My Project

Ok, I think I’m ready to talk about this.

I’m starting a project at Durham, and while I have a pretty clear focus in mind of what I’m wanting to make happen, the steps to between the goal posts are pretty hazy. It might not work, but I’m seeing how this goes.

My project is to create a biannual anthology of student writing. There is a general theme and then a more specific set of themes I have in mind, which I’ll keep to myself until things really start going. But overall, essentially I’m looking at starting a publishing gig.

How I’m Approaching This

1. Talk to staff
   My first thought was that I would need someone probably involved in one of the departments relating to the content of the anthologies. THe English department is obvious, however the content could fall under interdisciplinary, so there are a few people I could contact. Since my interaction with my lecturers is extremely limited, I went for someone I have a little bit of rapport with such as one of my tutors. While he’s got a pretty full plate, he’s forwarded my propositional email to (I think) a lecturer who published a book recently with similar themes. I have yet to hear from them.
2. Create an Outline
   Of course this is obvious, but in order to show that I’ve given this some thought, I’ve had to create a full outline with as many details as I can work out. There are somethings I’m not really sure how to go about, which I’ll address later. But at least, if I do get any professors or faculty involved, they’ll see that I’m mostly organized.
3. Made a List of Demands
   Not so much demands, but rather a list of people I’ll need to help with this. I know that I’ll need editors and graphic design people, but I’ll also possibly need help with a web page (though, push come to shove, I can do it myself) and ‘marketing’, or at least, distribution.
4. Contacted Clubs and Societies
   Because I’m 31 and in the first year of my program, and because I live 30 miles south of Durham, I don’t really know anyone. So I’ve needed to figure out a way of meeting people and getting the word out. So far I have reached out to two related departments who have both agreed to send out my project information in the newsletter – you know, the one that goes to everyone in that program (which is a little terrifying), as well as seven clubs/societies.
5. Research
   While I’ve heard back from four lots of organizations (for lack of better terminology), I still haven’t heard back from a few, and newsletters also haven’t gone out yet. While I read this really fantastic blog post the other day about how to wait to hear back from publishers and agents, I’m opting for my own method of anxiety-quelling by obsessively researching what I could potentially need.

Some Problems I’m having

1. I don’t know what I’m allowed to do
   Because I’m essentially doing this under the brand of Durham in the sense that my project involves Durham students and I am, myself, a Durham University student, I don’t know that I’m allowed to create this. I don’t know if I need a higher-up to moderate me or act as a mentor.
2. The Specifics
   1. With a little luck, I’ll get a flood of interested students ready to put their best foot forward toward this project. They’ll be dedicated, willing to work on this over breaks, and be reliant. However, how on earth do I choose my team? How do I decide that Alice was totally in but Beauregard seems flaky based on his email? Or should I gather them all together and interview them? How do I decide????
   2. While I know the basics of the team that I need, I don’t know how many people for each team role I need. I know that this is something that I’m going to be learning as I go along, but I do need a foundation team. Do I need more than one graphic design artist? Should I have one person just for the web page or should we all work together on it? Do I need just one other person to serve as editor, or should I have four of us? Most importantly – what role am I forgetting??
3. Publishing
   It’s one thing to say you want to publish a collection of short stories, but what about when you actually want to have physical printed nice beautiful and professional collections of anthologies? Where do I print? I could go the CreateSpace route and self-publish via Amazon, though then that might alienate potential independent bookstores that would be happy to support budding writers. Or I could go for something that might not be as cheap. Then, should I be looking at just buying a set lot of books available when the volume is released and then after that they’re gone, or should I make older editions available for purchase?
4. Money
   1. I was hoping that being that it’s something Durham-related, there might be some kind of start-up organization fund to help get clubs going. Because I’m still struggling to find answers, I don’t know if this exists or not.
   2. I will need start-up costs to advertise for writers (I got my editor-gig at The Bubble because I found a flyer in the Student Union. I personally am looking at every piece of paper and poster that I come across to see what is going on, so I know they work), and I’ll need to get a webpage going, which means buying a domain name as well as some web space.
   3. This is less of an immediate problem, but I’ll need initial start-up publishing costs for the first round of anthologies. Though that’s down the line.

Attempting Solutions

There are a few things I’m doing in an effort to find solutions and answers to my questions, though they’re not as clear, nor fruitful as I’d hoped.

1. The Higher-Ups
   The other day I went to what is called a Mentor’s Formal, where our college mentor tells us about a formal and we have dinner with them. During this, I happened to be seated next to the vice president of the college (not university, mind). I told my mentor about my project idea, and asked if I needed anyone who was faculty to be involved, and he told me I should talk to the vp. So I pitched my idea to her, and she only told me to write a piece to go into the annual college magazine that’s released in June so that I could find more people to get involved.
   While this is helpful in team building or finding submissions (which really is my goal by the time the college magazine comes out), it doesn’t really answer my question. However, due to her lack of addressing my question, I’m assuming that no, I don’t need anyone, and that I can just start it.
   Fingers crossed.
2. Specifics
   This is where my obsessive research comes into play. While I don’t really have the clearest idea of who I need or how many of what role, I do know the bare minimum I need/would like.
   As far as the selection process goes, I’m going to have to find out how many students reply to me, and then make my decision from there. Though I’m hoping to just gather everyone together, tell them the detail, tell them how much of their time I’ll need from them, and say whoever doesn’t think they can do that should go, and then I’ll just wing it from there.
   Like a pro.
3. Publishing
   I’m still trying to find the solution to this. So far I’ve been participating in writing groups and asking for opinions on the best self-publishing services based on experience. I’ve emailed the Student Union who says they do all the university’s publishing, and, unfortunately, they only do spiral-bound binding–not the quality I’m looking for.
   Once I have my team together I’ll be able to have more of a think-tank to iron out these details. But so far my favorite option is Lulu, simply because I have experience with them, I know they’re print-to-order, and I can keep a backlisting of anthologies available for anyone who’s interested in them.
4. Money
   1. I’ll admit I’m slacking on this aspect, but I can email the Student Union about this, as they’re likely to know the most regarding clubs and societies. I did email them already, asking if they knew if I needed anyone higher-up to start a society, though I have yet to hear from them. If I don’t hear from them by the end of the week, then I’ll pester them in person.
   2. The money situation is difficult. I’m thinking that as far as flyers go, that might just have to come out of my own pocket. I’m alright with that, as the Student Union has pretty decent prices.
   3. When it comes time for printing costs, I have every intention to use crowd-funding. I think there are enough people out there that would be willing to participate in the start-up costs of a publication that’s student-run.
      Fingers crossed again.

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So there you have it, my newest project. Should you have any advice or wisdom, please feel free to share it, because I’m running low!

University Grading System in England vs. America

Among the many other adjustments I’ve been making with being at Durham, the grading system is one that I think has been the most difficult. As I’ve mentioned before, there are no assignments aside from the essays. In most (of my six) modules, we have one formative essay (which doesn’t count toward the overall grade), one summative essay (which does count toward the overall grade) and then exams at the end of the year, and that’s it. I do however have on sneaky module that slipped in a second formative essay that I just learned about that’s due the day we’re back from winter break–so watch out for those!

This leaves room for a bit of eagerness to see how you’re actually doing when it’s time for feedback regarding your first lot of essays. I won’t lie–if you are participating in the Humanities at all, be prepared to be terrified by what you receive.

In The States

The grading system, I feel at least, is fairly straight forward in the US. Each teacher might have a slight variation of this, but for the most part, you can expect that if you get a percentage in the 90’s, you’ve received some form of A, if you’re in the 80’s, a B–and so on down to the 50’s being a fail.

This is pretty straight forward. You can judge how well you’re doing based on the percentage you get. The end. Done deal.

In England

While you’re graded on a score out of 100, it really does not do you any favors to think of your score as a percentage. You will cry.

I was told that it is unlikely to get in the 70’s on your first essay, so getting something in the 60’s is pretty good. I asked one of my tutors what that might equate to in American grades, and he said a solid B, just to give you an idea of how this works.

The also don’t have your standard letter grading as well. You can receive anything along the line of First-Third-Fail. These all are accompanied with a division by adjectives and numbers–as follows:

1. First (70-100)
   1. 86-100
      1. Brilliant
   2. 76-85
      1. Outstanding
   3. 70-75
      1. Excellent
2. 2.i (60-69)
   1. 65-69
      1. Very Good
   2. 60-64
      1. Good
3. 2.ii (50-59)
   1. 55-59
      1. Sound
   2. 50-54
      1. Fair
4. Third (40-49)
   1. 45-49
      1. Weak
   2. 40-44
      1. Very Weak
5. Fail (0-39)
   1. 35-59
      1. Poor
   2. 30-35
      1. Very Poor
   3. 20-29
      1. Extremely Poor
   4. 10-19
      1. Inept
   5. 0-9
      1. Abysmal

My personal favorite adjectives are for scores 0-19. They seem pretty harsh.

So this grading system, while it freaks me out, is something that must be kept in mind when I first get the shock of seeing my essay scores. When I have them all collected, I’ll share my outcome.

However, some positive things to keep in mind:

• A tutor told me this round of essays, the highest he marked was a 74 out of all 90 of his students
• The same tutor told me that through his entire time as a student, the highest he ever got was an 81 and that was once.
• The first essays don’t count toward the overall grade. They are just practice so you know where to work from.
• When they give you the rubric, it very explicitly states what is required for each adjective, which means you can then use it as a check list.
• After doing some research, I found that a 2.i, as terrifying as it looks, isn’t that bad at all, and that the majority of Masters programs will accept that as a good score.

For me, I still have two more essays to hear back from. An update shortly, and maybe after a few tears as well.

Work Travel to Live

Welp! I did it! I finally took the next step of my plan.

Part of my idea for how I was going to survive living prices in Durham while being a full time university student is to look in to work travel, or travel work. I’m not really sure the correct terminology for this. I’ve always just called it WWOOFing, but that no longer applies.

The idea is that you find a farm or group of people who are looking to provide food and housing in exchange for work. Quite a few people travel in this way, and I, myself, have a few friends  who have done this as well. I looked into this the last time I lived in Wales, though the organization I looked into was the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (hence WWOOF). But I was deterred when it wanted me to pay for an annual membership.

Now that I’m looking into moving to Durham, and seeing that the cost of living is fairly high in comparison to the wage rates (mostly because of the student population), looking into this option again has seemed like the wisest course of action.

So, I registered. Though I ended up going to Work Away, and I’ve already gotten ahold of two farms–well, sent messages to them any way. So we shall see how it goes!

The key idea here is that when there doesn’t seem like a solution, you need to get creative. This will absolutely work. Just wait. You’ll see (she says hoping to whatever deities there might be that she hasn’t just jinxed herself).

Another Blog

I know, I know, I’m terrible at keeping up with this one. But I’ve had a few requests to start a blog that is just about my travels, and so I thought I would finally take people up on that request.

So here it is, called Hopscotch and Woolgathering, a blog about a gap-year student trying to see all there is to see in Britain between work and on the cheap. If there are any suggestions of anywhere that I should go, touristy or much lesser known (which would be far more preferred), please feel free to supply me with your suggestions!

If One Door Closes, Build Another Door

So I guess I can announce this now that we’re a little more in the workings.

Last December or so I began really questioning what it was that I’m doing. I was wondering whether or not all this school was going to land me a job, if it was worth it, and so on. Given that my degrees are so obscure (well, English and Philosophy), I wondered if they would actually guarantee my employment as I had been told by my English and Philosophy instructors.

When relaying my doubts to a friend of mine in Wales on Christmas, he simply said that if I don’t get the job I want in publishing, I can just create my own publishing company.

It was brilliant. However, one needs printing equipment for all that, but not for a magazine. A magazine you can send off to get printed and bound. So, I recently got together a cracking team, and we have been working to start up our very own student-run magazine. I am so thrilled for this. The idea is that it revolves around creative writing. We have a featured writer, a featured artist, and a few other short stories as well as a poetry section, and we also have a couple of articles in the back revolving around publishing, editing, and so on.

Because of the local call for writers and students, we wanted something local in the title. We also wanted to expand to another county, for the moment. Who knows, it might take off and we can expand further south again. We also wanted to acknowledge the area that we live in and its history, since it’s so beautiful and rich with culture. So we settled on the name of the Kulshan Digest, after the mountain that sits on the boarder between Whatcom and Skagit County. The mountain is commonly known as Mount Baker, but it’s indigenous name is Kulshan.

We have launched our Twitter and our Facebook Page as well, please be sure to follow it! Soon we’ll have our webpage up, as well as an exact date for launching our prototype. We are aiming for mid June to early July, with the actual Issue I to be launched in September, then quarterly from there.

I know, I know, I’m planning on dashing off to the UK in September and going to school there. However, that’s part of the plan. Obviously, none of us can be students forever. This is designed to be passed along to each “generation” of students, and as a result, is a non-profit. The idea is that as we are learning our leadership roles, we are constantly training new people, which also keeps us humble.

I am so thrilled for this. I’ll keep the updates coming!