Over the last few days I've finally bit the bullet and turned my Resurrection essay from a pile of notes into what is starting to resemble an actual essay.
It's been a while since I wrote an essay. I believe May 2008 was the last time I handed one in. Actually it's quite a weird feeling doing it again. I'm sticking to the same technique which I like to describe using the metaphor of baking. When I say 'like to describe' I've only just thought of this metaphor, so let's go with it and see what happens.
I take a long time shopping for ingredients and measuring them out - that is, finding the books and reading them. This essay has been really challenging as I've had to read quite widely - I'm trying to marry up three doctrines of the resurrection body from very different eras with feminist and disabled identity concerns - so that's five different elements to start off with. But it's a bit like ingredients really - the eggs are a different texture to the flour, the milk to the sugar, but I hope they'll all come together in the end. Then I write an essay plan, like a recipe, and number my notes according to where I think they'll fit in the essay. Then I chuck it all down on paper, really quickly and messily, don't worry about the word count yet, and see what happens.
What do you mean that's a terrible metaphor and your technique is essentially the same as anyone else's technique? You try and write an interesting post on writing an essay!
Well anyway, my essay's at 9,000 words now, which seeing it's meant to be 7,000 is a bit much. But I'm leaving it to bake for a couple of weeks then I'll go back with a fresh eye and see what can be taken away. All in all I'm pretty pleased. I'm not kidding myself that I'll get a first - this is Oxford, this is Masters level, and I have quite a lot else on my mind. But a 2:1 would be just lovely.
In other news, at my mid-week placement this week, a teenager approached me and asked if I was pregnant. This came as a great surprise as I was, up until this point, pretty sure I wasn't showing. But as I hadn't told a soul at my placement yet, she couldn't have worked it out any other way, and she justified the observation by telling me that I am the "same shape" as her Mother was when she was pregnant. Fair logic, I suppose.
So it's baggy jumpers for me from now on. Actually, this whole pregnancy this is getting a bit weird. Although I don't think it's really noticeable yet, I am definitely aware that I am expanding and feel a bit heavier. I've now reached 15 weeks - in 3 weeks or so I might start to feel it kicking.
Friday is half-term which is great because we get to return to the Westcountry for a couple of days. We're going baby-clothes shopping with Mum on Saturday, and hopefully going to St David's on Sunday and seeing Emma and Emily in the afternoon. Can't wait.
That's all my news really. Paul's at Spouse's bowling tonight so I'm off to Kate's for a cup of tea. Lovely stuff.
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