Username: cleverclogs     Send personal mail

Subject area: Arts, Humanities, Linguistics

Department: English Language and Literature

Pursuing degree: Doctoral

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  I'm applying for a masters in English. For a statement of interest, one school is asking me to "outline one or two theoretical or conceptual approaches you have employed in undergraduate projects". The problem is, I don't know what that means. Do they want me to state which type of criticism I applied...or what.

  They want to know that you are going to be able to keep up in coursework. They are looking for you to show that you have some familiarity with critical theories (e.g. queer theory, performance theory, histoircism, even formalism, etc) so that you'll be able to jump right in to seminar discussion and research.

  There are a few things most committees are interested in, I think:

  1) can you handle the coursework / disciplinary expectations?

  2) do they have anyone you can work with on your thesis?

  3) is your project interesting?

  Good luck!

  What's the appropriate amount of time to 'put up with' a university assigned office with no cat-5 connection (there is wireless in the building but it doesn't help with desktop/servers) and an assigned desk that does not fit a standard (16:10) 22'' monitor because of an oversized hutch? We are required to hold office hours in these settings and frankly I'd rather just work at home where I have at least a _reasonable_ setup. Any advice/stories on sub-par working conditions?

  I think Steven has given the right advice. But just FYI, I taught in a department for two years where grad students didn't even have an office, so I would probably have put up with one without internet just to have a space of some kind. The expectation where I am now is that we do 2 face-to-face hours per week so that students feel encouraged to stop by. Internet access doesn't even enter into a discussion of it because that is not the point of office hours, as far as my department is concerned.

  If for some reason your department is unreasonable about working from home, you could always try to use your office hours for non-net-related activities, like lesson planning or grading (assuming you aren't teaching an online course or a course with an online component.).

  Anyone make use of DevonThink in their research work? If you do, what's your workflow? How have you made the best use of the program? Any advise would be amazing, and I'd be happy to share my own experience...

  I've been using DevonThink and LOVE it. I used to use notecards (yup, notecards) but that really did slow me down. Now I just flag sentences while I read, usually making a little note about why it was important (a sort of code word). Then I type the notes into DevonThink later. I like it because it gives me two passes at the idea immediately.

  I usually keep my notes for each book or article separate and I keep separate files on more general thoughts. The organization is a little bit of work but it's worth it for me because my diss chapters are pretty heavily intertwined and this way, I can search terms and find every time I used the word "moderate" or something and it shows up.

  My dissertation needs a map, one simple graphic. Is there software that allows map annotation? I just want to put dots on a simple, outline map of the U.S. and add some words to it.

  Sorry - this is probably useless to your now but just FYI for anyone reading this thread. You want the Adobe suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, etc). I'd recommend Illustrator for this issue (I find it easier to use than Photoshop whose tools are a bit counterintuitive). You just open the map up in Illustrator, add whatever text you want and save it (as a tiff file) - no muss, no fuss.

  Someone in IT should be able to help you with this.