I've ever had a love-hate kind of human relationship with academia. I honey learning novel materials as well as getting to grips with ideas, but I acquire incredibly frustrated yesteryear the academic footing as well as a lot of what goes along with it.
Throughout my career I've dipped inwards as well as out, with an MA inwards Applied Linguistics that helped me brand the transition from classroom instructor to lexicographer (and beyond), thoughts of a PhD a few years agone that never went yesteryear a coming together with a potential supervisor as well as a flake of reading, as well as then quite a flake of contact with the academic footing equally I got involved inwards EAP (both keeping upward with ideas as well as interrogation inwards EAP as well as getting to grips with texts from other disciplines). And equally only about of you lot volition know, my latest foray has been into a slightly novel area, embarking on a part-time MA inwards Forensic Linguistics final October.
I've constitute exploring the footing of Forensic Linguistics fascinating as well as I've genuinely loved learning novel stuff. As my partner volition attest to, in that place were days when I came domicile absolutely buzzing with novel ideas as well as babbling on almost possible novel career directions. There was also a lot that I constitute insanely frustrating though as well as yesteryear the fourth dimension I got to the destination of my start twelvemonth (the class is 2 years exercise time), those frustrations were starting to outweigh the excitement. It was a relief to acquire to the destination of term as well as I realized that the prospect of having to produce the same all over in 1 lawsuit to a greater extent than rather filled me with dread ... which is never a practiced sign!
I didn't desire to turn over upward likewise easily though, therefore I signed upward for a 4-day summertime schoolhouse inwards Porto ahead of the Internatonal Association of Forensic Linguists conference, which I also registered for. The summertime schoolhouse consisted of a programme of largely practical workshops led yesteryear well-known forensic linguists, significantly, from dissimilar universities ... giving me a slightly dissimilar angle on the champaign from my MA course. It was an incredibly intense few days inwards damage of taking everything in, trying to procedure ideas to consummate the practical tasks, both inwards the workshops as well as equally 'homework', as well as inwards damage of only about of the content; murder, drug-dealing, tyke abuse ... when you're dealing with the law, the topics are rarely light! But it was absolutely fascinating as well as provided lots of novel angles on the champaign which hadn't cropped upward on my course.
It also confirmed though that Forensic Linguistics is even therefore a novel champaign that's real much finding its feet. There aren't yet accepted methods as well as standards for the analysis of linguistic evidence. Instead, diverse academics are trying out dissimilar avenues of research, only about theoretical, only about practical, as well as those genuinely working with the law as well as courts almost all get got 'day jobs' inwards academia. Which way that if I wanted to pursue a career, I'd non exclusively get got to complete my MA, but I'd genuinely demand to produce a PhD likewise earlier I could fifty-fifty acquire a human foot inwards the door. Which way to a greater extent than academia ... which brings me dorsum to my work ...
As I said, I honey exercising my greyness cells, but in that place are only just about types of academic I genuinely fighting with. They seem to autumn into 2 camps. The start grouping are concerned with real abstract, esoteric ideas that seem to get got footling or no bearing on the existent footing ... report for study's sake. The minute type are to a greater extent than practical, dealing with existent data, but their studies get got travel super-narrow; they're investigating pronoun exercise yesteryear 15-year-old woman somebody English-French bilinguals inwards Vanuatu inwards text messages (that's a made-up representative but non far off only about of the papers at the conference!!). And when they acquaint their research, they travel into the minutiae of how they collected their information as well as just what they found, but never seem to acquire to whatever broader conclusions almost what it powerfulness hateful inwards the wider world. Leaving you lot with a distinct 'so what?' feeling.
And I tin reckon that there's mayhap a identify for both types of report to feed into the full general cognition soup that eventually moves the whole champaign forward. But add together onto that the insistence on using unnecessarily impenetrable linguistic communication as well as an oftentimes shocking lack of rigour and ... it's only non for me. And fifty-fifty if I wanted to focus on the to a greater extent than applied destination of things that most interests me, I'd even therefore get got to plow through all that other materials - as well as refer as well as admit it as well as 'situate' my travel alongside it, etc. And you lot know, at this phase of my career, I only don't get got the patience for oftentimes poorly-communicated ideas which seem to survive going nowhere.
So somewhere in-between the summertime schoolhouse as well as looking at the programme for the conference, I decided it was fourth dimension to cutting my losses as well as pace away from academia in 1 lawsuit again. I did travel to a duad of conference plenaries, but I shortly realized my motivation had evaporated, therefore I escaped the stuffy darkened rooms of the academy to bask the Porto sunshine instead.
What next? Well, I'll take away from the MA as well as travel dorsum to the 'day job' (which, thankfully, I've kept ticking over). I'd similar to travel along exploring Forensic Linguistics as well as mayhap somewhere along the describe notice an 'in' where I tin exercise my linguistic communication analysis skills without jumping through all the academic hoops. Unfortunately though, in 1 lawsuit I lose my pupil log-in, I also lose access to all those academic journals. Journal subscription for Christmas mayhap ...?
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