Are You A Writer?

I am quoting Salman Rushdie from the back of my memory, so maybe it’s a paraphrase, but here is the wisdom: ‘A lot of people start writing books but authors finish them.’  For me, that is a really big statement. It begs the question why? Not ‘why do people start writing books,’ but why don’t they finish writing them? I think this is a very important question for students because it places a spotlight on the real issue of developing an idea, an argument, and communicating it through writing. It really does not matter if it is creative writing or not. The problem of developing and articulating an argument in a lengthy document means a lot of ideas fizzle anywhere after page one.

Why does an idea fizzle? In our screenwriting classes at Pittsburgh Filmmakers we talk about this a lot.  Like any other effective facilitation or decision-making process the first step is to identify the problem. The problem behind  fizzling ideas is that the thesis is not sufficiently developed.  There is not enough material to develop into an argument, err, a feature film or novel length text.  There might not even be enough for a short story or digital short length script. Without fully exploring the thesis, or the story we want to tell, it is easy to end up with vignettes that stall in terms of story-telling, no matter how artfully they are articulated.

Try Coursera, and the University of London International Programmes

Are you thinking about enrolling in a University of London International Programmes course of study? Maybe you are already enrolled and are considering increasing the number of courses you register for this term? If you are, then this summer could be a good time to see what it is like to study in an online format, or to find out what it is like to manage multiple units. The University of London International Programmes is participating in Coursera, and offering several courses you can try at no cost. The course structure outlines the amount of time you should expect to invest in the courses, and provides easy to follow dashboards. The courses incorporate video lectures, live interaction on social media platforms, weekly assignments, and extensive online resources. I am enrolled in a few Coursera modules this summer, including two offered by our university.

There is a lot of dialogue about online learning as a contemporary, progressive model for providing focused, affordable, high quality degree level study. Some conversations about online study revolve around developing specific career skills. Whatever your goals, online study with an institution like ours has a lot to recommend it.

How Do I Start Making A Study Plan

There is some charm in a few weeks off, but for me the best way to accomplish the things I want to do is to have a plan, a schedule, and then stick to it.  That might not sound much like a person studying a creative process like literature, but structure is a very important word in English Studies!  After a few years in our program I find it uncomfortable to work out a productive schedule then set it aside for a few months.  Considering that our upcoming term will also require me to complete four courses, will be the year I complete my degree, and my professional calendar looks extremely busy, I want to take full advantage of the summer idyll to begin an effective plan for the 2013 – 2014 term.

Exam Aftermath and Next Term’s Possibilities

It is the ‘in between time,’ as C.S. Lewis so aptly described spring, if not the time between exams, getting results, and starting the new term.  For me it is like cleansing the palate between courses in a great meal, or when tasting fabulous wines.  This is precious time for catching up with other projects that languished during the intensity of exams, relaxing, resting mind and body, and even enjoying the occasional bursts of enlightenment about the study process that pop into my head. Although it has only been a week since my last exam it already feels like ages and ages ago.  It seems so distant that when I reviewed the notes made immediately after my first exam I needed almost an hour to reconstruct the essay outlines. The exact wording of the exam questions is far beyond my ability to recall.

Exam Diary: The Ups and Downs of Sitting Four Exams

It has been an absolutely fabulous exam year. Sitting exams for four courses is challenging, but the changes to my study procedures over the year, my revising plan and the reality of multiple exams really helped me improve study outcomes and, hopefully, exam results.  What I noticed about my exam experience this year, despite doubling my course load, is a much more focused process with better results, at least from my process point of view.  This week I thought it might be helpful to others considering enrolling, or wondering what managing four courses is like, to see my Exam Diary.  The schedule for my (BA English) papers started with one exam on 9 May and then three consecutive days, 14, 15 and 16 May. That’s eight interesting days, and a sixteen day revising process. Here’s what it was like:

1 May: My meta-exam revising strategy begins! At first I thought two days for each course would work but immediately realized that engaging with each course every day is more productive.  The schedule that worked best for me was four sessions, one for each course, ideally of two to four hours each spaced throughout the day.  This helped me maintain engagement with all the material I had to revise in an incremental process.

Managing Exam ‘Time’

Exams are usually memorable experiences for me. They are sometimes terrifying and unfamiliar, like my first year, and sometimes a bit funny, familiar and tinged with chagrin, like this year.   All of the experiences seem to center around time.  In my first exam year, time to study, time to revise, and time in the exam room was frightening to contemplate.  The material, process, and experience were all unfamiliar. Somehow in the first year I managed the time constraints surrounding all three challenges while reading Renaissance Comedy.  This year, once again, the controlling theme is time.  Yesterday, exam day, it felt like a fairly humorous conspiracy was all centered on time. With four courses, and three exams next week, there really is no wiggle room with respect to time.

The Rhetoric of Exams

My favorite rhetorician: Marcus Tullius Cicero. This year in my courses I am studying the use of classic themes in English literature, and the importance of classical theories of rhetoric in the education of Early Modern, Restoration, Augustan, and Romantic writers.

The ‘Rhetoric of Exams’ might sound odd to you, but I think there is a definite discourse of exams that merits some investigation, analysis and understanding. This year my goal is to embrace it. During my BA English study I have worked with tutors and coaches in a variety of ways that have all proved to be very useful and productive. This year I have a rhetoric coach. Considering exams and my participation in them from this point of view is very enlightening.

My current interest in rhetoric all started in both predictable and serendipitous ways. Predictable because, like my colleagues, I am preoccupied with getting the most productive results from available study time, really learning and applying knowledge, and getting good marks in exams.  There is a real relationship between those three points which should be articulated in order to achieve those goals, and which brings me to the very fortunate serendipity which occasioned my meeting and beginning to work with a rhetoric coach.

Studying Road Warrior

Alligator encounter: A rather unusual challenge faced Caowrites on her business trip to Florida.

This week I am a road warrior, not in the Mad Max or professional wrestling tag team sense of the phrase, but as a business traveler.  I doff my hat to business travelers, their stamina and sheer determination.  As Edith Wharton wrote in ‘The Age of Innocence,’ ‘…all travel has its hardships,’ like those we all know well: delays, altered routines and schedules, interesting dining choices, and time zones.  Traveling for business presents some interesting challenges for students, because of the very nature and purpose of the business trip.  Time is compressed on a business journey.

For example, I traveled to Florida this week to accomplish specific things in a limited amount of time. Colleagues have arrived from all points of the compass with the same sense of urgency.  We have a shared agenda, but everyone also brings a unique set of, well, distractions, that might be family, other projects, or inconveniences like lost luggage.  I bring the need to study this week. Since exams are now only thirty days away, I am not willing to give up 7 days of preparation time. The trick is how to study effectively while accomplishing all of my professional obligations and making the best use of time with my colleagues.

What Revising For Exams Really Looks Like At My House

Here’s what I hope you will think is a humorous and helpful account of what revision 25 days before  my exams begin looks like at my house.  My study room and office look like something of a omnishambles right now. Books, bundles of legal size writing pads, pens and highlighters are everywhere.  They cover my desk, which is really an 87 inch dining table seconded for my higher purpose. I made a special shelf for each course in my book-case, just in reach of my ‘desk,’ where work for each course that will be needed in the days prior to exams is organized.  There is another area dedicated to three-hole punching and binding in notebooks. Lamps for reading and table trays are fitted in near every chair, except my collie dog, Jelly Bean’s. Her pink pillow and super comfy purple chair are sacrosanct, though the same cannot be said for my husband’s.

Argumentation Boggarts and Brollachans

I told myself that, when the first day of April arrived, a significant increase in what I call my ‘study application’ will need to occur. My focus is now entirely on 2 areas of concern. The first is in-depth research on specific topics. The second is disciplining myself to develop a complete argument before beginning to write an essay. You cannot imagine how challenging the second point is for me. To be successful at it sometimes I cannot even pick up a pen until I completely think through my argument and its structure.

Over the years I have been studying and writing in this program I have often wondered why this is so challenging for me.  I have wondered why an outline, essay plan, or argument, or whatever you want to call it, is even necessary.  A paper or story can certainly be written without one, but it will surely be as haphazard an affair for the reader as it was for the writer.  If you stop to think about what an essay plan or outline does, for example, provide focus, notes specific details, engages with the topic in a spirited way, makes the writing process more efficient, and aides concentration, it seems quite impossible to write a text of any kind without a clear plan or outline.