Oh my, August 30th, that was a while ago. Well all my readers (haha) probably know what I hae been up to but a quick summary is called for by the nature of the blog.
September was basically lots of work for La Trobe. That subject just took over. The weekend would be spent frantically trying to write lectures and plan tutorials, writing lectures till 11pm every Sunday evening is NOT fun. Monday was teaching, Tuesday was being exhausted. Got very little thesis done, which is upsetting, though to be expected.
October was the crazyness of moving house, going to Poland and trying to get marking done.
November was marking and writing a conference paper and enjoying the federal election.
And now it is December and it is exactly three weeks till I go to Rome. Which is both exciting but also stressful as I wanted so much to have finished my thesis, then when that didn't look hopeful I wanted to have my full draft in, and now I don't know where I will be. I am beginning to feel more and more that perhaps I am just not up to the task of actually completing a good PhD, or any PhD. Each time I feel close my supervisor just shoots more things down. Every full draft I finish is apparently full of holes, unresolved arguments and repetition, plus in his words from today 'crap translations'. Which is a nice way of acknowledging my hard work at translating archaic Italian.
Hey ho.
I have spent the last few days summarising all the information I have on the opera productions of the Arcadian Academy in early eighteenth century Rome and am now preparing to write chapter seven up good and proper.
Hereford
6 hours ago
3 comments:
I feel for you and I suspect that this is much more about your sup's lack of ability to be a supportive editor for you. I've often been told (even by industry professionals) this year in my classes that, when critiquing other people's work, the editor (or whomever) needs a delicate and highly skilled touch to bring out the best in the author and must always work to avoid being unclear and
discouraging.
Ideally, they should largely assist the author to edit (and re-write, where needed) the work themselves, not just shove in the editors ideas and corrections wholesale.
I don't know anything about PhD's, so apologies if I'm off the mark here. Using descriptions like 'crap', esp. to the author themselves, just sounds hugely unhelpful. Rather unprofessional, too. Can you ask for a second supervisor, or at the least, a second opinion?
I'm glad to hear you're still powering on - Nil Illegitimus Carborandum! :D
In other news, this moring I found Hamish had sneaked into my room and he was happily tearing open the plastic on a packet of tennis balls . Then he started chewing up some cardboard from my bin into tiny pieces and spat them out onto the carpet.
oh little magoo!
Today we took him and the Brits for a walk to the lake and Hamish fell in, in ardent pursuit of a tennis ball. Twice. :D
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