In this long overdue blog, just in time for Thursday’s Graduate Options Expo, I thought I should take the time to talk to you all about my research. The subject of my thesis, and area I intend to explore at PhD level, is slash fiction.
A perennial problem that is perhaps universal to all students is the difficulty of having to sit down and actually write something. A paper, a letter to a journal editor, whatever, many of us find it difficult to start/finish/write at all. Of course this problem is multiplied a thousand-fold when the document in question is a massive thesis. We’ve all had those days where we sit in front of the computer with a stack of journal articles planning to do a day of writing, before finding that there are so many other better things to do. Make a cup of tea. Check your emails. Do another experiment to (unnecessarily) check your results. Chat with your desk neighbour. Write for two minutes and then manically check your word count. ANYTHING but actually writing.
So are you stuck with your writing? Forget nailing your feet to the floor or bribing yourself with chocolate, Dr Wicked has a better idea. Why not replace your fear of writing with a fear of not writing?! Have a go at Write or Die, where they put the ‘prod’ back in productivity!
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As I wait for an editor I haven’t worked with before to yay or nay my copy, I thought I’d take this time in between commissions to write my blog and have a rant. I know it’s been a while between posts, but things have been crazy here. My saying that the stress would be less following coursework was a lie, vicious lie … I find myself remaining in this constant state of stress, hovering somewhere over certain oh-my-gosh-so-much-stressness. And then there's the worst ailment for writers’ headache, editing the copy of a writer who can’t write.
If life were a carnival, then the role of the juggler would be played by graduates. Each of our juggling balls representing the many projects we manage, our theses, our jobs, our relationships ... projects moving from hand to hand in a balancing act that sees the neglect of one, or the unequal focus of another, send those balls bouncing to the dirt. For the juggler, those balls are kept in the air by constant movement. It’s the classic case of the juggling act. For this post we pause for just a second on one of those balls, for me, it’s a musical one.
Sometimes being an Honours student can make one feel like the middle man, wedged somewhere between being a graduate and being a post-graduate, between graduation and the workforce, somewhere in between ... somewhere in the middle.
A recipe for an honours year would be part work and part play. Rest would be optional. But a recipe for sanity stew might go like this...
Question | What do you get when you cross swine flu-crazed media, proud-as-Punch parents, aca–fan(atic)s and gallery directors?
Answer | Another week-and-a-big-bit in the life of a Sydney graduate.
Hi, I'm Alan. A simple introduction: I'm doing an honours project on digital music copyright.
Hello and welcome to my first post on Graduate Life. I thought it best for me to start by introducing myself and why I decided I wanted to join the ranks of the grads at Sydney.
SO WHY SYDNEY?
The location was a big plus for me, it’s central and makes working and studying much more manageable. I work as an in-house journalist for a public relations firm. Yes, yes, I know. The dark side of journalism. But it’s experience, it keeps me writing and, as we work primarily in the food industry, keeps me fed.
Australian Pork Limited's PorkStar program
