Will we be getting more chronicles of spacedogs? I must’ve missed your most recent post while I was busy. How did the Marx paper go in the end? / What were the comments/feedback like?
Yes, of course! I was on a hiatus through the spring/summer term (May through June) because of it being my first time taking accelerated courses so doing my normal posts would’ve been difficult. The chronicles will not end for quite a while, I will continue them through my Bachelors (which I should be finished with by the end of 2025), Masters (which I will hopefully complete in one year), and PhD (unless there’s nothing to talk about during that time, I don’t know if one takes classes during a doctorate). So with that there are many years left of posts from me when it comes to school.
My Marx paper must have been decent because my final grade of the class was in the A’s. Unfortunately I am not the type to look at feedback very much because, for some reason, it makes me anxious and self conscious. I am aware that feedback is there to help me improve and that I should definitely look at them but I just don’t, with this upcoming semester and future ones I will look at the feedback just so I can gain a tolerance. What I can say is that my professor for that particular class was very encouraging and wasn’t judgemental about me being interested in Marxism, he was even sad when I told him I was having a hard time at school due to fear of pursuing my interests. Overall it was fine, I didn’t do as well as I could’ve due to this being my first time dealing with accelerated courses, so hopefully next time I will be more prepared.
My Marx paper must have been decent because my final grade of the class was in the A’s. Unfortunately I am not the type to look at feedback very much because, for some reason, it makes me anxious and self conscious. I am aware that feedback is there to help me improve and that I should definitely look at them but I just don’t, with this upcoming semester and future ones I will look at the feedback just so I can gain a tolerance.
Good to hear that your prof is supportive. That’s not the case everywhere.
Depends where you do a PhD. In the US, things can be more structured with compulsory courses than elsewhere. Otherwise, you may get the opportunity to enrol on a methods-type courses, etc. It may depend on what was covered on your Masters. It may also be a funding requirement, usually as part of a 1+3 deal, where the first year is something like an MSc or MA in methods and research. Wherever you are, your school/department/faculty will likely invite you to bespoke training sessions run by the academic staff. You’ll probably have to show engagement with CPD to ‘upgrade’ and/or complete, depending on the institution, for which you can attend a mixture of the above, plus conference attendance.
You’d always have your PhD research to blog about. You’ll want to think carefully about that. Some people make a kind of research repository out of a blog. Given how much you write online, you could get some benefit from that (it can look good as a kind of publication if it’s consistent enough). That might need to be attributed to your real name (to include it on your CV/public profile), for which you may not want to associate it to Lemmygrad or your SpaceDogs account. If it’s just for you and us, you can keep doing what you’re doing, taking care not to say too much about your project – you’ll be the only one answering your question, so it would be easier to dox yourself.
I wonder if there’s a way to re-frame what feedback is and how to approach it. Would be good to start looking at it in detail. Not all feedback is good but good feedback could really help. You might be making the same mistake between papers, which could be easily addressed and lift your grade.
There’s maybe a trick in knowing that just because someone writing feedback says XYZ, doesn’t mean they’re right. It gets easier to think, ‘you’re confident in telling me why I’m wrong but luckily I disagree’. At the same time, nothing is ever finished. There will always be room to find something to improve; and every person has their own perspective, so there will always be room to say that you ‘missed’ XYZ (whatever is of interest to them). In this sense, some feedback is written just because the marker/reviewer needs to say something.
Apparently, Marx couldn’t leave something for a month without thinking on his own that the whole thing needed revising. It can sometimes help to leave that time-distance so that the text no longer feels as if it’s ‘yours’. Then the criticism doesn’t cut so sharply (and speaking from experience, the tendency to immediately (sometimes too hastily) reject the feedback fades away).
Yeah, I’m glad he was cool. Too bad I’ll probably never be taught by him again because he was a guest professor for the summer, he works at a completely different university 😭
Your comment about the PhD experience did remind me to ask my Historiography professor about today and I learned quite a bit about the process based on his experience. He told me essentially exactly what you said, that the structure is different depending on where you study. For a history PhD in the US its about 7 years and around two of those years are dedicated to taking classes, in Canada I think only 1 year, and in Europe they just throw you straight into research. I am really leaning towards studying in Europe because of the 3 year program and resources (I want those archives!). This would also require me to learn a new language so I better idk a country quick so I can start studying as soon as possible (I am drawn to Eastern Europe because of the soviet archives but I’m still debating). I didn’t ask anything about CPD or bespoke training (because I forgot) but next time I speak to a professor I will ask because I want to know more about that.
I figured I would probably still post about my experiences and research where but I wonder about how careful I would need to be, not in the dosing department since I know not to do that, but in what about my research I would be able to talk about. Because of that posts might come out more vague. Which I guess is fine but it is something I have been thinking about. In the end I will definitely continue the chronicles until its conclusion when I get my doctorate. Having a separate, more detailed blog is also something I am now considering but I still have a lot of time to think about it.
My professors seem to want physical copies of papers for detailed feedback, while the online ones are for basic notes. I haven’t had the time to hand in physical copies (because of my procrastination issues that I am still struggling with even with the advice from the Grad). My next paper I will give a printed version so I can get past this avoidance I have. I am also going to talk to my modern Europe professor about my Marx paper and see what she has to say, maybe her criticisms are the same as my self-inflicted ones. I know my main issue is not giving myself enough time for projects, and CBT has not worked for me. But your advice here is very helpful when it comes to changing my mindset around feedback, the reference to Marx actually makes it more helpful for me, I don’t know why though. Maybe because it’s related to a real person. I’ll give it some time but not too long or the semester will be over lol.
Will we be getting more chronicles of spacedogs? I must’ve missed your most recent post while I was busy. How did the Marx paper go in the end? / What were the comments/feedback like?
Yes, of course! I was on a hiatus through the spring/summer term (May through June) because of it being my first time taking accelerated courses so doing my normal posts would’ve been difficult. The chronicles will not end for quite a while, I will continue them through my Bachelors (which I should be finished with by the end of 2025), Masters (which I will hopefully complete in one year), and PhD (unless there’s nothing to talk about during that time, I don’t know if one takes classes during a doctorate). So with that there are many years left of posts from me when it comes to school.
My Marx paper must have been decent because my final grade of the class was in the A’s. Unfortunately I am not the type to look at feedback very much because, for some reason, it makes me anxious and self conscious. I am aware that feedback is there to help me improve and that I should definitely look at them but I just don’t, with this upcoming semester and future ones I will look at the feedback just so I can gain a tolerance. What I can say is that my professor for that particular class was very encouraging and wasn’t judgemental about me being interested in Marxism, he was even sad when I told him I was having a hard time at school due to fear of pursuing my interests. Overall it was fine, I didn’t do as well as I could’ve due to this being my first time dealing with accelerated courses, so hopefully next time I will be more prepared.
Huh that be like me fr
Good to hear that your prof is supportive. That’s not the case everywhere.
Depends where you do a PhD. In the US, things can be more structured with compulsory courses than elsewhere. Otherwise, you may get the opportunity to enrol on a methods-type courses, etc. It may depend on what was covered on your Masters. It may also be a funding requirement, usually as part of a 1+3 deal, where the first year is something like an MSc or MA in methods and research. Wherever you are, your school/department/faculty will likely invite you to bespoke training sessions run by the academic staff. You’ll probably have to show engagement with CPD to ‘upgrade’ and/or complete, depending on the institution, for which you can attend a mixture of the above, plus conference attendance.
You’d always have your PhD research to blog about. You’ll want to think carefully about that. Some people make a kind of research repository out of a blog. Given how much you write online, you could get some benefit from that (it can look good as a kind of publication if it’s consistent enough). That might need to be attributed to your real name (to include it on your CV/public profile), for which you may not want to associate it to Lemmygrad or your SpaceDogs account. If it’s just for you and us, you can keep doing what you’re doing, taking care not to say too much about your project – you’ll be the only one answering your question, so it would be easier to dox yourself.
I wonder if there’s a way to re-frame what feedback is and how to approach it. Would be good to start looking at it in detail. Not all feedback is good but good feedback could really help. You might be making the same mistake between papers, which could be easily addressed and lift your grade.
There’s maybe a trick in knowing that just because someone writing feedback says XYZ, doesn’t mean they’re right. It gets easier to think, ‘you’re confident in telling me why I’m wrong but luckily I disagree’. At the same time, nothing is ever finished. There will always be room to find something to improve; and every person has their own perspective, so there will always be room to say that you ‘missed’ XYZ (whatever is of interest to them). In this sense, some feedback is written just because the marker/reviewer needs to say something.
Apparently, Marx couldn’t leave something for a month without thinking on his own that the whole thing needed revising. It can sometimes help to leave that time-distance so that the text no longer feels as if it’s ‘yours’. Then the criticism doesn’t cut so sharply (and speaking from experience, the tendency to immediately (sometimes too hastily) reject the feedback fades away).
Yeah, I’m glad he was cool. Too bad I’ll probably never be taught by him again because he was a guest professor for the summer, he works at a completely different university 😭
Your comment about the PhD experience did remind me to ask my Historiography professor about today and I learned quite a bit about the process based on his experience. He told me essentially exactly what you said, that the structure is different depending on where you study. For a history PhD in the US its about 7 years and around two of those years are dedicated to taking classes, in Canada I think only 1 year, and in Europe they just throw you straight into research. I am really leaning towards studying in Europe because of the 3 year program and resources (I want those archives!). This would also require me to learn a new language so I better idk a country quick so I can start studying as soon as possible (I am drawn to Eastern Europe because of the soviet archives but I’m still debating). I didn’t ask anything about CPD or bespoke training (because I forgot) but next time I speak to a professor I will ask because I want to know more about that.
I figured I would probably still post about my experiences and research where but I wonder about how careful I would need to be, not in the dosing department since I know not to do that, but in what about my research I would be able to talk about. Because of that posts might come out more vague. Which I guess is fine but it is something I have been thinking about. In the end I will definitely continue the chronicles until its conclusion when I get my doctorate. Having a separate, more detailed blog is also something I am now considering but I still have a lot of time to think about it.
My professors seem to want physical copies of papers for detailed feedback, while the online ones are for basic notes. I haven’t had the time to hand in physical copies (because of my procrastination issues that I am still struggling with even with the advice from the Grad). My next paper I will give a printed version so I can get past this avoidance I have. I am also going to talk to my modern Europe professor about my Marx paper and see what she has to say, maybe her criticisms are the same as my self-inflicted ones. I know my main issue is not giving myself enough time for projects, and CBT has not worked for me. But your advice here is very helpful when it comes to changing my mindset around feedback, the reference to Marx actually makes it more helpful for me, I don’t know why though. Maybe because it’s related to a real person. I’ll give it some time but not too long or the semester will be over lol.