graciado

MLA, hands down! Of course, since I'm now back in the UK, I'm forced into using MHRA. It's just not the same.

I am in a similar position, and I would fully endorse the 'just pump something out' approach. I have done all of my secondary reading and made notes amounting to about 16,000 words for a dissertation that should be a max 15,000! Even though most of the words I currently have are other people's, and not my own, I can order them, start to get a shape for the dissertation as a whole, and then just work through it, piece by piece, writing my own work and taking out all those bits that turn out to be extraneous. It is a lot easier to work withsomething on the page than with a complete blank!

This is pretty much exactly how I would go about it. A little bit of wandering through bibliographies/chronologies of contemporary criticism/etc. can be useful, but I really need to know what I'm after before I go there (otherwise I get a bit swamped with too many possible ideas). Following your sources' bibliographies (particularly the things they quote, which seem to be major props for their ideas) is a great way to find out more about whether or not you're actually pursuing a worthwhile (i.e. not wholly plumbed) avenue. I always take lots of notes (with direct quotations) from my readings of sources and return to them after I've done my own writing and more reading. Things that you happened to only note down casually might spring to importance, or you might suddenly find that the author was actually arguing something different to what you'd imagined, based on just the few quotes you'd been working with. Invisible Bullets (and Prof. Greenblatt) rocks, by the way!

Personally, given that they had nothing to do with the writing of the paper, I don't see much wrong with their asking not to be associated with it as an author. If you're concerned about it being a slight, I would strongly agree with the suggestion to ask for their input in a revision stage. That way, you can find out what they really think, and have justification for naming them as a senior author, fixing both problems. It may feel a bit uncomfortable to ask for her input having received the impression that she's snubbing you, but it would benefit you in the long run, I think.

I would tend to agree with this. Particularly if you are moving into another career track after graduation, the very fact of having performed such a presentation (and any defence of your work, if anyone actually tries to grill you!) would certainly make you stand out. That will be invaluable to you for a fair time to come, whereas even if it does turn to be not the best fun in the world, the presentation itself is exceedingly brief.

I'm actually a thesis-writing final-year student in one of the Ivys right now, and I can tell you that my friends who are writing theses in your sort of area are writing one single 15,000-20,000 word thesis, so you are already way ahead in terms of research. I think that if you've been accepted and have strong research experience, you will do just dandy. I personally consider UK degrees to be more rigorous, and I'm only really studying in the US because A-levels had pushed me into the wrong area and I wanted a liberal arts program to help me transition into a different discipline! If I'd have stuck with mathematics, however, I'd have had a much more rigorous degree experience in Imperial College than where I am now (because here one could start in the mathematics department without even having seen a differential equation or even an integral sign, as others have noted!).

When we sent out submission solicitations for a journal I manage, we used The Times Higher Education ranking tables and USNews in order to weed out the 'top' programs to contact first. We eventually contacted around 20 US schools, 6 UK schools, and another 6 Canadian schools (this is for a medieval studies journal, by the way). We used the tables heavily, but also did our own research on professors and general student reputation to judge the 'best' schools. It's pretty subjective; I know quite a few people who only apply to programs if they have a very specific person they want to work with, and so don't subscribe to the 'just apply everywhere that's good' approach. They're probably more likely to be happy with their choice in the long run.