wanderlust07

capital punishment

I immediately and fervently wished that I'd looked to my right.

Ha. This! I think by now most people I know have settled down or can take my grumpiness for a hint. When I was first entering undergrad., though, and contemplating majoring in English, I had a gal laugh, turn to me and say, "Repeat after me: Do you want fries with that?" I think that was the rudest comment I ever got re. my future prospects.

Ok. So ideally you want a sound sample of critical writing that addresses one (or more) of those areas. Honestly, for an MA, those areas of interest are probably plenty specific--one of the benefits of doing an MA before the PhD is that most require you to complete a similarly broad foundation of coursework, so you get to play around in various time periods and with various critical lenses to find out what else might interest you. I went into an MA claiming an interest in contemporary American fiction and folkore and am applying to doctoral programs with interests in Victorian literature, queer theory and disability studies, among other things. (Not that it doesn't matter what interests you, because it does and you should have an excellent sense of what those interests are and WHY, but no one will chuck you out on your ear later for changing as a scholar). The adcomms won't expect you to have your dissertation mapped out--only that you will have a sense of a) where you currently are as a scholar and how those interests fit well with the specific program, potential for further scholarship and growth, as demonstrated by your writing, a willingness to keep exploring and delving, and a sense that you are capable of independent research and reasonably conversant with the field. I pretty much second what's already been said here--your SoP and writing sample should clearly connect your interests (current and where you see them heading) to how those fit with the programs to which you're applying. If you've selected schools with good fit, that fit should be apparent in your writing.

backup piece.

backup plan

Zimaleah, I'm sorry you've found yourself in an unexpected bind. Without knowing the full context of the course (number of students, your full interaction with the prof., etc) and as a graduate instructor, I want to reiterate at least part of StrangeLight's advice--keep in mind that your profs. are human beings. It sounds like the instructor here is unlikely to change your grade, which is unfortunate, but that doesn't make him a "debacle." I realize this is an anonymous forum and what you've written here probably bears NO relation to the tenor of your emails to your professor, but since I can clearly sense your frustration I merely remind you that the LAST thing any instructor wants to hear is any assertion along the lines of, "I pay for x." Even if you are formally petitioning through another section of the college, I encourage you to remain calm and respectful toward all parties as you move forward. Also keep in mind that depending on where you end up/how large your field is, people at these institutions are your potential future professors and colleagues--you do indeed have "something to lose" if you leave behind too many ruffled feathers. Regardless, I think adcomms (in my field, at least--I can't really speak to yours, but I suspect this is similar) are always looking more for indications of potential in grad school and beyond than a perfected applicant (since there's no such thing). In this I am in complete agreement with bhikhaari. If you feel this grade is going to hurt your chances, you could spend a line or so in your SoP stating how it's not a reflection on your upward trend as a student. I don't think this need necessarily spoil your plan to pitch yourself as having turned around your education--you've clearly been working hard. Your work experience and LoRs can only help you, and I would focus on making the portions of the applications under your control as positive and strong as possible. Best of luck!

hard luck

hostage exchange

dead ringer

I think the 1 source thread you mention is here: Re. fine-tuning or selling this one: The SoP is gone beyond recall? (ie, the application itself has been submitted?) I ask, because many online applications will let you replace uploaded documents before the application itself has been submitted. If it's gone out into the blogoblog already, that gives us a better idea of your timeline. The thread above has some ideas about spending time in the SoP or LoRs discussing the context of the essays and how they relate. Is there any way to flesh out the shorter piece (without adding length) to include a better sense of your current focus? You've no doubt grown a lot as a scholar and writer in three years--are there pieces that could be cut/condensed to leave room for a complimentary theoretical or critical lens to make it seem less assignment-y? What about it compliments the 16 page paper? Is that a relationship you can exploit or make more evident in the text itself? I think that even if the SoP is gone beyond recall/there's insufficient time to do major restructuring, the adcomm can be relied upon to draw the connections between them. A cover letter with your supplementary materials might be partly used to touch on the genesis/connection as well, if you want to do some nudging.

Thanks!

@Strangefox: Now see, you've opened Pandora's box. There's an opposing camp out there who claim Enterprise got stronger as it went--perhaps they are right. I should add that I slogged through the first two seasons (roughly) before quitting, so I might not be the best person to answer. My top reasons: In spite of my attempts to be a good St. Louisan (Bakula's hometown) and LOVING Quantum Leap (one of his most famous roles), I just could not dig Scott Bakula in that role. I don't know what it was, but it was some combination of Kirk-esque inability to deliver lines smoothly and maybe Archer's pet beagle. Because it was set before TOS but produced significantly later, it had to do some really awkward finagling in order to square things with the universe's timeline and where tech/reality actually *went* post-60s. It didn't always do a good job of keeping canon consistent (this is a problem with Trek, generally, and we are usually forgiving, but I think it was more prevalent or widespread as ENT tried to launch). MPREG. I just...I will follow trek fandom to the depths of hell, but don't ever, EVER make that canon. *twitch* I say this as a queer theorist, who's generally down with gender-bending. I don't know why, but it's a thing for me. Added to that--lots of awkward romantic entanglements.... The temporal cold war had some promise, but trek generally has an annoying tendency to hit the magic reset button, wherein the powers that be erase all the consequences of everything that just happened, and a war in time just seemed to INVITE that (see the latest movie, the final episode of Voyager). I think it just failed to live up to its hype, and a lot of fans were hoping for more closure after VOY, which they never got and so were dissatisfied already (VOY made the mistake of switching from story arc to episodic plots and lost a lot of its following). Perhaps, like a good field, it just needed to lie fallow for a while... For a show that was ostensibly returning to trek's roots, there was just a general sense that the franchise had overwhelmingly lost touch with its fans.

meh. I feel like everything about me is pretty dull, but: I like to geocache, which means (for the muggles among us) that I use multimillion dollar satellites to find tupperware in the woods. I use the same handle for caching, but haven't logged anything I've found since an OR storm did its best to kill me last spring (we bushed it out a couple days late but beat SAR to the trail head...other than a lingering dislike of the smell of oatmeal, I guess I'm fully recovered). I did miss the first day of my teaching apprenticeship and several other classes, but meh. So it goes, I guess. I like to indulge in really hokey cult scifi (think Doctor Who, Star Trek--except Enterprise, which all true trekkies should deny ever happened--, late night B movies, etc) when stressed out or writing papers. I bake all my bread from scratch, detest loud noises (frequent migraines), and once got into a drunken snowball fight with a professor (in my defense, we were in Austria, and he started it and likely doesn't remember it). I have a twin brother, and we have almost nothing in common. Perhaps a dislike of people who ask "do you have a psychic connection??" et al. I once forgot it was his birthday (I'm just that talented...) I used to hate Dickens, and am applying as a Victorianist...my, how time flies. I think that's enough to have fully outed myself to anyone from my current school who's on here

Duke Rutgers U-M, Ann Arbor IU, Bloomington U Oregon Victorian Lit., Queer theory/disability studies, spatial/urban studies. Good luck to all!

natural high

glare filter

pie crust

The University of Oregon offers a structured emphasis in film studies.

brother bear

What time zone are you in? Did you actually try uploading the file? I'm in the PST, and the link still itself still works. Fortuitously, I'd already submitted the application/ws, and I'm not sure if it matters that I'd already made an ID and filled out the form. Even if the system won't let you upload anything now, I would politely follow up via email with the department secretary. Given that the deadline on the online application itself is (if I remember right, 5:00 pm EST), it seems reasonable to have assumed the writing sample deadline was the same. They may let you email it or post it a day late. (I have already had a very friendly exchange with them re. some delayed material from my study abroad institution, and they were extremely helpful).

All of the above is sound advice, so I'll only add my two bits briefly: 1. The Chronicle of Higher Ed. has a useful list of tips, here: http://chronicle.com/article/How-to-Write-a-Statement-of/45133/ 2. Don't get bogged down in a "lack of teaching experience." Remember, you have been in classrooms for years, and one approach to take to this is to consider the things that do and do not work for you as a student. Ask yourself what your professors and teachers have done that really worked well for you or your class as a whole. Why? How would you reproduce those (in a discussion course? In a larger lecture?). Could you improve on them? What absolutely flopped? How would you change it/fix it/avoid it? How have your experiences as a student shaped your idea of the role of the teacher in the classroom? Be concrete--if you want to "teach critical thinking," what would that look like in terms of assignments, the ratio of student- to teacher-generated prompts, discussion topics, feedback, etc? If you want "students to take responsibility for their learning/the material" does that mean you give flexible deadlines? Does it mean they lead discussion (even if they sometimes do it with less depth than you would have)? What about large lectures (keep in mind your audience--a small liberal arts school might involve different teaching needs or expectations than a larger school)? Yes, this statement is about what you as a teacher will bring to the class, but it's also about how you expect your students to respond to that philosophy--don't be afraid to include your hypothetical class, and don't feel like you lack experience. Standing up in front of the room is a *different* experience and involves a lot of troubleshooting, but the adcomm isn't looking for anyone spotless right out of the gate. They want someone who's given serious thought to how a distinct set of values might affect the day-today experience of learning and who's willing to grow as a teacher.