Addendum

Last night I attended the fifteenth-annual Kenneth Burke lecture (although I normally avoid all department and school related functions on Sunday, this is a pretty big deal for the rhetoric folks in our department, so I thought it behooved me to attend!) The lecture itself was pretty interesting (by Jackie Jones Royster, for anyone interested), but what was more to the point for me, I found out that I won the annual Burke prize for best essay in rhetoric (the contest is open to graduate students in rhetoric from both the English department and Communication Arts and Sciences)! For me, it was a moment of much-needed validation--I've been wondering for a while if I'm actually cut out for this grad stuff in rhetorical criticism. Apparently, at leat a few impartial judgest *think* that my work looks something like real rhetorical work is supposed to (the judge who announced the prize had several very nice things to say about my piece). Perhaps more to the point, the money ($200) won't hurt either!