Tales of the Invisible Ben

A General Update

This evening I finished taking notes on the final book on my major field list, a detailed examination of the national laboratory system in the U.S. between 1947 and 1974. With that out of the way and my two minor field lists completed last week, I am now done reading the 200 or so books and articles included on my reading list for generals.

This is simultaneously a moment of great triumph and terrible dread.

My exam is in a week, so in a sense I am actually ahead of schedule.
In another sense, this is arguably going to be among the seven most stressful days of my academic career as I try to anticipate what questions my various professors could pose during the five day gauntlet that is the general examination. I intend to make copies of previous exams from a folder in the history department offices tomorrow and then start brainstorming possible essay topics.

There are likely to be between 6-8 essays, a total of 12,000 words maximum written between May 5th and May 9th. Although I have written plenty of essays in the past, normally, I don't have to worry about this sort of intense time pressure. Given that this examination determines whether or not I stay in my Ph.D. program, it would be a real shame to come down with writers' block. So the plan is to outline at least 2 possible essays for each of my three fields. I'm not planning to do a detailed outline of the kind I have preferred in the past, wherein I basically end up writing a full draft longhand with a mechanical pencil and a stack of old-fashioned college-rule. More likely, for the sake of time (and my own sanity...what little of it remains), I will go through my notes, compile a list of viable sources, try to array them in a logical order and then write an introductory paragraph complete with well-crafted thesis statement. Since I typically find the introduction to be the most difficult section of the paper, this tactic will hopefully obviate some of the normal frustration I feel staring at a blank word processing document and the blinking cursor ticking the seconds away. Plus, once I push over that first domino and have all the other sources in place, the rest of the essay-writing should flow in a straightforward fashion.

The plan is not ideal. After all, my professors are unpredictable and there is no guarantee that the questions I outline will in fact be on the exam. On the other hand, however, this strategy the best I can devise based on the factors over which I have control, and I think it strikes a good balance between writing 6 full draft essays and just making a list of books for an infinite array of potential topics.

And if all goes well, I'll be so busy coming up with brilliant ideas for my general exams that I won't feel compelled to go online as often. Which is about as perfect a way for me to end this blog post as any, so I'll sign off for now.