Dr. Old Bill

No. I was whining about it over the summer and early autumn, particularly after reading such lengthy and informative threads from years past. It's probably just an anomaly this year. Then again, it's possible that all the (justifiable) doom and gloom over the state of the industry has finally started to dissuade a lot of would-be graduate applicants. At my current college, I've only come across one other person who is applying to English Ph.D. programs. I don't socialize much, given the age gap, and the distance I live from campus, but I still find it odd that I haven't come across more graduate hopefuls, given the relative prestige of my school.

Mine are all formatted thus: “Poem Title,” Journal, no. 19, September 2011 I probably looked at a style guide for reference at the time, but can't recall specifically.

*feverishly starts on an 18th application*

Considering that their application window doesn't close for another three weeks, I'm thinking not. They don't, to the best of my knowledge, do rolling admissions.

Proflorax, that's admirable beyond words. Seriously. Part of the reason I say that is that I think I will be one of those scholars / educators who doesn't address current issues like these, unless it is by way of relating it to whatever material I happen to be teaching at the time...which, given the "history repeating" nature of human conflict, is always quite possible. I had a great, albeit small, research seminar this past semester entitled "The Role of the Child in Victorian America." It was ostensibly focused on literature, and we did indeed read several important mid-19th century thematically child-oriented works, like Uncle Tom's Cabin, Little Women, The Lamplighter, What Maisie Knew etc., but the professor (who is fantastic, I might add) made a point of tying a lot of the issues revolving around children in these works to contemporary issues, such as Ferguson, Trayvon Martin, the South Korean ferry disaster etc. In fact, much of our coursework consisted of "response papers" that could be about anything within the spectrum of childhood studies and related literature. As a class, we even attended a panel discussion my college held on the topic of rape and sexual abuse on campus. I was initially a bit miffed about this, as I wanted to deal with the literature we were in the process of reading...but let me tell you, it was a real eye opener to hear the canned, artificial, pre-fab responses of college admin to recent concerns. It was appalling, really, and I realized that things were a lot uglier under the surface than I suspected. And I attend a top, prestigious college! I can only imagine what lurks beneath the surface of similar institutions...not to mention "lesser" colleges. All of these things need to be discussed. Perhaps they need to be discussed ad nauseum, or at least until change DOES occur. The problem we face as current or future scholars and professors is one of balancing relevances, for lack of a better term. The key will be tying present-day concerns into the work we are teaching, and I suppose the better question is should we be? I think the answer to that is "yes," though I suspect that "no" is equally valid and defensible. It comes down to whether one believes that literature is its own thing and current events is another. If we choose to build a bridge between the two, I think our classes can potentially benefit in numerous ways. Yet there is a certain undeniable "safety" in teaching literature as a thing apart from contemporary society, and as the world in our lifetimes will likely have periods where it gets worse than it is now, as well as periods where it is better, I can't really blame professors who choose to teach the discipline in a vacuum.

I had so many application expenses that Visa filed for fee waivers.

Go for it! My only caveat is that you probably shouldn't get too belligerent or specific in your venting, as you never know if an adcomm member will be reading. I make a point of tacitly imagining that anything I write on the Internet could be read by anyone, anywhere, at any time. Not as an ego-stroke, but as a way of remaining civil. I'm very bad at being "political," so I just keep everything open and honest, but slightly discretionary...just in case. Then again, I've probably posted more than anyone else here over the past six months, so I'm probably screwed anyway. P.S.: Welcome, Inkgraduate!

Oh no no...not in the least, little Bat! My comment probably needed a .gif. In fact, had I not been posting rather speedily, I would have posted a .gif of Elaine from Seinfeld saying "Get out!" while pushing Jerry (I did a brief, one-minute search and couldn't find anything suitable, alas). In all honesty (detached from the whole "in-the-process" thing), that's not a bad tactic by adcomms anyhow. If you can't grab the reader with the intro and give them something to take away from the reading with the conclusion, you're probably not a good academic writer. Broad statement, I know, but when you think about it, you see it's mostly true...

Yes, I think MollifiedMolloy's point is a good one. I only list my "relevant" work experience (which is basically two jobs), but the C.V. gives me a chance to list a boatload of poetry publications...which I can only sort of hint at in my SOP without it sounding too MFA-ish. If I didn't include those, it would be a pretty short C.V., really, given that my career plans only shifted in this direction at the end of 2011. If it was a true, "full" C.V., it would be several pages long...but since it's geared toward getting into grad school, it just has stuff that is pertinent to that goal.

For what it's worth, I didn't list months for work experience...just the year. I think it's standard practice to do that on C.V.s I included months on publications though.

Wow. It sure would have saved me a lot of time if I'd known that only two pages of my WS count. What if the last page just has a couple of sentences? Must they be amazing sentences? Seriously though, I wonder how typical that is. It strikes me as a bit dismissive, really.

Not "traditional" historical fiction, but boy do I ever love the Baroque Trilogy by Neal Stephenson. Basically, it tracks a few interrelated stories from the mid-17th to early 18th centuries. Isaac Newton is a character, as are several other personages from that time period. A lot of it is about the formation of natural philosophy -- the first "scientists," really. But a major subplot features a vagabond and his various hijinks amidst other historical happenings. I've read and enjoyed everything by Stephenson, so I'm biased, but since the three books can (in theory) be read independently, start with Quicksilver and see how you like it.

What's wrong with using a typewriter? If it was good enough for Steinbeck, it's good enough for me! Besides, I just recently upgraded: Yeah, I don't know why I made it sound like it would take a lot of time to learn. The trick will be to train myself though, or else I'll invariably start slipping back into MLA habits. Not a bad thing, but if I'm going to do a hybrid MLA / Chicago style, I'd rather do it deliberately!

Funnily enough, I just double-checked my assigned reading list for next semester and THREE of the works on the Modern Library list are on there. Progress!

I must say, generally speaking I far prefer footnotes over endnotes in a text I'm interested in reading. I hate having to flip (or scroll) to the end every time I come across something that needs explanation. However, if there's .pdf on Blackboard that I'm only reading because I have to, I always have a moment of minor bliss when I see that the final four pages are all endnotes. In terms of style, I think Chicago is superior to MLA, but I've never actually used it personally. Assuming I get in somewhere, that's one of my to-do lists for next summer: gain a comprehensive knowledge of Chicago style.

Yeah. This. Totally. I mean, I've always been fairly "well-read," considering that my life until the age of 30 was surrounded by non-literary (and even non-literate!) people. I always had a taste for literary classics. AND YET...there's so much I need to read! I'm constantly encountering books that I feel I really ought to have read by now. It's daunting, really, though also a bit exciting, because it means that it will take all of us a hell of a long time (read: never) to effectively "run out" of important or interesting books to read... I died a little inside when I looked at Queennight's Modern Library link. I've read maybe 1/3 of those novels.

As silly as it sounds, this gave me a big ol' smile. Seriously, this process makes the most insignificant elements seem monumental...

Their Eyes Were Looking At God, the "In Other Words" series version of Their Eyes Were Watching God! Found right next to Stowe's Uncle John's Cabin and Alcott's Tiny Women. (Sorry, if an English major can't tease another English major about a minor typo, who can?) Yeah, I'm between books right now, but read quite a few novels this past semester. Jane Eyre and Northanger Abbey were a couple of "should-have-read-earlier" novels that I quite enjoyed, while Henry James' short story / novella "The Pupil" turned out to be my favorite of his works so far. Wasn't too big on What Maisie Knew, however. As for things I'm planning on reading for pleasure... Believe it or not, I'm actually going to set aside time to read Sidney's A Defence of Poetry. It's short, and it's something I should have read by now already. And a former professor of mine, who I've pretty much become friends with, told me I should "treat myself" over break by reading it. So I probably will! Beyond that, I've got a lot of books I want to get to at some point, so I'll probably just pick one and go with it. Indeed, Their Eyes Were Watching God is one of those books. So maybe I'll give it a shot! My library is starting to fill up with more books that I haven't read than ones I have, so I've got to remedy that somehow. Mind you, a quick glance at my courses for next semester reveals 21 required texts so far (four out of five courses reporting). So maybe I should get a head start on those...

Thanks! It's funny...it feels like they've been "done" for a long while, but realistically, until that emeritus uploaded his final letter this morning, I couldn't legitimately say they were complete... I'm doing a low-carb thing right now, BUT I just chugged an Atkins shake...so that's something!

The emeritus LOR-writer I mentioned the other day has now uploaded his one missing letter, which means that all of my LORs are now in. Huzzah! So unless I screwed something up, like sending a scanned transcript when a program wants a hard copy or something, my applications are officially 100% complete and ready to be pored over.

Oh, I was totally joking. The reason I said it is because I use sort of a "hybrid MLA" in my WS. Most things are consistently in MLA format, but as mentioned, footnotes are generally a no-no in MLA. I don't want to fathom a universe in which I would get instantly rejected because of this deliberate violation of format. That would be particularly ironic, though, given that I added the footnotes to help adcomm members who might not be familiar with certain details that I can't really cover directly in the context of the paper. Truly, I'm very happy with my WS. It has my personal stamp of approval (which can be hard to come by), but has also been seen and given the thumbs-up by enough professors, writers, and other academics (including you!) that the only thing my admission-neuroses can concern itself with is formatting considerations.

Thanks for making me self-conscious about my WS yet again, Unraed.

It's usually the case that notes / references / appendices etc. don't count against the page requirement. But it's not always the case. One DGS I contacted mentioned that they wanted no more than fifteen pages total, and pointed out how many papers they have to read etc. I'm guessing a lot of adcomms would have a five-page requirement if they thought they could determine enough about the candidate from such a small size...

There aren't really stylistic conventions in general, but I kept mine mostly MLA format, but included footnotes. About ten or so. I simply thought it was necessary to clarify a few things this way for adcomm readers who may not have an intimate knowledge of Shakespeare's sonnets. That said, none exceeded three sentences or so, so I'm not sure how much this helps.

Seriously! With maybe one exception, I think that I'd be happy to go anywhere I applied. It's going to be difficult to resist the temptation to shout "Yes! Yes! A thousand times, yes!" to the first (if I am to get more than one...) acceptance call I receive. But at heart, I do want to see the process through and be able to weigh all my options...if there are options, of course.