I’m wondering what this prospectus of mine is going to look like once I finally get done with it. It seems so distant at this point that I have a hard time imagining the final result. That we’re approaching the project piecemeal is a relief; the idea of having to produce in one fulsome chunk a ten-page, blueprint-like document from which our entire thesis will (supposedly) emerge – that’s overwhelming.
My concern now relates to our discussion in class Wednesday night. Say that this prospectus is a parfait. How much fruit? How much cream? Of what size should their respective strata be?
The idea that the prospectus be organic is a little intimidating. It reminds me of the saw about Abraham Lincoln (which can’t possibly be true). Apparently, someone once asked our 16th president how tall a man should be. Lincoln putatively replied, “Tall enough for his feet to touch the ground.”
Whatever.
My literature review, then, certainly touches the ground. I’ve been using my annotated bibliography essay, a four-page document, as a starting point, but so far, all I’ve managed to do is transform a (what I considered to be) pithy paper into a six-and-a-half-page behemoth. Concision, perhaps, is not my strong point.
The project for the weekend is to reselect the texts that I intend to address, to concoct a “conversation” based upon those that have most direct relevance to me, and to put the other sources off to the side. The problem with my strategy – the one that inflated the size of my annotated bibliography – is that I’m trying to incorporate too broad a swathe of information. The stuff that doesn’t make the cut into my literature review is not necessarily unusable, just not crucial.
I imagine that once I begin hewing my seven-page monster, I’ll discover an organic length.
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