Advice needed on preparation for a Masters... after 30 years!!

[Meduse]

Hi! Looking for some wise words please.I’m an ex-teacher newly retired who has just been offered a place to do a Masters in Literature.I’m conscious that it’s such a long time since I did my first degree that I would like to spend the next few months preparing... I have a reading list but am more concerned with writing essays again especially at a higher level and in this new world of internet use!
Any advice would be most welcome
Thank you

Congratulations on being accepted for the MA!

When you say 'newly retired' - how long is it since you were teaching? Since you presumably managed all the new world of Internet stuff at work?

(It's weird though; in a previous century I hand wrote all my undergraduate assignments, except my dissertation, for which I borrowed my boyfriend's computer. My excited acquisition of a MacBook during a recent postgrad course was met with complete indifference by my less-than-half-my-age fellow students.)

I doubt that technology will be any problem. The entirely new vocabulary and mores of 21st c university life might be a surprise, unless you've been hanging out with academics in the past few years.

Yes sorry I wasn’t clear !( not a good start.,) I am IT literate but am wondering about whether I should be looking at particular sites for information on how to write an essay,what’s expected for a Masters etc. when I google it there is so much information I wondered if there were websites that were recommended.
I assume practicing writing some critical reviews of TV programmes,books I read etc might be useful?
Thank you for replying

I didn’t find too much difference between level 6 and level 7 essay writing......think the IT side will be more of a culture shock....eg using turnitin...... poster presentations....on PowerPoint......searching the literature online..... the academic writing will be fine...it will all come back to you....like riding a bike .... good luck

Hmm ... I'd maybe concentrate more on having something to say rather than how to say it. I'd be surprised if there's one specific ideal of how to write an MA level essay. In my experience it's a question of how you synthesise information and thought from diverse sources to formulate your own arguments.

Obviously Literature covers a massive amount of stuff. What led you to this subject in particular? (Presumably you have some involvement with literature that qualified you for the MA.) What's the focus of your course? Is there a particular strand of research you'll want to concentrate on? Are you reasonably well read, both within and beyond the Western canon? Do you write? Are you actively involved in any writing project? I think working through a few online courses or something else where you're engaging with your peers might be a better place to start than simply practising writing in isolation.

Perhaps look at MOOCs. There are lots of free and paid-for courses that run for a couple of months or less and would get you back into studying and give you practice in writing essays.

I almost posted some links to Coursera and FutureLearn, this morning. But decided the OP probably has the wit to have sought them out for herself.

What I remember from postgrad study after decades away from academia is that it's important to arrive with enough relevant knowledge / experience of your own to prevent you feeling intimidated by younger, seemingly sharper students. In the end you'll probably swoop past them to the finishing post, but the first few weeks or months can be tricky if one is self-conscious or unused to academic competitiveness.

Congratulations! What specific bit of lit are you doing?

I believe you can register on Jstor and get a limited number of articles for free; I would do that and find some new writing in your subject area so you can begin to see what's current. Maybe email your university and ask for a reading list? They may not have one out yet but they might.

I get where @Kitkat151 is coming from, but I think academic writing styles, at least in English Lit, have changed quite a bit in 30 years and yes, if you write the way you were writing for your undergrad 30 years ago, you will look out of practice. So I don't think you're wrong to want to update it a bit.

Very happy to talk more but don't want to go off into irrelevancies before I know what are you're working in.

I did a masters a couple of years ago 30 years after my first degree in an Arts subject. Most Universities have lots of academic support these days , have a look on the university and university library websites and you should be able to find these. Birkbeck have lots of excellent stuff , Leeds and Manchester also most of which is open access. Also check out Futurelearn.

I went to as many of these as possible on everything from how to structure essays to taking notes . Most important is referencing which has changed out of all recognition since I did my first degree . Again I found there were lots of courses available including courses on specific software .

There are also some good books about search postgraduate and mature students study skills on Amazon

Medusa I am in a similar position to you on that I was an English teacher for almost 30 years and am thinking of studying for my Masters. I have not applied yet (as I am probably going to study with the Open University and they are about to change their course for next year and I want to see what the changes are before I apply). Like you I am wondering if I will cope, having not written any essays in over 30 years. I have signed up to the Open University free courses Open Learn and they have a course about preparing for Masters. It is generic but it reassured me that taking on a Masters course is not beyond me. Hope that helps.

I am also newly retired and have just been accepted to do a foundation certificate in English Literature at Oxford. It’s equivalent to the first year of a BA. My first degree is in a science subject so this is a big change!
I have been told to read Studying Literature by Paul Goring along with An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory by Andrew Bennet.
I realise that they are not MA level, but they might give an insight into current practice.
I am also reading stacks of Victorian novels and poetry as this is the first module in October. Fortunately I like the big realist novel and have already read a lot of them.
What sort of reading are you doing?

I think try to get to grips early on with your Research Methods module or similar. The step up from LLB to MA for me was being able to critique the perspective that the writer is writing from.

Also get to grips early on with how your thesis will need to be structured (e.g. literature review, methodology, findings, discussion etc.). This will help you work back through your essays and to know what you are looking for in your reading.

Also get to grips with the specifics of academic referencing specific to your course ASAP

I believe you can register on Jstor and get a limited number of articles for free; I would do that and find some new writing in your subject

Recent articles are generally excluded from free access on Jstor with a personal account - at least, they are in my subject. O P will get full access through her university once she starts.

You can often access recent theses and dissertations freely through university sites and through the BL's Ethos site. Worth Googling for anything in your particular subject area.

Recent articles are generally excluded from free access on Jstor with a personal account - at least, they are in my subject. O P will get full access through her university once she starts.

Yes, but she's asking what she can do before she starts. I admit I've not used freebie Jstor for a couple of years, but last time I did, I had no trouble accessing recent articles, and I think the OP is in my subject.

I would really focus on the mechanics , referencing study skills , essay structure etc . I know at the University I went to they ran a summer programme. I think it was a topic a week for 5 weeks . It covered reading , research , essay structure etc.

You will love it best thing I ever did. Seriously considering an MRes

Thank you all for your advice. I do have a reading list and have bought a couple of the academic texts mentioned and have started to read and do some bits of wr.I did find a Future Learn course and will be starting that soon.The degree will focus on Children’s Literature so that part of reading is great 😊 but I realise the focus will be on a critical analysis.
Thanks again

Gosh I’m so envious that sounds so interesting, I hope you have a great time

And thank you@SarahAndQuack I didn’t know about JStor but have just had a look.

Oh, I am so jealous! I'd love to do Children's Lit. If I had my time again I would.

I'm supposed to be starting a master's in a similar subject this autumn and really not sure whether to bother now. Solidarity…

Whyever not, FrankensteinIsTheMonster?

Oh just general discouragement/disillusionment. No guarantee it'll be back to in-person learning, which isn't great for me as I don't get on with doing everything online — the switch to online learning combined with last-minute assessment method changes (almost all exam —> almost all coursework) really buggered up the last bit of my BA. I deferred the master's a year because I didn't fancy university pandemic-style, and haven't been up to studying this whole time, so am very rusty with the language (I'm interested in Old and Middle English) and haven't been doing the reading I needed to be doing, and my difficulties with online learning and assessment changes means it's my second-choice master's anyway, as I failed to meet the offer for my preferred one. Plus the expense, lack of improvement to job prospects, everyone's going to be knackered and miserable… talking myself out of it, I guess. But this thread isn't about me! I wanted to offer a kind of grim sympathy with OP as I know it's difficult initially getting back into studying — I was a mature student for my undergrad.