Thursday night and Friday I had meetings with three grad profs -- At a Starbucks in Red State Dr. Supervisor looked at my paper and instead of critiquing the writing (finally, he was happy with it) he told me I should make more of my own arguments. Yes, he's right. I can make arguments and I will. Revision on that paper will be about a 2 month process at my rate, which puts another version in his hands in early December.
I left the meeting feeling as if I had had good news, even if that news was delete 1/3 of the paper and write a lot more of my own. I felt as if I'd been on Top Chef and Chef Tom told me I had too many ingredients on my plate, but the underlying idea was interesting. I also heard my own writing advise come back at me from his mouth... and he was just as right as I am when talking to my first-year ethics students.
Friday morning I was able to squeeze in a meeting with Dr. Ancient. He has some really challenging home situations and I was lucky to get time with him. Dr. Ancient taught me a lot about teaching, by example. Although I'm not at all in his sub-field, I'd guess that if he observed my classroom, he'd see quite a bit of himself and his passion in my classes. Dr. Ancient told me that he liked the new direction I took, but that the new view of Plato I included sucked.... well, he didn't exactly say "sucked", but what he did say is that while I did an admirable job representing the view, the original holder of the view doesn't explain it well, so it is a loser. His answer was to delete and pump up my own criticism...
hmmmm.... sounds familiar. With a bit more reading and thinking to do on that paper, I suspect I can have it done by early November. Excellent news!
Finally, I got to have my time with Dr. Feminism. She's becoming one of my favorite grad instructors, and I never had her for a course. She's easy to work with and was willing to take on additional work for a student she hadn't met before last winter. She give excellent comments on papers and overall is fun to talk with about doing philosophy and life in general.
Dr. Feminism had the best news yet... More or less we looked at the paper and she had a few small areas in which she thought I could be more clear, and I'm done. The one book I need to look at to make one change I have on my bookshelf at home, so on my next work day I can make the changes and be done with it... (yes, Julie, I'll send it to you -- now that I'm happy with it :).
To say it was a good day in Red State would be an understatement.
YEA!
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