BTW: Has there ever been a phrase more overused by sports journalist, bloggers and writers in general? This is not a rhetorical question. Please feel free to make a sarcastic comment or two…
THE GOOD – Doing a DipEd and doing it in Melbourne. After four days of lectures and tutorials it is such a relief to feel that these two choices are right choices. Aside from the state they leave the kitchen in, my cousins C (23) and D (19) are easy to live with and fun to hang out with. I miss the beach but the fact that nobody I went to high school with lives in this town more than makes up for that. I was terrified about the placement I have to do in four weeks but now that I know that I don’t have to be the fountain of all wisdom I am much more at ease. I am even looking forward to going head to head with some Year 9s and seeing if they can’t learn something. Bizarre, I know.
THE BAD – My honours thesis. The long and the short of it is that I didn’t get the mark I wanted. In fact, I got slammed in a seven page, DOUBLE SIDED, review from one of my three examiners. It concluded with this quote from Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor Lost: “He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his arguments”. Ouch!
THE UGLY – The looming threat of employment. I can’t believe I am asking myself this but, here goes – Do I really want to go back to work? There was a time – approximately four weeks ago – where balancing 18 hours of work with full-time study would have given me a smug sense of moral superiority but now I am starting to wonder. I am content with my modest stipend from the government. I am very happy with the amount of time I have to be a human being with interests other than earning money and earning degrees. Why change anything?
On the whole things are good. My thesis result hurts but so what? First of all, criticism is part of academic life; I just have to suck it up and move on. To be honest some of the criticisms have the ring of truth to them. One of the other examiners said that: “I read the paper as an attempt at a philosophical disquisition without adequate equipment and training as a philosopher, and therefore find it lacking”. Yeah, I did feel out of my depth a lot of the time. I should have worked on thesis that wasn’t strictly “theory”, something that had a creative writing aspect to it. Secondly, it is good to cause a stir. Seven Pages?!? DOUBLE SIDED?!? Most students would kill for that kind of reaction to their thesis.
THE BAD – My honours thesis. The long and the short of it is that I didn’t get the mark I wanted. In fact, I got slammed in a seven page, DOUBLE SIDED, review from one of my three examiners. It concluded with this quote from Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor Lost: “He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his arguments”. Ouch!
THE UGLY – The looming threat of employment. I can’t believe I am asking myself this but, here goes – Do I really want to go back to work? There was a time – approximately four weeks ago – where balancing 18 hours of work with full-time study would have given me a smug sense of moral superiority but now I am starting to wonder. I am content with my modest stipend from the government. I am very happy with the amount of time I have to be a human being with interests other than earning money and earning degrees. Why change anything?
On the whole things are good. My thesis result hurts but so what? First of all, criticism is part of academic life; I just have to suck it up and move on. To be honest some of the criticisms have the ring of truth to them. One of the other examiners said that: “I read the paper as an attempt at a philosophical disquisition without adequate equipment and training as a philosopher, and therefore find it lacking”. Yeah, I did feel out of my depth a lot of the time. I should have worked on thesis that wasn’t strictly “theory”, something that had a creative writing aspect to it. Secondly, it is good to cause a stir. Seven Pages?!? DOUBLE SIDED?!? Most students would kill for that kind of reaction to their thesis.
4 comments:
Go back to work!!!
I was lured into being a member of the John Howard surfing team, but really, that pay isn't that good.
I've not worked since October, it's much more fun to have a bit less time and more money. All my time management skills have gone to sh*t, and most of the time it's pretty boring. Even if it's just one day a week, WORK!!
Is the DipEd in Melb the same as Bris, in the it's only a year long? If so that's awesome and congrats for getting into Education, yay for you!!
Yeah, it's just one year. For the next group it will be two. Suckers, hehehe...
Cash in hand work or tutoring. Why make yourself do anything difficult? I'm all for fucking the government that fucks you so take as much money from them as humanly possible and lie as much as possible because they deserve it. Also, it's not like they won't get it back. A job will just be a frustration when you're doing placements anyway.
Wow. I think Nails might be right. Good work, dude!
Sorry about the thesis results. Still, only someone really mean and stupid would take fourteen pages to tell you that you could have done better. That sort of crap reflects badly on them, more than it does you.
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