Grace Retirement

I'm now halfway through my time in York as an English student, and I have actually been enjoying every minute of it. Here's some things I want I 'd known about the course prior to starting uni:

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

One fantastic thing about the York English Lit structure is that it exposes students to English Literature across time periods and throughout continents, and enables you to find writers you have actually never become aware of previously. In your very first year, you'll start with a module that includes texts from the 15th century all the way to the contemporary. In readings, lectures and workshops, discussion of these texts also necessarily includes conversations of the major historic occasions of that duration, how life resembled because period, and of course, crucial philosophical and cultural readings of the text (something which I've grown to truly 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 exceptionally improving experience that widened my worldview and triggered me to think about the relationship in between Literature and Politics, and to question the purpose of a literary text.

This might sound a little daunting, but it really isn't really so! You definitely can anticipate to discover studying English at uni to be significantly various from the way we did it at A Levels, and while I did feel rather stressed out in the very first few weeks of term, I ultimately found my footing and grew to like 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 large direct exposure to various durations of literature makes you discover interests in topics you never ever engaged with before. For me, post-colonialism was my newfound love.

Versatility, flexibility, flexibility!

Studying English at York is thrilling because the course provides you a lot of independence to direct your studies. The English course has reasonably couple of contact hours (a.k.a. time spent in lectures and workshops) as compared to other subjects. The coolest thing about the English course would be that you get to decide exactly what you desire to write your essay on there are no set concerns (conserve for the written examinations in summertime term)!

Having more flexibility with your schedule also indicates that you can use the time to sign up with more societies or perhaps take up a term-time internship, which was precisely what I did! Through the York Careers Website, I looked for a term-time internship lasting for 12 weeks in Communications, and spent approximately 12 hours a week at the internship, which corresponds to about three days a week. This helped me gain work experience and employability abilities, and also some extra income on the side.

We have film screenings.

We enjoy movie adjustments of a few of the texts in our reading lists (side note: I like how these sessions appear on our timetable as legitimate mandatory lectures to participate in)! Who 'd have believed that studying English at uni likewise includes being in a dark lecture theatre and watching a movie predicted on to the huge screen? Think of it as a Netflix motion picture date ... but with a whole bunch of people.

In my first year, I remember seeing A Midsummer's Night Dream and caring how the film represented the characters of the play a lot that I composed one of my essays on the play! And simply last term, seeing Samuel Beckett's Endgame throughout a film screening made me see the play in an entire different light, prompting me to borrow 3 various books from the library about Beckett and his works.

They're not going to let you be puzzled and stressed all on your own.

We're appointed a personal supervisor at the start of university, and this manager will be an academic from your department-- in our case, English-- and you 'd meet him/her frequently throughout your 3 years of 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 dilemma about module choices, etc.