Guimauvaise

The larger issue is that you've plagiarized. Unless you just haven't cited your sources yet, you're going to have bigger troubles than essay structure if you don't take the time to add the appropriate references. A quick Google search pointed me to the original sources of a couple of the phrases you've used: "...despite a social order...all his soul" comes from http://www.wmich.edu/teachenglish/subpages/literature/huckfinn.htm "the greater conflict...Reconstruction" comes from https://scholarworks.iupui.edu/bitstream/handle/1805/1729/L699_Thesis_November.pdf?sequence=1 If you aren't sure how to cite your sources, talk to your professor or go to your campus writing center. They should be able to point you in the right direction.

I finished my MFA in Creative Writing last May (and at my school it's a 60-hour degree), so I have plenty of experience with your situation. My fellow MFAs and I were held to the same standard as the English MA/PhD TAs. We went through the same "boot camp," we shared offices, and we generally taught the same courses. The one exception was that the MFAs could apply to teach a section of lower-level undergrad creative writing courses, but you couldn't apply until your first year was over. ALL of the first-year TAs at my school, regardless of their degree program, were required to teach Composition I. Keep in mind though, that our English department is the largest department on campus (with over 150 combined faculty and TAs), so this may not hold true for your school. Still, they won't "throw you to the wolves" as you put it, or at least they shouldn't. Most of my undergrad friends who have also entered grad school as TAs have had the same experience I had: clearly-defined instructions on teaching expectations, sample syllabi and assignments, small support groups led by a senior TA or faculty member, and often a required course about composition pedagogy. So if you do end up teaching this fall, you shouldn' feel completely unprepared. There are bound to be resources availble to you. Good luck with the interview!

I agree with Ponylevel: ask your department about the situation. When I started my MFA, I was given a TA-ship. Then, when I applied for the PhD program, I was awarded a $20k fellowship. At my school, the fellowships INCLUDE the TA-ship, and we get the full funding of both ($15k or $20k depending on the fellowship level, and an additional $10ish-k for the TA-ship). There doesn't appear to be a funding cap for us. So long as we keep our grades up, we get to keep the funding for both for up to five years. You'll also want to make sure you check the requirements of the fellowship. Mine requires that I take one summer course every year until I graduate. I don't have to teach over the summer -- it's considered research/prep time -- but I still get my TA pay. Speaking of which, if your fellowship pays on a monthly basis, it's possible your potential TA pay would also be structured monthly instead of on the nine-month plan. That's what happened to me. But, regardless, check with your department and/or the financial aid people.

I'm a bit of a pen snob. I sometimes just browse pen websites to see what fancy ones out there. Graff von Faber released a stingray leather fountain pen a few years ago as part of their "Pen of the Year" line. I drooled a bit. As for the pens I use most often while at school: Parker's Urban Premium Chiseled and a Retro 51 Tornado (I have two of their limited edition pens, including their copper aniversery pen). For less snobby options, I really love Bic's Atlantis pens, and Papermate's new InkJoy pens write very nicely. They have the darker ink lines I associate with rollerballs, but have the ink flow control of a ballpoint. Good combination, in my book. http://www.amazon.com/Parker-Chiseled-Ballpoint-Metallic-1774706/dp/B003JTUYDC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1328062284&sr=8-3 http://www.amazon.com/Retro-51-Tornado-Lacquer-Rollerball/dp/B001TB05VS/ref=sr_1_2?s=office-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1328062631&sr=1-2

My first response to your question: why wouldn't you want both? Then again, your stipend is more than double what PhDs here get (in my program, at least). As Runonsentence said, fellowships tend to be more competitive, and, since they often require applicants to be in the top tier of their class, they are usually considered more prestigious than TA/RA positions. Both would look great on a CV. I have both a TAship and fellowship coming into the PhD program this month. Do I really *need* the fellowship? I can scrape by without it, but if I want to pay off student loans, keep up with bills and credit card payments, and start saving money, and still have a little mad money left over so I don't feel flat broke...then, yes, from a financial standpoint, I need the fellowship. Fellowships here are nomination-based, though, so I'm not sure how well this compares. Regardless, fill out the entire form. You definitely don't want to make a bad impression by leaving some sections blank, even if you do think that the information is already available in your SOP.

That definitely wouldn't be a deterrent right now! It's been well over 100 degrees in much of the region for a week or two. Parts of Texas haven't seen temperatures below 100 in over a month. I hate Southern summers like these, but I'm sure I would hate Northern winters (speaking of which, we had over a foot of snow back in Jan/Feb, which is rare for this area). While I do want to live in an area that has seasons, I'd rather the seasons weren't so extreme. I'm glad to hear that others have seen Southern faculty at Northern school. I didn't think it was impossible for a Southerner to be hired by a Norther institution, but I didn't know if my adviser's statement was at least somewhat accurate.

My undergrad adviser told me that people who get their degrees from Southern schools tend to have a more difficult time finding teaching jobs anywhere outside the South. Does anyone know if this is true? All three of my degrees are (or will be) from Arkansas schools, and while I don't currently have plans to move too far outside this area, I would hate for my schools' location to be an immediate strike against me in terms of being hirable. If it is true, do you think it's because there is still a stigma attached to Southerners? I can guarantee you that we are not all inbred, redneck idiots (and most of us even have all of our teeth ), and I would think that my CV or any other Southern grad's CV would be just as competitive as anyone else's. Or, could it be an issue of regional culture? Here's the thing, though. The majority of the profs. in my program are not Southerners. We've got instructors from California, Virginia, Michigan, etc., and there are also a few international profs from Europe and the Middle East. If Southern academics can't get teaching jobs outside the South, then where the hell are they?

I'd ask friends and colleagues before you sign up for a class at a center. After all, it's quite expensive, especially if you want to enroll in an actual test-prep course rather than use the service's online resources alone. I worked for Kaplan as an ACT tutor a couple years ago. From my experience, the service is overpriced, though CloakandSwagger is right to say that the service offers a lot of resources. Price aside, errors sometimes appear in the book (usually in the form of wrong answers), and at times it is not easy to identify those errors. Honestly, you'd probably get just as far on your own with Kaplan's prep book as you would in a class. I don't know that it's my place to say why (as I'm also not sure if this would be a breach of contract or something, even though I haven't worked for them in two years), but I make that suggestion based on what I know about the instructor's version of the prep book. Bottom line: ask for other opinions on test prep services, and consider saving money by studying on your own with a book published by the services.

I used to keep up with Criminal Minds and Grey's Anatomy, but I lost track of those when I canceled my cable a few months before moving in with my boyfriend. After getting my cable back, I just never picked up those shows for some reason. My watch list: Walking Dead The Big C Sons of Guns (my boyfriend's choice) The Borgias Spartacus And I feel like I've left one out. I spend more time playing video games, though.

Not necessarily. It depends on your program, and the score is -- or can be -- a factor in how likely you are to receive funding. At least two fellowships at my school, and maybe a handful of scholarships, require certain GRE scores before a student can even be nominated. For the "distinguished doctoral fellowship," students have to be in the top 10% on the verbal, and MUST have at least a 5.5 on the written. My department also takes GRE scores into account, to some degree, when considering TA applicants. They aren't going to nitpick over the quantitative (thank God), but they do look at the verbal and writing. I'm not trying to dishearten you, and I don't want to frustrate you further, but I would hate for you to brush off the GRE when you might be denying yourself some good opportunities as a grad student. As Kitkat said, the writing sample will be a better indication of your writing skill. After all, your adcomm will actually see that essay, as opposed to just seeing a somewhat empty score on an official GRE record. I'd still study for it, if I were you, and focus on both test-taking strategies and exam content.

I tend to agree with those above. If you are interested in the course, go ahead and take it. However, if you're hesitant to take a new course, ask the instructor if the course will be offered again while you're in the program. Assuming the course is offered at least once per academic year, then you probably won't hurt anything by waiting to take it. The risk you'd take in waiting, though, is having a conflict between this course and a required course. Regardless, I'd talk to your adviser before making your final decision.

Your interests may not be mutually exclusive. My school offers a secondary emphasis for MA, MFA and PhD students who are not in the rhet/comp program. The requirements include teaching five different courses, taking two advanced rhet/comp courses (I'm taking a seminar this fall called "theoretical approaches to teaching writing"), an introductory "TA bootcamp" course called "composition pedagogy," and a one-hour oral exam/presentation on a rhet/comp topic. My adviser told me that if I complete this secondary emphasis (which is my plan...I already have half of the requirements), I would be "extremely hire-able" for a TT position in literature. I don't know how unique my school is in offering this opportunity, but it might be something to keep in mind.

I'll answer with an example. A couple of incoming students in my program thought it would be a good idea to bring a keg to the TA bootcamp meetings. They lost their TA positions soon after, and I'm kind of surprised that they weren't kicked out of the program, if only for a semester.

Dodge ball

I have to plug the new Nook Simple Touch. It has the same base price as the Kindle ($139), so the price won't be the deciding factor. I got a first-gen Nook last February as an anniversary gift, and upgraded to the newest model this summer. There have been some great changes. It's smaller and more stream-lined. There are more user options to customize the interface. Page changes are smoother and faster. etc. When I first looked into getting an eReader, the deciding factor for me was the Nook's expandable memory. You can add more storage by slipping a micro SD card into the slot, and you're good to go. This is also a nice feature if you wish to have separate storage to keep your academic and personal reading lists separate. I also like the fact that the Nook doesn't have a physical keyboard on it. For some reason, that just bothers me about the Kindle...it seems awkward and unnecessary to me. I was also drawn to the Nook because I have a B&N membership, and have been a fan of the store for years. I will say this in favor of the Kindle, though: it now has real page numbers that correspond to the physical copy of the text. This is great from a reference/citation standpoint. The Nook pages are kind of weird, especially if you download a text from another site or convert from one format to the other. It's not uncommon for one "page" of a text to take up three Nook pages, and I'm not always sure if the Nook page number corresponds to the real text. So if your main drive in getting an eReader is to simplify research and citations, the Kindle does have that advantage over the Nook (assuming B&N developers aren't working on a software update that would even the playing field). CNet has a good review and comparison of several eReaders: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20009738-1/kindle-vs-nook-vs-ipad-which-e-book-reader-should-you-buy/. The article was published last month, and lists the "best" eReader in several categories. That might help your final decision.

I'm glad to see that I'm not the only person who "risked it" by applying to only one or two schools. I'm also glad to see that you all were accepted byt he school (I assume) you wanted.

You might also check local used book stores that aren't directly affiliated with your school. There's one about a mile from my campus, and it usually has a lot of books for a good price. Granted, this particular store serves the humanities and social sciences better than other disciplines. Still, it might be worth looking into.

I think you also need to keep your audience and degree in mind. I just finished an MFA in creative writing this spring, and when I was applying to the PhD in English Lit. program (at the same school), I was asked to prepare a CV after being nominated for a fellowship. I included three of my lit-based classes in my CV to back up my GPA. I graduated with a 4.0, and I was encouraged to include electives outside of the MFA courses (which are ridiculously easy workshops and how-to-be-a-writer courses) to demonstrate that my GPA was not high simply because I took easy courses. So if you're worried that your audience may not fully appreciate your academic background w/o a representative sample of coursework, or that they may brush off (for lack of a better phrase) your previous degree, I'd recommend putting two or three courses on there. You might even consider listing the titles of research papers you've written.

Hey all, I just wanted to start this thread to see if I'm a rarity. For all three of my degrees (BA, MFA, and incoming PhD), I applied to only one school and was accepted. I'm PhD at the same school as my MFA, but still. Is there anyone else on the forums who only applied to one school? For my BA, Lyon College was the only school I wanted to attend. I can't explain why, but it was an instant fit. As for grad school, I applied to the uni in my hometown. For the MFA, only five people in my emphasis (poetry) are accepted each year. As for the PhD, the English dept. is the largest in the school, so it wasn't anywhere near as competitive, but I did manage to get a fellowship. So who else out there had success applying to only one school per degree? Anyone?

I know it's been several months since this thread has seen a post, but I wanted to throw in a couple of comments/questions. My boyfriend and I have been together for two and a half years, and we have discussed marriage. I'm not inherently attached to my last name, at least not from the standpoint of it being "cool," but it is important to me to publish and be recognized academically/professionally under the name I was born with. I think part of it is that I want to give my family a bit of the credit for my accomplishments. However, I have no problem with the traditional practice of women taking their husband's name upon marriage. Even though I'm a bit of a feminist, I don't find the practice offensive or in some way demeaning. My problem, though, is that my potential-future-husband's last name is Smith...way too common for my comfort from a professional standpoint. I wouldn't feel right asking him to take my last name, though; it's not a respect thing...it's more of a cultural weirdness thing. What do you all think about reverting to one of the husband's family names? My boyfriend's parents are divorced, and he took his step-dad's name. Have any of you done this? In my case, we could take my boyfriend's father's name, which is MUCH more unique and distinct for publishing purposes.

I'm a first generation on two counts: I'm first-generation American on my mom's side (she's Scottish) and the first person in recent memory to pursue anything higher than a BA. My parents both have nursing degrees, but neither went to graduate school. Of my dozen or so cousins, only one other person has a BA; the rest have associate's degrees at best. I don't know why, but I'm really the only person among my cousins who has had the drive to pursue an advanced education. I've wanted the word "doctor" in front of my name since I was about four years old, and I was scouting out colleges and degree options before I got into junior high (of course, I didn't go to those schools, nor did I pursue those fields, but the drive was still there). What's interesting to me, though, is that my boyfriend is essentially in the same boat. None of his cousins have attended college; some didn't even get out of high school. He's also from a low-income background. He jokingly refers to himself as the "black sheep" in that he's educated (BS in computer science) and hasn't already married, divorced, and had a handful of kids. I don't feel like an outsider in the program because I'm a first-gen. If I feel like an outsider, it's because my BA isn't in English, so I feel woefully behind on things that other PhD students have covered. I panicked when I first started my MFA four years ago and saw the exhaustive reading list: knowledge of Shakespeare (his entire body of work) was expected as a given, and there were writers I'd never even heard of on the list. How do you cope with that?

Incoming PhD, English Lit PC user General software: -- Norton Anti-Virus: provided for free by my Uni's IT services. -- Windows 7 ($$$): nice improvement over Vista -- iTunes (free): sometimes I just have to have music on while I work -- MS Word ($$), for obvious reasons Homework software: -- Firefox (free): JSTOR and ProjectMuse are my friends -- MS One Note ($$): you can do some nifty digital notebooks to organize your notes/thoughts...and it's all searchable. Tablet users will probably get more use out of it, though. Teaching software: -- Firefox: I sometimes search for classroom ideas, especially where writing exercises and literary criticism are concerned -- MS Excell: I keep track of my students' grades in a spreadsheet. It makes things easier, and having the electronic record is essential. -- Google Sites (free): I run a website as a supplement to my courses. My Uni does use Blackboard, but I have a lot of students who either don't understand it, or just aren't comfortable with it. The website is more familiar territory, and since it's not affiliated with the Uni, it's a bit less intimidating. Plus, it's easier (I think) to customize than Blackboard's course manager, which means I can get it to do exactly what I need it to do. Unwinding (not exactly software): -- Xbox 360 with Xbox Live ($$$): I'm sorry, but pwning newbs on Black Ops after working on a research paper is a sublime way to relax -- Teavana Azteca Fire ($): If you like tea and cocoa, you'll love this. It's my favorite tea. -- KitchenAid Artisan Mixer ($$$): Homemade cookies can do wonders for yours stress level

I know the GRE is changing this summer, but, still, don't worry about your math score. I scored somewhere in the lower 400s (can't remember the exact number), but I was still able to get a fellowship for my PhD because my English/writing scores were solid. If your school is anything like mine, they won't pay attention to your math score because it's not like you'll need anything beyond basic arithmetic as an English student.

Absolutely! I began TAing at 22, and I had seniors or non-trads who were my age or older, and that definitely put me in an awkward position. My first semester, I had a student who insisted on being my buddy, and would invite me to dances and hookah bars (no joke). The thing is, you have to remember that even if your students are your age, you still have more experience (academically, at least) than they do. And even though you may not be an expert in your field, you are more of an expert than they are. This alone should help you to add some professional distance and garner respect. The fact that you already have a degree doesn't hurt either. As for the classroom itself, my advice may not apply to you if you won't be in charge of the course. At my school, or perhaps just in my department, TAs are in charge of the entire course. We design the syllabus and assignments (though the dept. does provide examples, and we have a curriculum wiki for peer support), and are responsible for all lectures, exams, etc. However, if your job will simply be to lead a discussion, or present a lecture, then you will need to focus solely on how you present yourself. Here are some strategies I use: 1) Avoid the "dead zone" in front of the podium or desk, or whatever surface you put your lecture notes on. I do this for two reasons. First, walking around the room, or at least from left to right, means that there is activity at the front of the room, which means the students are more likely to engage in the discussion, because you are physically engaged with your presentation of the material. It also allows you to give equal time to more students. Most of the rooms I've taught in have a lecture podium to one side of the room, meaning that if I stayed there, only the students on that side of the classroom would feel involved in the discussion. If I wander the room, I'm able to actively engage more students, making the experience a bit more personal for each student. Also, if you allow laptops in your classes, walking the room can help limit the amount of time they spend on Facebook. Second, walking away from your lecture notes tells the students that you know the material; if you didn't know what you were discussing, you'd have to have your notes close by. I doubt students are consciously aware of this, but I do think they believe that an instructor who isn't tethered to his/her notes is more comfortable with and more knowledgeable about the material. 2) Break the ice before each class with a learning activity. I play "big word hangman" with my students before class each day. Since I teach English, I use this as an opportunity to expand and refine their vocabulary. When possible, I try to use words that I know will appear in upcoming readings; this allows my students to practice what they have learned. It's actually quite amazing how much undergrads (and grads too, I imagine) still enjoy hangman. Plus, it's fun to write a word like "schadenfreude" on the board. 3) Be authoritative without being an authoritarian. You'll need to carry yourself professionally, and try not to let your insecurity show if you feel nervous about being at the front of the room, or feel out of place as the authority figure in the room. Still, you can do things that will demonstrate your position over the students without being feared or hated for it. For one, make sure that your syllabus is clear, strikes the appropriate tone, and sets specific rules and consequences for broken rules. The next step is to enforce the syllabus; students will know when you're letting things slide, and at that point it's almost impossible to regain your control. If you're the one writing the syllabus, make sure you don't create a rule that you aren't comfortable enforcing...the last thing you need is to feel guilty for punishing a student. The same principle applies to classroom management; be consistent in policing your students when it comes to text messages or talking out of turn or other disruptive behavior. If you call out student A for texting, but ignore student B, you'll lose respect in the eyes of at least one student. 4) Have fun. Students, in my experience, have less respect for instructors who are too strict or too monotonous in their teaching style. Good teachers know how to strike a balance between lecturing and listening, and you'll need to do both if you want to keep the classroom dynamic on your side. And don't be afraid to give "real world" examples for complex material. I have used LOLcats and movie/TV references as teaching tools, and with great success. The trick is to engage your students while still making it clear that you're the leader. They need to feel like they can contribute to the class, but also that the class has some structure to it. You definitely don't need a free-for-all discussion, and you definitely don't want everyone on their phones or laptops ignoring what you're saying. Think about the best classes you've taken, and the best teachers you've had, and try to model their actions. Hope that helps!

Are you going to be a TA? If so, you may not want your students using your personal email address. Though there's no real difference in the scheme of things -- they'll still email you at 2am about an assignment due at 8am, regardless of the email address -- giving them your personal email address may imply a level of informality that could come back to bite you. I don't mind being on friendly terms with my students, but I still need to keep a professional distance from them. It's bad enough when a student gets too friendly and starts sending chain emails to your school account...I can't imagine the headache of having them flood my gmail account.