Well, I had an embarrassing coughing fit in the middle of lecture as postlude to my weekend of being miserable in bed (apparently something is going around), but I managed to get some further information on how dissertations are done around here, as that was the focus of today's Research Methods class. So far, news is still all positive. The dissertation will run between 13-15,000 words, which is not so much longer than my undergrad thesis, and it seems like I have a lot of leeway in terms of branching out beyond the School of English, so my fixation on history can definitely be addressed. More intimidating is the emphasis on being a legitimate contributor to the academic community, an originator of research...ack! I'm going to have to start reading lots of journals.
On a side note, apparently MAs write dissertations, and PhDs write theses here. I had no idea.
Other things:
-I saw a guy in a UMass sweatshirt standing outside the bus stop on my way home today. It was very surprising, but I'm getting the sense that Leeds is far more well-known than I previously thought, especially in Europe and beyond.
-Apparently I have a very clear (or maybe just familiar) American accent, so that my English is easy to understand for a lot of the European students, which means I've been officially assigned by some of my international acquaintances the post of answering grammar questions and correcting English mistakes. It's sort of fun, and again, I like being helpful. Although I feel silly when I can't actually answer questions about my own language. Knowing rules entirely by ear can be problematic.
-Tonight, I'm dragging myself over to FOCAM's first social over at the Union just to say hi to some fellow musicians and composers, and then it's back to reading. Fun!
No comments:
Post a Comment