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What It's Like To Research Study English At York

I'm now midway through my time in York as an English trainee, and I have actually been taking pleasure in every minute of it. Here's some things I wish I 'd understood about the course before beginning uni:

You discover that there is a whole wide world of literatures (Yes, with the plural's'!).

One dazzling thing about the York English Lit structure is that it exposes students to English Literature throughout time periods and across continents, and permits you to find writers you've never ever become aware of previously. In your first year, you'll start off with a module that includes texts from the 15th century all the way to the modern. In readings, lectures and seminars, conversation of these texts likewise necessarily includes discussions of the significant historic events of that period, how life was like in that era, and naturally, important philosophical and cultural readings of the text (something which I've grown to really enjoy reading).

In another module, York's English programme exposes us to global literatures, centred around styles such as post-colonialism (the Literature of countries who were ex-British colonies, for example). Personally, I found that to be an extremely improving experience that broadened my worldview and prompted me to think about the relationship in between Literature and Politics, and to question the function of a literary text.

This might sound a little complicated, however it actually isn't so! You absolutely can expect to find studying English at uni to be significantly various from the method we did it at A Levels, and while I did feel quite stressed out in the first few weeks of term, I ultimately found my footing and grew to enjoy the volume and rate of work we have at uni. Likewise, it offers you a huge sense of accomplishment when you look back at the end of the term at all the poems, plays and novels you have actually gone through in just 10 weeks!

The wide direct exposure to several durations of literature makes you discover interests in subjects you never engaged with before. For me, post-colonialism was my newfound love.

Versatility, flexibility, versatility!

Studying English at York is awesome due to the fact that the course offers you a lot of self-reliance to direct your research studies. The English course has fairly couple of contact hours (a.k.a. time invested in lectures and seminars) as compared to other topics. The coolest thing about the English course would be that you get to choose what you desire to compose you essay on-- there are no set questions (conserve for the written exams in summer season term)!

Having more versatility with your schedule also indicates that you can utilise the time to sign up with more societies and even take up a term-time internship, which was precisely what I did! Through the York Careers Portal, I looked for a term-time internship lasting for 12 weeks in Communications, and invested approximately 12 hours a week at the internship, which relates to about 3 days a week. This assisted me gain work experience and employability skills, and also some additional earnings on the side.

We have film screenings.

We enjoy film adjustments of a few of the texts in our reading lists (side note: I like how these sessions show up on our schedule as legit required lectures to go to)! Who 'd have believed that studying English at uni also includes sitting in a dark lecture theatre and seeing a motion picture projected on to the substantial screen? Think of it as a Netflix movie date ... but with a whole lot of people.

In my very first year, I remember viewing A Midsummer's Night Dream and loving how the film represented the characters of the play so much that I wrote one of my essays on the play! And simply last term, watching Samuel Beckett's Endgame throughout a film screening made me see the play in a whole various light, prompting me to obtain three different books from the library about Beckett and his works.

They're not going to let you be confused and worried all by yourself.

We're appointed an individual supervisor at the start of university, and this manager will be a scholastic from your department-- in our case, English-- and you 'd satisfy him/her frequently throughout your 3 years of research study to just talk about how you're discovering the course and how you're feeling, if you're coping well or if you're having a problem about module options, etc.

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