Friday, 30 March 2012

50%

The work I am handing in on Monday will determine half of my degree. HALF. 50%. I used to bleat on about how great it was that nothing counted until the final year, but that now seems like a REALLY STUPID way of doing things.

Anyway, whether I like it or not, after Monday I'll be halfway there - I can't decide whether to be worried or relieved. Somehow in the last few weeks I have managed to write the required nine essays and my dissertation. But there have of course been mistakes along the way, some of which I have only recently identified. Some highlights:

- "According to Aristotle’s conception of matter and form, the bricks are the houses’s matter for they have the potential to become a house"

- In a paper about Churchland: "we are generally able to make accurate predictions of others' behaviour, Chuchill notes" 

- "we will one day recognise that we are mistake." 

and, my favourite:

- "we are still left with the issue of how functionalism can explain those mental states which do not appear to have a migraine" yeah, tricky that one...

Thinking about the fact there will be people who are still at the drafting stage terrifies me. HOW WILL THEY FIX THE ERRORS? Philosophers hate inaccuracy, and I fear I would receive no degree at all if I handed in papers with the above mistakes (NB this is not actually true, I would get a degree but would be forever mortified).

Radio 3 has helpfully decided that 23rd-30th March is Schubert season. This coincided with my getting fed up of all music I own that doesn't have words, so I have learnt a LOT about Schubert, and also confirmed that no, I do not like opera. 

I have also learnt that my preferred length for an undergrad philosophy essay is 2,700 words. Our word limit is 2,500. 

At this point I know I'm going to finish (barring any kind of huge disaster, but I've hopefully avoided this by backing up everything a million times, saving a new draft every time I change a word, and constantly e-mailing files to myself) so I'm now mired in IT'SNOTGOODENOUGH,  MAYBEICANADDINMORESECONDARYREADINGS, and MAYBEISHOULDDOTHEEXAMINSTEAD. Urgh. 

I'm also completely ignoring everything that isn't a dissertation or a presubmission so am probably being even more annoying than normal :)
 



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