Letters to a Mysterious Stranger [ONGOING]

After Winter

(Sent on Mar 5th, Tuesday, 4:19 pm, Howell Hall)

To: prisoner24601@mpu.edu.ph

From: jerusha.abad@gmail.com

Dear Zorro,

I've received my marks for the fall semester, but before I give you my marks, I'll try to get you in a good mood first.

Let me see...

I'm mastering various web archiving methods in my RA work, thanks to Nick, Monica's other RA. Nick Scott let me sit in his seminar on Cybercultures. Last week, the topic centered on digital fiction, and how it pushes the boundaries of authorship, as Barthes, Foucault and Levy have envisioned. Do you know that there are murder mysteries on Twitter?

I know I've been marketing myself as a nineteenth century scholar recently, but Monica been convincing me otherwise. Do you think I should? I'm not even sure if we study video games in the Philippines. I don't think the ancient overlords of MPU would allow it. Oh, no.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman were spotted filming a scene for the upcoming season of Sherlock on campus the other day. I only saw a glimpse of them while they were exiting the Journalism building. Apparently, they film here in Wales a lot since London is getting a bit too crowded. Do you watch Sherlock? If you are, aren't you excited about Series 3?

Now for the bad news.

Courage, Judy.

Ready?

I got a 58 and a 69 on my essays. 70 is the grade for distinction, so I was told that those marks were not bad. Still, they are pretty mediocre, and I wanted to do better. One comment reads:

"The author's posthuman reading is quite compelling. However, the analysis could have had much more depth if the author included fewer examples. There is very little structure in the essay, since it reads more like a list of examples."

Here is another:

"The author's observations and assertions on women, work and mobility, and its connections to early feminist movements build on the work of Deborah Nord and Susan Zlotnick. However, she seems to quote these authors too much, that there is little room for a more original argument."

All of these tell me that I don't know how to write essays. Still, I am glad that the feedback that I am getting is a lot more concrete that what I got as an undergrad back home. Sometimes those professors I got as an undergrad didn't even comment, and sometimes they never returned my papers at all.

I won't let this get me down. I learned a lot in that semester, even if I had to do some catching up. It could have been worse.

I promise to do better this semester. I think I will since I am learning a lot and working with two famous media scholars. I simply cannot let everyone down now.

Yours,

Judy

(Sent on Mar 10th, Sunday, 9:24 pm, Howell Hall)

To: prisoner24601@mpu.edu.ph

From: jerusha.abad@gmail.com

Dear Zorro,

Today is Mother's Day, so I skipped church this morning. Mother's day and Father's day are not exactly my favorite days. It may have something to do with a little tradition at our local church back home. Every one of those Sundays, the priest makes all of the mothers, fathers and their children stand up in front. I hated it because I was always left seated, and because it emphasized how different I was from all the other kids.