels so bad.

pondered by phoenican @ 11.11.05