So I've gotten some questions from you guys on how to connect with and make it through some of the drier texts that we have to read in philosophy. Pretty much every professor, if they're being honest with you, will admit that some texts/philosophers in particular are extremely hard to get through Sometimes you start to wonder-- why are we even learning this? And how in the world am I supposed to even get through the reading, much less understand it? I can't tell you how many times I've read through an assigned text and at some point just went "Wtf even is this?" Or I found myself reading the same sentence over and over again because it was so dry that I kept zoning out or dozing off.
To be totally honest with you, there have been many times that I learned a philosopher without ever reading their actual texts. We live in a wonderful world where there are a ridiculous amount of articles, books, essays, blogs, etc. about philosophy. It's nearly impossible to not find some good, scholarly, and much easier to understand reading material about the philosopher of your choice. Then, once you've built up a basic understanding of their philosophy, you go back to the original text--nine times out of ten it's going to make a lot more sense to you. I've told professors that I have to supplement my reading sometimes, and they've told me that it's perfectly fine. Just because nothing seems to make sense, or a certain text is so dry that it puts you to sleep the first time around doesn't mean that it's hopeless.
However, sometimes you really need a deeper understanding of the original text itself in order to write a paper. You can still use outside sources to help you, but for papers you need to have an intimate understanding of the original passage. When I write a philosophy paper, I read through the text (or parts of it) that I need line by line until I thoroughly understand the argument I'm writing about, and am able to reference the key parts of the text that build it. What really helps is to talk to a fellow student or professor about it as if you're teaching them. Teaching others can help to both solidify information in your mind and force you to look at it from a different perspective, which can help fill in some blanks you're stuck on. There are often times where I'm waiting on that final "Aha!" moment where things finally click in my head, and trying to teach what you're learning to someone else will nearly always me there.
If you ever have any questions about how to research for a philosophy paper, questions about a specific philosopher, or just questions in general about philosophy--please, don't hesitate to ask them here! I can't promise to know everything, but I'll help however I can.