Seeking advice from lecturers

At the beginning of the MA our class was given a list of the staff members of the UCC School of English which included each of their individual research areas and interests. As someone who was an undergraduate at this very university last year I was familiar with most of the lecturers and have taken many of their classes. Thus I did not hesitate to get in contact with them early to discuss possible thesis topics, though I admit I had very few real ideas at this early stage.

Dr Miranda Corcoran, with whom I had studied American Literature and a special studies seminar on science fiction written in the era post-World War 2, and Dr Joanna Robinson who lectures on Victorian Literature were both extremely helpful. I got a sense of what the thesis writing process would be like and began to appreciate that while 15000 words may seem long, focusing on a single topic in such depth will make use of every single word. Seeking advice from lecturers with such a broad range of interests brings to light the main issue for me in choosing a thesis topic; after studying such a wide variety of works in undergraduate, it is more difficult now to narrow my focus.

With the advice they gave me, along with reading recommendations that could prove useful to the interests I spoke to them about I feel more confident that eventually I will settle on a topic I wish to write on. I would advise all of my classmates and fellow graduate students to take the time to speak to your lecturers outside of class.