TMA02

My tutor finally sent back TMA02 after a week of silence from her and two emails from me asking if she could just acknowledge that she had received it.  Along with the marked essay (for which I received a much better grade than I feel I deserved - being honest) was a rather snotty email from the tutor who, in so many words, said that felt I was being unreasonable in not being able to wait for the assignment...It was nearly Christmas and had I left it to ask I would have been waiting until the beginning of the new year to get the marked essay back.

Luckily the essay is now back in my hands and I am able to see where I went wrong and what I need to do next.  The assignment I have submit next month (Jan 16th) is all about the Romans, I intend to try harder to get a better grade on this one, I want to be able to say that I at least made the effort to get straight Bs (I think straight As will be impossible given the fact that I have done two assignments and already received two Bs).

Well, here's me looking to the new year and the new challenges that this course offers - I have already registered for the course starting in September - another classics course, but this time on Greek and Roman history (looks like it will be hard work, but well worth it).

TMA02 Struggles

I am really struggling at the moment, to find the enthusiasm to write the second part of TMA02.  Being truthful I really don't like the effort that I have to put into it, not because I feel that there should be no necessity for effort, but because I have never had to push myself so hard to find the enthusiasm to write something.

I did surprisingly well on my last TMA, I managed to earn a B, not the highest B I have managed (73%) but enough that I was proud of it, especially as I was going through a manic episode at the time and somehow when I read it back a lot of it didn't make complete sense to me.  Even the tutor feedback mentioned that it seemed to be rather 'random' at points, and I apparently 'went off at a tangent' at times.  Oh well, I managed to earn a relatively good grade and I was hopeful that this would help to introduce some enthusiasm to do the rest of the course.  Unfortunately I proved to be wrong with this and a few weeks ago I had to spend the whole weekend reading up on four weeks of work that I hadn't managed to get done in the weeks that I was meant to.  Obviously now I am over the original deadline and working to the extension that I was luckily awarded...oh I forgot to mention that many things were sent to try me over the last few weeks; my nephew got hit by a car while cycling on his paperround and my mum had an operation to remove her thyroid...

Back to the grind, I need to finish this essay by 3pm today (and it's now nearly 10am) in order that I can have some semblance of a weekend (albeit only a few hours).

TMA01

Well, the course has officially started, and just over 2 weeks in I have already had to submit my first assignment. I felt incredibly unprepared for the panic that filled me the minute I realised that I didn't know much at all about the material, but I managed to blag my way through the 1000 words required (yep, that was it, a measly 1000 words - when you look at it like that it seems like hardly any at all really).

The assignment isn't really due to be submitted until tomorrow (20th) and those who know me well enough will know that what I am about to say is stunning - here is where I recommend those of you who recognise my official title "Queen of All Procrastinators" sit down - I have submitted the assignment. Yes, you have read that correctly, I have submitted my TMA already and it is now just waiting to be graded. I won't go so far as to say I know that I have written a masterpiece, because I am sure that I have written anything but, that being said, I have written something I am not totally ashamed of and I am relieved that I have now submitted it and it is down to my tutor what happens with it next.

Having taken a few deep panic stricken breaths, I am now wondering if perhaps I shouldn't have slept on it and submitted it tomorrow, but I know really that I wasn't going to be able to improve upon it, I was unfamiliar with the material and, coming from a literature background rather than a totally academic one, whatever I wrote was bound to be similar, if not the same.

Now onwards to Euripides and his Hippolytus, have read bits of this already and the story is as familiar to me as most of Shakespeare - probably because this is the source of much of his original material in some form or another. Luckily I am familiar with the myth of Hippolytus and his step mother Phaedra, so there should hopefully be few (if any at all) surprises.

Here we go...wish me luck.

Academic Year 2011-12

It has been well over a year (in fact, checking the date of my last entry it’s actually been nearly two) since I last posted. In the time since I started what was the last course before I was awarded (in September 2010) a BA (Hons) 2:2 in English Literature not much has changed. I am an aunt for the fourth time (my sister is officially insane), I have lost over seven stone in weight, joined a gym (I hate it), moved flat (again) and found a new companion in the form of a black and mud-brown kitten called Shadow (who lives very well up to his name).

Despite these changes I remain rather dissatisfied with my lot in life, but I have only myself to blame for that particular aspect so I am writing here again because in an effort to find something to pass the time I have decided to start studying again. In October this year I begin my journey into further academia with my first course on the Classics in the form of a Level 3 Humanities course A330 Myth in the Greek and Roman Worlds. I am looking forward to this new venture with renewed vigour and the prospect of homework, though daunting, is something I am anticipating eagerly, determined as I am to pick up information on an area of study I have always had an interest in. Granted it may not be the course that gets me promoted, or published, or anything other than another degree, but it is something I am interested in, and for me that is far more important. For me the acquisition of knowledge (in whatever form) is as vital as breathing and I could almost cry when I hear my sister’s children telling me that Harold did get shot in the eye in the Battle of Hastings and even worse “reading is boring”. How can anyone say that a rich tapestry of different and new worlds is boring?

Of course, this reintroduction to academia has been coupled with a renewed interest in writing as well as an increasing desire to read anything and everything. Since last Monday I have read 13 books (I am currently halfway through book 14), 4 of which were purchased for my Kindle (fantastic toy if only they could figure out the page numbering). This weekend will mark the start of course prep though – I am going to purchase a couple of the books (there are only four this year which really makes a dramatic change for me) and start reading them. Granted they aren’t literature in a modern sense, but I have no doubt that Ovid’s interpretation of Greek/Roman myth will be fascinating (I have read much dryer texts on the subject in the past, including those by Robert Graves).

To say that I am feeling much better about my lot since I signed up for my course is not an understatement by any means. The knowledge that in a few months I will have no choice but to read and write things which make me think is something I have been dreaming about since I finished EA300 Children’s Literature and realised that I was going to have to take a break and recoup my energies.