Finished Family Fortunes

I've finished the first major activity of my MA: reading Family Fortunes. The book traces the development of an ideology prevalent among the emerging middle classes and influenced by evangelical Christianity that there were two spheres: the domestic sphere inhabited by women and the public world inhabited by men. The authors explore the roots and development of this ideology, how it was manifested and its various contradictions, focusing on the city of Birmingham and villages in Essex and Suffolk .

I read the first 160 pages properly but have to admit that I skimmed the rest. While I respect the amount of work - particularly archival - that the authors put into researching and writing the book, a page-turner it is not. I fell asleep twice reading the first 160 pages. Luckily, from what I can pick up on the course forum, I'm not the only one found it a bit if a turgid read. My fear now is the first TMA is focused on the book; albeit - fortunately - on its reception (and significance) rather than the book itself.

The thing that I found most useful from reading the book was (ignoring the turgid prose) the structure of how they presented their findings, which generally went:

* Make a general claim (referenced through general works);

* Illustrate with statistics or material from reference works, novels, contemporary sources and/or;

* illustrate with own findings.

This was reassuring as it is what I'm used to in the social sciences (claim - evidence/illustrate), although the nature of the evidence is different. The next stage for me, once this dreaded TMA is out of the way, is to look more into gathering and analysing this kind of evidence. Tomorrow I'll start to read the commentaries and plan my essay

I've started the MA

This morning, the portal for my MA came online and I was able to begin studying, although the course itself is not scheduled to begin until October 1. The portal is well set out and provides a study planner that takes me up to December and my first essay, links to resources etc.

The first unit is based around the book Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class 1780-1850 by Davidoff and Hall. I have to read it and three articles reflecting on it and then write 2.5k assessing its most significant contribution to debates in the area. I'm about 70 pages in (out of 450) and am beginning to slowly get my head around it, but I'm guessing that it will make more sense once I've read the commentaries and critiques. I can see myself having to re-read bits of it for the essay.

At the outset I am a tad apprehensive as it is a new challenge and I'm not sure yet what the MA is looking for, the approach required etc. I'm still finding my feet, but this is to be expected at the end of day one! My plan is to try and finish the book itself within a week, then spend the week after reading the commentaries and coming up with an argument for my essay - maybe running my ideas past the tutor, assuming I can and he/she doesn't think that I'm being giddy.

Ironically, I've also just discovered that part of my MA course materials have been written by my A Level tutor for ICS :-)

MA History Materials Have Arrived!!!!

I arrived home from work this evening to find a large package waiting for me containing my course materials for the MA. Inside were two ring binders and all the readings and materials (minus the stuff that is online), all neatly wrapped with a paper seal around each unit.

Receiving the pack added a degree of reality to the MA (a bit like holding a baby). I've been looking forward to doing the MA for seemingly ages now and knew that the pack would be here soon, but seeing it there added a new air of concreteness to it.

As I said, each unit is sealed although I peaked inside a few (while not breaking the seals), while the assessments are online. My plan is to try and get online to the forums etc at least twice a week, more if I can and begin looking through the online materials next week once (hopefully) work has settled down a bit.

Some Good News: ECW Here We Come!!!

My tutor has been back in touch (while on holiday - bless him!) to say that I can do the module on the English Civil War for the A2. I don't need to start worrying about it until February, but it's good to have the approval in place so that I can plan ahead.

Next stop - revision for the AS...

Thinking Ahead

I've spent the last week or so thinking about the next stage of my studies. As it stands, I have between now and May 2012 to finish off the A Level (doing the AS exam in January and the A2 exam in June), and I also start the MA in October. I had a look at the course dates on the OU webpage and I am scheduled to finish the first module in January 2013, start the second year in May 2013 and then finish it the following January. After that, hopefully with work paying for it, I would then love to do a second PhD on something history and crime related (again with the OU).
When I realised how long the MA is going to take, my initial thought was whether I could do it faster (doing the first module between October and January, and the second between May and January 2013). I spoke to the OU and they weren't keen on me doing it like that as they said I would miss out on the whole process of doing the MA and there were also be units that I had to pass before I could progress onto the second year. I was disapointed about this but then quickly realised that the whole reason why I began studying these courses was for the enjoyment and the excitement of discovery: something that a rush to the final qualification would remove. So, now I'm resolved to take things at the pace intended and enjoy the process, having it as my main intellectual focus over the next couple of years.
I've also been thinking about the A2 module. Under the ICS specification, I'm due to study Stability and War: British Monarchy and State, 1714-1770. However, I've recently developed an interest in the English Civil War (prompted largely, I admit, by the lovely ECW miniatures made by Warlord). The AQA have a module on this period (British Monarchy: the Crisis of State, 1642–1689), that I would much prefer to do, not least as there is one of the AQA/Nelson Thornes books covering the topic similar to the one on Russia 1855-1917 that I found so useful. I'm finding that the ICS pack is ok for the topics but very superficial and would prefer to do a module for which there is a decent textbook. I've emailed my tutor to ask, and will await his response.

Coursework FINISHED: double YAY!

After a few weeks relatively solid activity and inspiration, I've managed to finish my A Level coursework. I was expecting that it might take me a few months to write, but I have surprised myself with how fast I managed to pull it together. I will submit it in the next day or so, but according to my tutor, it wont be marked by the exam board until next May - a bit of a wait. There are no estimated grades, but I'm really hoping (and in a way expecting) that it will get an A.

John Walliss Course Work (FINAL)

The plan now is to take the summer off from A Level things and then return to the AS in November, to revise for the exam in January.

Coursework update: YAY!

My tutor has been back in touch and has given me positive feedback about my coursework [yay!]. I just need to tinker with some bits and add a short bibliographical essay at the end, where I explain how and why I used the secondary texts and sources that I used. At the most, I'm guestimating that there is about an hour's work to do now to finish it - inc. writing the last bit on the conclusion.

It goes without saying that I'm REALLY pleased about this. Once it has been submitted formally, I'll upload the final version to scribd.

[Yay!]