Where can these classics be found--the Harvard man post and the 10 angry African women??!

Self-bribery is my approach on redrafts---something like buy myself a new CD to listen to while doing the redraft--or going to somewhere entirely different to do the draft-like to a coffee house, and then also set a time limit--such as two or two and a half hours, and then take a break. I think that redrafting is so tedious and tiring that it is important to not try to do marathon sessions. A couple two-two and a half hour blocks in a day is very mentally draining...

I think that this is a very natural way to feel about writing. Getting started is the hardest part. I think that there was a very eloquent quote from no less than Ernest Hemingway, on the difficulty of getting started... I was facing a block about writing tonight, and told myself, just type. Start, type ANYTHING, and when you get to 500 words, stop and call it good, if you want. Well, I think once you get going, it is much easier.

And at the risk of repeating myself ad nauseum on this point but only because I think that this is a critical piece of the writing process--do you have a method for how to develop your writing from creative stage to final edits--because you cannot do them all at once. There are many ways to do this out there--google the "Flowers Paradigm" and see what you think. It is what works for me. Others no doubt can tell you about other processes that might work for them.

Can you make each of them or a group of them responsible for reporting to the class on a section of reading or an assignment?!

Hope that you feel better soon--colds are NO fun!

The point about Americans being more vocal--yes--not just the law education system, but the entire education system really has a focus on students speaking up and participating in class discussions. It seems odd to me to do a lecture here and not have students volunteering to offer a point of view or ask questions--as you say, just the sort of blank look--very off putting.

Although it met with some initial resistance, the students got on board with it, and actually came up with some interesting and insightful points.

Is something along those lines an option for your class?

No idea how it would go over in the British system, but I have done some guest lectures and even some emergency fill in lectures at the hometown law school in America, and did small group interactive exercises. Each group was given a different idea to analyze on the materials ( they were split up arbitrarily by counting off in class, 1-2-3-4 so they would not know in advance what question they had or what group they would be in, forced them to work with people they did not know)

Each group had 10-15 minutes to discuss, come up with 3 or 4 main points to report back to the large group, then a brief synopsis, etc, from me as the lecturer to try to tie the points together.

After a week I was not even back to normal, although much better, but it seemed to take a month before I really felt like myself again. I just tired easily. Smilodon's advise to take some sick time and just heal sounds like the best!!!! Let us know how you are getting on!

Tsipat, hope that you are feeling better and have a good recovery, that sounds like a major amount of surgery, not too mention the stress and strain that goes with having health concerns. I think to some extent having to deal with health problems is very traumatic just as a mental exercise, even not taking into account the stress and shock to the body that surgery must be!

I had very minor out patient surgery with general anaethesia a few years ago, and was told to take a week off sick just to recover from the effects of the anesthesia. I was not ill from the anesthesia itself ( you hear horror stories of people being sick, etc) but just dizzy and tired and unable to concentrate-was told that was just how the chemicals move through and out of your system. Anaesthisia is a poison to your system in a way. So it seems like it would be very natural that you would still feel so ill after a major bit of surgery.

In American law schools ( a professional doctorate) you are marked on how well you participate in the class room. It is a HUGE part of what is expected from the students. That, and attendance is mandatory, and people can get excluded from a particular course if they miss too many times without being excused in advance or providing adequate reasons. The infamous Socratic method! All the materials on how people learn show that they only retain something like 5% if they passively sit and take notes, and much higher the more involved they become during the lecture, hence, the effectiveness of small group activities, and interactive learning. Of course, the person doing the lecture retains the most material, from the exercise of having to prepare and give the lecture!

I might just be an old curmudgeon, but I would be furious if someone did something like that to me--or even messed about at all with my workspace and work materials. That sort of behaviour would not be tolerated in most professional work places, and I do not see how there would be much difference in the appropriateness of behaviour in that setting and in a postgraduate programme. ( and the British spelling is pouring effortlessly from the keyboard-----usually I have to think about how to spell certain words!!)

Perhaps just as well I am not having to share offices with anyone...!

Oh, how could I have forgotten--an EXCELLENT post colonial book is "Haunted by Empire", edited by Ann Laura Stoler---very good book!

Can you be very direct with your supervisors and say that you are worried, and wonder how they perceive your progress, and discuss with you the fact that you are having feelings like you might want to quit?

I am not going to walk away from it, I am clear on that, but I do entertain escape fantasies from time to time as a means to remind myself I do not HAVE to do this, it is a CHOICE.

Can you just go away and have that good cry? Eat some chocolate, or some other comfort food ( or drink!?), meet up with a friend who has a shoulder to cry on, just get away from it all for a day or two, and then see how it looks and feels?