My freeform thoughts as I was In the Thick of It –
I sit at my laptop and log into the Law Library. This is simple, I’ll just put in my search terms and see what happens. Oh my, so many sources! Articles, Law Reviews, SSRN Articles, Books, and more articles. How to narrow it all down. Where does one start? It can quickly become overwhelming. My topic is great, there is so much information available. Wait, I have to read all this information? I have to understand it? I have to be able to synthesize everything out there on my topic into twelve to twenty-one pages? Yikes. Is my topic viable? Of course, it has to be, I’m too far in to back out now. Ok, breathe. You got this. Let’s narrow the search function and find the most relevant sources. There they are, I recognize that author, she’s written a couple articles. She must be somewhat knowledgeable on the topic. Let me read her paper. There’s a great article about AB5, that will be helpful. OK, another one on Proposition 22. Uh Oh…Proposition 22 has been overturned? We have to read more about that. Should we include it in the analysis or not? Here’s a source from 1942. Is that too long ago? Could that source possibly be relevant. How do I know if the law is relevant? Let’s google that. Ok, I have to shepardize the source. What the heck does that mean. Ahh..it’s just a button Westlaw has next to the case. OK, I won’t be using that case. Boy, I’m all over the place here. Sources on independent contracting, interns and volunteers. Is my paper too broad, should I narrow it? No, I want to do a primer – which means I need to find a way to include it all. The annotated bibliography – OMG – what have I gotten myself into? I have to do what? They must have made this Bluebook spiral bound for a reason – if I throw it across the room, it’ll probably stay intact. Primary or secondary – that’s an easy one. I wonder what the rest of my cohort is doing? Are they struggling with this assignment like I am? This is a massive assignment. Blue-booking 20 sources? Sigh…I am starving. I could probably take a break and come back to this later. Yum…I think I have some See’s Candy in the fridge. I’ll just slip away for a quick piece.
In The Thick of It © 2023 by Lisa Sorce is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
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