I would say that this year there has been a big improvement in my writing technique, both from the point of view of gaming material and from the point of view of academic writing. An improvement that hasn't been without its retrograde moments - my Kim essay for example - but which has sharpened my writing focus and technique immeasurably; perhaps ( Read more... )

stephanie_pegg once recalled a time when she was taken off some or other project and asked to help her boss's child with some or other school assignment. Well, recently the opposite happened to me: I was taken off some or other project to help set a school assignment for physics. I didn't quite get to grips with whether it was bursary equivalent or only sixth ( Read more... )

One of the analysis perspectives that was investigated in my modern fiction paper was the old saw of gender relations: sexism v. feminism. Almost as a kind of by-catch, I think more general gender and sexuality issues are central to this argument. Does sex define anything? Does is, or should it, in some determinative sense, matter ( Read more... )

My confidence has taken a big blow this week: a B average for the internal assessment in ENGL 330. Now that may not sound too bad, but it's the lowest mark for a literature paper I've ever recieved (next lowest, B+ for Stage I fiction at Massey 5 years ago). The easy route to go here is to say "well, I was working too, and I'm a busy man" but while ( Read more... )

It was pointed out to me yesterday, from a completely unexpected source, that I have been quiet of late. At least, in my public posts on, well, whatever interests me. There are several reasons for that, including the feeling I've been having recently that the kinds of things I discuss aren't producing anything effective. They exist in cyberspace ( Read more... )

So, it's nearly 2:30PM. I have written roughly 1200 words of 2000. I have said everything I want to say about language in the novels. Sure, I could dredge out more examples and beat my point to death, but ... I don't feel like it ( Read more... )

Going back to my real area of expertise for a moment: Literature.
( Previous examples )

In the English programme at Victoria it is required that students complete 2 stage III papers, 2 stage II papers and 1 more that may be either stage II or stage III. There is the additional requirement that 2 of these papers must be pre 20th century focused. That rule is in place because the modern fiction papers are wildly more popular than their ( Read more... )

While reading Achebe's Things Fall Apart, Emecheta's the Joys of Motherhood and Wendt's The Mango's Kiss, one thing I've been keeping an eye out for is how I can distinguish these texts from similaraly themed western novels. Things Fall Apart was relatively easy, because the society and life cycle depicted is fairly disimilar to a modern western ( Read more... )

I've been slowly falling behind on my reading, and at this late stage of the University holidays, after a morning of book-buying, I have managed to spend a few hours actually reading books.

I am reading a book called The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta, an ex-pat Ibo Nigerian living in London. I am about 2/3 of the way through this book, ( Read more... )