Friday 1 October 2010

Panic Stations

U211 officially starts tomorrow, so now that I have started understanding the more basic grammar terminology I thought I would start working through the course materials to get a head start. Armed with all the materials I need I sat down and looked at TMA01 so that I can hopefully pick out the areas which will be helpful.

Unfortunately this has put me into a full on panic about my ability, complete with nervous sick feeling in my belly. I wanted to just give up right now but instead I decided to take a break after re-familiarising myself with the first unit, I took a walk to the shop for some fresh, albeit wet, air and decided that I need to blog in order to convince myself that I can do this.

I am not supposed to open up the TMA booklet and see a question that I can answer immediately, if that was the case why am I studying the course. I haven't even started working on the parts that will most relate to the questions so of course I don't know where to start yet. There is a tutorial between now and the cut off date where any questions I have can be asked.

I know that I am not alone, yes there are a few people on the forums that seem to have studied linguistics before either professionally or out of personal interest but they are the minority, there are many people that have used the word "daunted" for a variety of reasons. It is a natural human trait to show off how much you know about something already, I am sure I have done it myself when it came to a subject I was passionate about, even so it can make you feel a little on the dumb side if you are lacking confidence in the first place.

I do think that the course is going to be extremely interesting, what I have read so far strengthens that view. I think most of it is down to the fact that I have not written an essay to this level of academic study on this subject ever before, coupled with the knock I took a couple of weeks ago in my understanding of Grammar.

I am pleased to report that blogging has indeed calmed me down for now, so Unit 2 watch out! I'm coming to get you!

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