Validation?

In a fit of pique during this utterly unproductive Spring Break (in which I've stared endlessly at charts trying to make sense of them) I replied to a post on the WPA listserv. The conversation had turned, as it periodically does, to the matter of the rhet/comp--literature divide. When "writing" became the sub for "rhet/comp" but "literature" remained, I brought out my little soapbox.

Long term viability for English studies will come not when we jettison the literature enterprise, but when we recognize the multiplicity of activities that come under the banner of English studies. For the purposes of the above conversation, that means ending the verb--noun battle (writing vs. literature) and using the verb--verb connection--writing and reading.

Rhet/comp classes are to Literature classes what writing classes are to reading ones. Two peas in a snuggly language pod.

And the validation? Well, that came when folks started talking about the reading/writing connection in response to my post. Felt pretty good indeed.

Maybe there's a place for my dissertation after all.

How Many?

I've been having size anxiety regarding my dissertation. I suppose the question I want to be asking is "how long is too long?" I'm tortured, however, by the question, how long is long enough?

I don't like being thought of as one of those namby-pamby people who want to do the bare-ass minimum, so let me make myself clear--I'm not trying to get out of writing a thorough dissertation. I just don't want to find myself padding it to make it hit some arbitrary page count. I want it to have what it needs to have in it to make it a viable, interesting, contributory document.

In other words, I seem to think that I'm writing a document that people will want to read, instead of just accepting the fact that I'm writing a document that a few people have to read in order to say that I've completed the requirements for my degree. If it's interesting and capable of sustaining further inquiry, I suppose that's a pleasant side bonus.

Vexed, I am, but soldiering on.