The last time I had to write an essay, that is a fairly standard 4000 word paper, as opposed to a conference paper, report or thesis was in 1999. My study methods have changed a lot since then. In those days I was studying full time, so it was relatively easy to spend a day in the library, pulling books with interesting subject headings, and articles from the big indexes (full text hadn’t really taken off yet). It was fairly self-limiting, I’d exhaust the resources in my library, find a few websites or reports and be done.

Now, the amount of resources I can pull together for an essay is limitless. One essay I’m writing is on the topic of Access to Knowledge in developing countries. The amount, and type of information available to me is staggering. I can find Hansard, Senate Committee Reports, websites, campaign groups, blog posts and much more before I even get near a book or journal article. To be a student now is difficult, because it’s hard to know when to stop.

Like many students, I find it challenging to define the requirements of coursework now. It is harder to put off writing until the last minute, because there is so much to find and evaluate (this is a good thing), but this can also makes the process more intense.

I’m tagging all of the resources I find for this essay at del.icio.us, using the tag A2K.