When I earned my MA in journalism, it required effort, but not an obscene amount of it. Monty Python used to have the sketch that had two characters exchanging declarations of the hardships they'd faced, culminating in something like, "I used to have to get up before I went to bed, eat poison, pay my boss to let me work," etc.
Where do the earners of MA's in English place their efforts? Specifically:
1. Time commitment. How much time each day was spent fulfilling requirements for the degree? Example (from journalism): From my recollection, an absolute minimum of about 30 hours a week was needed. That covered assignments, reading, research, classes, and so forth. Some days were go-go-go for 10 hours at a stretch, then there would be a day where things could be shifted around. It was even possible to scrounge up a 3-day weekend every so often. In short: it required a lot of continuous effort, but I was, by no means, weeping uncontrollably because it was just impossible to keep up.
2. Intellectual effort. The journalism MA required some concentration. But I'd been a journalist at that point for several years. The "new" things (e.g., learning to write a research paper in the proper format) were pretty easy to pick up because it wasn't a complete unknown, more like a dialect. After the first couple of weeks, it was like a second language that I only occasionally needed to pause and whip out the phrase book for.
3. How possible is it to manage a part-time job while doing an MA?
4. I have to obtain the MA to go after the PhD. I already have an MA. How does that help? Or hinder?
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Milo_10011
When I earned my MA in journalism, it required effort, but not an obscene amount of it. Monty Python used to have the sketch that had two characters exchanging declarations of the hardships they'd faced, culminating in something like, "I used to have to get up before I went to bed, eat poison, pay my boss to let me work," etc.
Where do the earners of MA's in English place their efforts? Specifically:
1. Time commitment. How much time each day was spent fulfilling requirements for the degree? Example (from journalism): From my recollection, an absolute minimum of about 30 hours a week was needed. That covered assignments, reading, research, classes, and so forth. Some days were go-go-go for 10 hours at a stretch, then there would be a day where things could be shifted around. It was even possible to scrounge up a 3-day weekend every so often. In short: it required a lot of continuous effort, but I was, by no means, weeping uncontrollably because it was just impossible to keep up.
2. Intellectual effort. The journalism MA required some concentration. But I'd been a journalist at that point for several years. The "new" things (e.g., learning to write a research paper in the proper format) were pretty easy to pick up because it wasn't a complete unknown, more like a dialect. After the first couple of weeks, it was like a second language that I only occasionally needed to pause and whip out the phrase book for.
3. How possible is it to manage a part-time job while doing an MA?
4. I have to obtain the MA to go after the PhD. I already have an MA. How does that help? Or hinder?
Many thanks for any answers.
Edited by Milo_10011tidying up headline
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