I've survived the first term...
...just barely. As you may have noticed by my complete lack of posts, I've been extremely busy here. Graduate school -- particularly when each class only meets once a week -- is the sort of place where one can easily lose track of the weeks, until one realises that first drafts of the final essays are due in two days and one hasn't even worked out what one's topic will be yet. But somehow one does find a topic, and spends Week Ten feverishly scribbling something acceptably academic and (inevitably) complaining about our woefully inadequate library to friends at the pub.
The marking system here is entirely foreign to American students, and we are all a bit freaked out about it. For starters, our performance this term will be evaluated solely on the basis of one 4,000 word essay. Of course, for those of us in the interdisciplinary course that works out to something less than 15% of our final degree results, but it's worrying nonetheless. Furthermore, the module tutors are not the only ones responsible for our final marks -- all written work is submitted anonymously, and there are three markers for each piece: the module tutor, a second reader within the department for which it is submitted, and an external reader (I'm not sure where we get those people). This is true for all work done here at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and it's true for other UK universities as well (Oxbridge is a bit different, from what I understand, at least for undergraduates). The final mark is, therefore, a composite of the three marks. Finally, the marking scale baffles and frightens me, since it has nothing to do with percentages or, as far as I can tell, much of anything else -- above a 50 is passing, an 80 is brilliant, and a 90 is immediately publishable as is, without any further revision. Within that range, I don't really know what's respectable and what's marginally rubbish.
They try to assign second readers based on the subjects of our options modules -- for instance, a student writing an Archaeology essay will not be evaluated by a member of the Literature staff, even though the other members of the Archaeology department may not know any more about the specific topic of the student's essay than the literature tutor. The point of the second reader, as far as I can tell, is more about the discipline-specific conventions rather than exact content, since the module tutor will know the most about that anyway.
My essay, and those of my colleagues in the Text Criticism module, will present particular problems. Dr Mooney has already mentioned that the other staff members of the Literature department hate marking essays for her module, especially in cases when the student has chosen to edit a text, because they don't really know what they should be looking for. And if our second readers are unhappy, the external readers will be having heart attacks about some of our work.
For instance, my essay is an edition of the first nine chapters of a Wycliffite exposition of the Ten Commandments, found in York Minster XVI.L.12, a 15th century manuscript. My readers would no doubt be grateful that I at least had the good sense to select a Middle English text, rather than one in Latin, were it not for the fact that this is undoubtedly the most boring piece of work ever written. A brief sample:
Here bigynne[th] [th]e ten comaundementis
Alle maner of men: schulden holde goddis biddingis | for wi[th]outen holding of hem: may no man be saued | and so [th]e gospel telli[th]: howe oon axide crist. what he schulde do for to come to heuene | and crist bad him. if he wolde entre in to blis | [th]at he schulde kepe [th]e comaundementis of god | and [th]ese hepen Iewis: as alle sectis schulden | for alle we schulden be cristen men: and truli serue god...
I think you get the point. It goes on like that for 4,000 words (all of which, I might add, I had to copy out by hand, because only pencils and paper are allowed into the Minster archive room). Actually, the text itself goes on for nearly 26 folios, but I stopped on f.10 when I exceeded my word count. My favourite part is where it explains, in excruciating detail, that if one adds the three commandments believed to have been on the first tablet to the seven from the other tablet... one gets ten commandments. I can't imagine anything more boring than those hours I spent in the Minster Library, trying not to pay attention to what I was reading. I should have guessed there was a reason it hadn't been edited before.
But I'm really pretty proud of myself. This module usually runs in the spring, so that students will have had nearly two full terms of palaeography before leaping into a project of this scale, and the fact that I, with far less palaeography experience, only completely invented about five words and a few abbreviations is impressive, at least to me. We have yet to see what Dr Mooney thinks. And my second and third readers are going to hate me for making them read this text.
Meanwhile, we of the Lords of Misrule somehow made it through our disastrous dress rehearsals and put on an extremely successful production -- so successful, in fact, that we made about 100 pounds in profit; and when you can make a profit off a play in Middle English, you're doing something right. Of course, it helped that we spent virtually no money on the production anyway, paying mainly for the rental of the church (for a ridiculously low amount of money) and for photocopying. In fact, we spent a lot of money on photocopying, because the group's co-president and I had a miserable time trying to get the programmes put together. First the copier was making little dark lines all over the place, then I noticed some fairly major mistakes, then after running off about 140 pages I realised that the back page was facing the wrong way... 2.5 hours later we had produced a total of twelve usable programmes, and when we discovered that one of the musicians' biographies had been accidentally left out, we just gave up. However, if these sorts of things didn't happen, then the performances themselves, by the law of the theatre, would be a complete fiasco. In the end, we exceeded by far all expectations, both our own and those of the directors, and we are very confident that we'll be able to do brilliant work for the rest of the year. It's just as well: we've been invited to perform at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds next summer, and the audience will consist almost entirely of professional scholars whose respect we would like to obtain, especially since many of us hope to find academic employment in the future.
Otherwise, daily life for me mainly consists of an endless succession of class meetings, homework, additional seminars and conferences, and walking back and forth between my flat and the King's Manor. Thanks to classes and parties, the MA students are quite closely bonded; and as a consequence of the extra events, which invariably result in a trip to the pub afterward, I've gotten to know some of the PhD students quite well, including a few at other universities, which provides me both with friends and with future professional contacts -- which is extremely important in the competitive world of academia. Fortunately, extracurricular activities like the Lords of Misrule can add a great deal to one's CV, since they prove an overall dedication to medieval things above and beyond one's own area of concentration, and a willingness to work closely with others.
Next term I'll have two options modules: the first an interdisciplinary module on the so-called "twelfth-century Renaissance," and the second an Art History module on Anglo-Saxon church architecture and sculpture. All five skills modules will continue, culminating in final examinations in Palaeography and Latin; I'll also probably take the Toronto PhD Latin Exam in April, since even if I don't do my PhD there, a pass on the exam will look good on my CV. Over Christmas I've got work to do, of course, both for my modules and for another extra activity -- I'm translating a short Latin music drama, The Image of St Nicholas, from the Fleury Playbook, and helping a friend (a PhD student in the Music Department) put on a production of it in York Minster on 10 February. The Lords of Misrule, in the meantime, will commence working on next term's production, Apollonius of Tyre, some of it still in Old English and Latin. And, from time to time, there may even be quiet evenings in the pub for yet more geeky conversation.
The marking system here is entirely foreign to American students, and we are all a bit freaked out about it. For starters, our performance this term will be evaluated solely on the basis of one 4,000 word essay. Of course, for those of us in the interdisciplinary course that works out to something less than 15% of our final degree results, but it's worrying nonetheless. Furthermore, the module tutors are not the only ones responsible for our final marks -- all written work is submitted anonymously, and there are three markers for each piece: the module tutor, a second reader within the department for which it is submitted, and an external reader (I'm not sure where we get those people). This is true for all work done here at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and it's true for other UK universities as well (Oxbridge is a bit different, from what I understand, at least for undergraduates). The final mark is, therefore, a composite of the three marks. Finally, the marking scale baffles and frightens me, since it has nothing to do with percentages or, as far as I can tell, much of anything else -- above a 50 is passing, an 80 is brilliant, and a 90 is immediately publishable as is, without any further revision. Within that range, I don't really know what's respectable and what's marginally rubbish.
They try to assign second readers based on the subjects of our options modules -- for instance, a student writing an Archaeology essay will not be evaluated by a member of the Literature staff, even though the other members of the Archaeology department may not know any more about the specific topic of the student's essay than the literature tutor. The point of the second reader, as far as I can tell, is more about the discipline-specific conventions rather than exact content, since the module tutor will know the most about that anyway.
My essay, and those of my colleagues in the Text Criticism module, will present particular problems. Dr Mooney has already mentioned that the other staff members of the Literature department hate marking essays for her module, especially in cases when the student has chosen to edit a text, because they don't really know what they should be looking for. And if our second readers are unhappy, the external readers will be having heart attacks about some of our work.
For instance, my essay is an edition of the first nine chapters of a Wycliffite exposition of the Ten Commandments, found in York Minster XVI.L.12, a 15th century manuscript. My readers would no doubt be grateful that I at least had the good sense to select a Middle English text, rather than one in Latin, were it not for the fact that this is undoubtedly the most boring piece of work ever written. A brief sample:
Here bigynne[th] [th]e ten comaundementis
Alle maner of men: schulden holde goddis biddingis | for wi[th]outen holding of hem: may no man be saued | and so [th]e gospel telli[th]: howe oon axide crist. what he schulde do for to come to heuene | and crist bad him. if he wolde entre in to blis | [th]at he schulde kepe [th]e comaundementis of god | and [th]ese hepen Iewis: as alle sectis schulden | for alle we schulden be cristen men: and truli serue god...
I think you get the point. It goes on like that for 4,000 words (all of which, I might add, I had to copy out by hand, because only pencils and paper are allowed into the Minster archive room). Actually, the text itself goes on for nearly 26 folios, but I stopped on f.10 when I exceeded my word count. My favourite part is where it explains, in excruciating detail, that if one adds the three commandments believed to have been on the first tablet to the seven from the other tablet... one gets ten commandments. I can't imagine anything more boring than those hours I spent in the Minster Library, trying not to pay attention to what I was reading. I should have guessed there was a reason it hadn't been edited before.
But I'm really pretty proud of myself. This module usually runs in the spring, so that students will have had nearly two full terms of palaeography before leaping into a project of this scale, and the fact that I, with far less palaeography experience, only completely invented about five words and a few abbreviations is impressive, at least to me. We have yet to see what Dr Mooney thinks. And my second and third readers are going to hate me for making them read this text.
Meanwhile, we of the Lords of Misrule somehow made it through our disastrous dress rehearsals and put on an extremely successful production -- so successful, in fact, that we made about 100 pounds in profit; and when you can make a profit off a play in Middle English, you're doing something right. Of course, it helped that we spent virtually no money on the production anyway, paying mainly for the rental of the church (for a ridiculously low amount of money) and for photocopying. In fact, we spent a lot of money on photocopying, because the group's co-president and I had a miserable time trying to get the programmes put together. First the copier was making little dark lines all over the place, then I noticed some fairly major mistakes, then after running off about 140 pages I realised that the back page was facing the wrong way... 2.5 hours later we had produced a total of twelve usable programmes, and when we discovered that one of the musicians' biographies had been accidentally left out, we just gave up. However, if these sorts of things didn't happen, then the performances themselves, by the law of the theatre, would be a complete fiasco. In the end, we exceeded by far all expectations, both our own and those of the directors, and we are very confident that we'll be able to do brilliant work for the rest of the year. It's just as well: we've been invited to perform at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds next summer, and the audience will consist almost entirely of professional scholars whose respect we would like to obtain, especially since many of us hope to find academic employment in the future.
Otherwise, daily life for me mainly consists of an endless succession of class meetings, homework, additional seminars and conferences, and walking back and forth between my flat and the King's Manor. Thanks to classes and parties, the MA students are quite closely bonded; and as a consequence of the extra events, which invariably result in a trip to the pub afterward, I've gotten to know some of the PhD students quite well, including a few at other universities, which provides me both with friends and with future professional contacts -- which is extremely important in the competitive world of academia. Fortunately, extracurricular activities like the Lords of Misrule can add a great deal to one's CV, since they prove an overall dedication to medieval things above and beyond one's own area of concentration, and a willingness to work closely with others.
Next term I'll have two options modules: the first an interdisciplinary module on the so-called "twelfth-century Renaissance," and the second an Art History module on Anglo-Saxon church architecture and sculpture. All five skills modules will continue, culminating in final examinations in Palaeography and Latin; I'll also probably take the Toronto PhD Latin Exam in April, since even if I don't do my PhD there, a pass on the exam will look good on my CV. Over Christmas I've got work to do, of course, both for my modules and for another extra activity -- I'm translating a short Latin music drama, The Image of St Nicholas, from the Fleury Playbook, and helping a friend (a PhD student in the Music Department) put on a production of it in York Minster on 10 February. The Lords of Misrule, in the meantime, will commence working on next term's production, Apollonius of Tyre, some of it still in Old English and Latin. And, from time to time, there may even be quiet evenings in the pub for yet more geeky conversation.
posted by Ehren at
10:48 AM
1 Comments:
Congratulations!
And thank you for the details of the marking system -- that's the sort of thing one about which one hears rumors but never any details.
Still working on a couple of final papers here, but almost done... almost.
By
Rabbi Ruth Adar, at 10:47 PM
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