skip to content

Home

Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics

 

When to stop reading

It may be difficult to decide when to stop reading and start writing. You don’t need to have read everything ever published on the subject; on the other hand, you need to read enough to make sure that you are aware of the most important critical debates.

If you are writing a text-based dissertation, an important stage in the reading and note-taking process is to go back to your primary texts after reading the work of other critics. Re-read texts, watch films again or refocus on whatever forms of artistic or cultural expression you have chosen to work on. This will help you regain a sense of their scope and complexity, and encourage you to start thinking critically about how other people have engaged with these texts.