Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Just start writing

This post isn't strictly about librarianship. It's about studying IT and librarianship. But hopefully, it'll be helpful to someone out there.

I'm writing an assignment at the moment on e- and m-learning and how my library can embed our services in these environments at our University. I struggled for almost a week with the readings, trying to frame my argument, trying to decide how I was going to approach the topic. At first glance it seemed so simple, but once I delved into the readings, it got way more complicated.

My 'aha' moment came last night: I know this stuff. I know what libraries do in the e-learning and m-learning contexts. We embed ourselves in learning management systems, we create online tutorials, we offer key services via mobile devices. And so I started writing. Ignoring the literature, I just wrote and wrote until I was finished putting all my thoughts down.

After that, I went back to support my thoughts using the literature.

This might seem obvious to everyone else, but it really was an epiphany to me. Top assignment-writing tip: Don't allow yourself to get bogged down with the literature. You know this. Start writing.