Waco-Waco

Ok guys - hopefully this will be my last panicky post, any advice, as always, greatly appreciated. So - I'm gonna get real for a sec. My undergrad results are good (UK marking system as opposed to GPA - not sure how it equates, but I think it's something like 3.7. I think) but there are a few hiccups here and there, earlier on in university (first and second year). Fact of the matter is, one of my parents passed away unexpectedly a week before university started, which, frankly, affected my entire university life/successes - particularly first and second year. Through some weird pride I never 'used' this to ask for extensions, mitigating circumstances, etc - which in retrospect I certainly should have done. My question is (you can see this coming), do I mention this fact in my SOP by way of explaining a few rocky results? Thing is, I obviously don't want to come across as making excuses, and I definitely don't want it to seem like I'm 'using' this death. But at the same time, the truth is that it *has* adversely affected particular aspects of my academic successes/results. I wasn't planning on mentioning it at all - this is just one of those last-minute freak outs. Anyway, thanks folks - hope all your apps/terms are going well.

Solid and sound advice from all, especially toasterazzi - that's put my mind at ease somewhat, and certainly seems to be the approach I was aiming for. Thank you thank you thank you everyone again for offering your thoughts - deadlines are looming, things are getting hectic, so it's much appreciated.

Hey, So, yeah - getting together the final bits and pieces for my application, and I'm struggling on the 'fit' aspect of the SOP. I've come up with my final list of Universities, and all their departmental strengths match my particular interests, and it seems like they would all be a good fit for me. But... it's not like I've read all of these professors' publications. In fact, the way in which I'm judging whether some of the departments will be a good fit or not is by looking at particular professors' publications lists, seeing what type of stuff they write about, and then maybe going on to read a little bit about one or two publications. For instance: 'Oh, professor X writes about Y, I want to write about Y too. Oh and look, professor Z also writes about Y - this department is looking like a good fit for me! I guess I'll just get some context on their books to see what exactly their thoughts on Y are' The confusion comes in with the SOP: I don't want to lie in my SOP and write 'when I was studying such and such, professor X's book on Y really struck me as blah blah blah', if I haven't actually read the book(s). But simply writing something to the effect of 'I think I would be a good fit because the department's strengths in the area(s) of Y match my interests in Y' seems potentially shallow. So, basically... how the hell do you effectively write about 'fit', and do you need to mention several specific professors and specific publications? My common sense says that you should write about the department's strengths in broader terms, how they relate to your interests, and then mention maybe one or two professors? Oh gosh. Sorry this is massively ineloquent, hungover for the first time in months. Any advice appreciated!

To be honest (not that I'm an expert on the topic) I would just spend equal amounts of time revising/reading up on each historical period. I can't say for certain but I'm pretty sure they're not going to use the same test in Oct as they did in Sep (?), so who knows what will come up. Also, even though I myself remarked on another thread that there was a lot of Old English, I do think there is something to be said for 'remembering the questions that were difficult and thinking that the test is skewed to things that you find difficult'. I'd say I spent basically an even amount of time on each historical period, and an equal amount of time looking at theory and literary terms. You can find this stuff everywhere but here are some of the terms I memorised: alexandrine - Another name for iambic hexameter. Final line of a Spenserian stanza is alexandrine Alliterative verse - stemming from Anglo-Saxon epics. Think Sir Gawin, Vision of Piers apostrophe - an exclamatory rhetorical figure of speech, often introduced by ‘O’, where the speaker breaks off and directs speech to imaginary person or idea Aubade - a poem or song about/of lovers separating at dawn: Donne’s ‘The Sunne Rising’. Ballad - quatrain where second and fourth lines rhyme, usually alternating 4-stress and 3-stress lines, 8 and 6 syllables. ‘Ancient Mariner’, example. Breton Lay - form of medieval French and English romance literature, short rhymed tales of love and chivalry, often involving supernatural motifs. Chaucer’s ‘The Franklin’s Tale’. chiasmus - rhetorical construction in which order of words in the second of two paired phrases is the reverse of the order of the first. Byron: ‘pleasure’s a sin, and sometime’s sin’s a pleasure’ elegy (pastoral) - the mourner is a shepherd: Milton’s Lycidas and Shelley’s Adonias End-stopped line - a line of verse that ends grammatically epithalamium - a form of poem that is written for the bride, or to celebrate a wedding generally. Spenser’s Epithalamium Eclogue - a poem in a classical style on a pastoral subject. Sometimes also called bucolics euphuistic prose - tending to euphemism; abounding in highflown or affectively refined expression; associated with pre-Shakespeare John Lyly. fabliau - comic work concerning cuckolded husbands, etc. feminine rhyme - rhyme that matches two or more syllables at the end of respective lines, final syllable usually unstressed. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 20: passion/fashion. georgic - a poem dealing with agriculture hamartia - tragic mistake or tragic flaw, from Aristotle’s Poetics. Heroic Couplets - rhyming pairs of iambic pentameter, Restoration. Kunstlerroman - Bildingsroman, but about growth of artist. Lawrence’s ‘Sons and Lovers’ Litotes - a figure of speech, in which the speaker emphasises the magnitude of a statement by denying its opposite. Beowulf: ‘That sword was not useless to the warrior now’ monody - an ode sung by one voice. Milton’s Lycidas Neo-classical unities - principles of dramatic unity popular in antiquity until after the renaissance; place, time, and action. Ottava Rima - eight iambic lines, usually in pentameter. Each stanza has three rhymes of a-b-a-b-a-b-c-c. Byron’s Don Juan, Yeats’ Sailing to Byzantium. Poetic inversions - inversion of normal grammatical word order Prosopopoeia - rhetorical device in which a speaker or writer communicates to the audience by speaking as another person or object Rhyme Royal - seven lines, usually iambic pentameter. Rhyme scheme is a-b-a-b-b-c-c. roman á clef - a novel describing real-life events behind a facade of fiction. Hawthorne’s Blithedale Romance, Hemmingway’s Sun Also Rises, Plath’s Bell Jar. Sturm and Drang - a German literary genre emphasising the volatile emotional life of the individual. Associated with Goethe. Synaethesia - the description of a sense impression. Keats’ ‘sunburnt mirth’ Synecdoche - a figure of speech that presents a kind of metaphor in which: part of something is used for the wholethe whole is used for a partthe species is used for the genus the genus is used for the species, orthe matter is used for the thing. Consider the characterization of fictional characters, i.e represented by an individual body part. terza rima - a three lined stanza using chain rhyme in a-b-a, b-c-b, etc. Think Dante, and also Shelley’s Ode to The West. Villanelle - the one with two alternating refrains that resolve into a concluding couplet. Dylan Thomas’ ‘Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night’. There were a bunch more that I picked up on the way (I'm sure you're well beyond this if your test is on Sat, but hey, might be of some use).

Hey to BJC and biyutefulphlower, Chicago's on my list too, but I'm for Poetry and Poetics. I've just made a start on my SOP (or writing sample, or personal statement, or whatever the correct term is) but only pretty casually. I figure it's good to get a framework down early, tinker with it until you're happy with it, and then taylor it accordingly once you've decided on your final list of programs/universities. I'm also in that GRE Subject test boat... booked mine for September, very nervous about it. I'm coming from a UK background and am really not accustomed to such broad exams. I plan to look over the Norton anthology contents, a genuinely just try to memorise any author-dates that I might be shaky on. Other than that, I'm not sure what else can be done. I think a lot of it is reading comprehension ('What is the author trying to communicate in this passage? What literary device is the author employing?' etc etc) so there's not much that can be done for that, I think...

Hey, I appreciate all your thoughts echo449, Unraed, and Wyatt's Torch — all invaluable and comforting points. And Unraed, I may PM you about that paper, and echo449, I may very well PM you with a couple of questions at some point, thanks to both of you for offering! To answer echo449's question, I guess I'm applying to a broad range of top and slightly-less-than-top tier programs. Likely what's happening here is that I'm just freaking out, possibly irrationally, about my writing sample. I've got much else out of the way (I've bagged decent references, taught myself a decent level of Latin to assist with the language requirements, sat and done well on the GRE—though not the Subject, yet—and am well on my way to finalising my choices and getting hyped about them) and the writing sample is just another great big hurdle, one that carries so much of the application's weight. But you're all right, I should trust my capabilities, and I know, at heart, what makes a good essay.

Hey—great advice, I appreciate it. I feel like I'm in a weird zone where I'm not quite sure what US programs are looking for in the writing samples; it's so different in the UK (at least, it seems to me) and I feel like I'm navigating this whole process blind (except for this incredibly valuable site and all the helpful people here). Because UK programs don't have those 2 years in the lead up to the PhD, they expect you to be immediately ready to do hefty research, to produce your thesis. I assume this means that, in the writing sample, they want to see high levels of original thought. I prefer the US model, where you have those 2 years to build on, explore, and refine your area of interest (which, of course, you will already have a pretty set idea of before you apply). I'm guessing this means, as mentioned earlier, that they don't expect such a high level of original thought in your writing sample. I suppose what I'm getting at is that I know what a good final year UK undergrad paper looks like, and I know what a good UK MA paper looks like, but I don't know what a good US paper (undergrad or MA) looks like. Anyway, half-non-sensical rant over with, it's probably a topic for a different thread anyway.

Hey, Thanks for your input. The citation thing does seem like a smart idea; better to acknowledge and adapt. But man alive am I getting sick of reworking this paper... at least I started on it early, so I've still got a decent(ish) amount of time until the application deadlines. Although, I should get used to the idea of having to rework and rework and rework papers! Thanks.

Hey, Thanks so much for your helpful and detailed response. It's a tricky one for sure. I think part of my panic is coming from some kind of denial — I've been working on and re-writing this paper for so long now, and, just when it looked like it was finished, I stumble across this other paper that throws it all into flux again, and I'd rather it not be. I think you're right on your second point. I suppose a big difference between the two papers is that, on the surface, the other paper sets out to achieve something different, to explore a highly specific aspect that is tied up with the theory and the text. Mine, on the other hand, is perhaps a broader examination of a theme, using the theory as an analytical tool. It just happens that, along the way, we've interpreted the text via the theory in very similar ways... I think probably my best option is to keep working on it until I have a finish product that I'm happy with, and then I can compare the two papers again — I don't want to linger on his paper for too long, in case it actually starts influencing mine. Better to wait and then edit/change accordingly... I guess. Anyway, thanks so much again.

Hey, I'd really appreciate some advice from you guys on my writing sample. So, I'm tightening up an essay that I wrote for an MFA last year — it deconstructs the exploration of mortality in a contemporary collection of poetry (a well known, important text, not something super obscure) via theory, historical context, close reading, etc etc. Anyway, during my second round of research I stumbled across a paper online that I must have somehow missed when I first wrote my paper, and, bafflingly, it is incredibly similar to mine. By which I mean it explores the same theme in the same text, uses the same theory, produces similar arguments... the difference is that this paper (which I discovered on some .edu website, but I can't work out if it's published in a journal or anything) is LONG, thesis-length, and it's probably a better piece of writing than mine. But I mean, they're not EXACTLY the same, I do look at different things in my paper, we do go in different directions. It's just, at the foundation, there are some huge similarities. So my question is, how damaging is this? I'm both worried that it will look like I've just copied ideas from this other paper, and that I have no original thought in my writing sample. I've come up in the UK education system, so the application process to US programs has been difficult for me to navigate - and this has made it all the more complicated. Are US programs likely to question this? Will they even notice? Urgh. Should I just use another sample altogether (which would be an issue - I have a more 'traditional' paper that discusses formulations of the self in the work of a 20th C poet, but I don't use theory at all...)? Anyway, I've been shadowing these forums for a couple of weeks now, and you all seem like a great bunch - this is a great, informative site, and hopefully I'll be able to contribute to some conversations too. Thanks.