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a full-time painter / a part-time English tutor. MFA(Master of Fine Arts) at PAFA(USA) / BFA(Bachelor of Fine Arts) at UPenn(USA) ........... major: painting / minor: English

Someone introduced himself with this mini profile above. I can't put my finger on it but something is off, isn't it? The format and maybe even grammar (English is not my native language so I'm not really sure) seems to contradict the claim of "minor: English". Also, while I understand that one can specialize in painting as a fine art major, I wonder if "Painting" is an official name of the discipline? Again, I'm not familiar with the divisions in American fine art colleges. Overall, how does it look? Does it look real?

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Type: Question • Score: 2 • Views: 1,393 • Replies: 14

@clare10022,

Looks fine for a social introduction.

1 Reply

@ehBeth,

The spacing with the ( )s and /s looks okay? Is "a" in "a full-time painter", "a part-time tutor" alright as well? It wasn't even an occasion where it was necessary to exchange our academic credentials so that may be why I was kinda put off by it. Then the more I looked at it, the more bizarre it felt.

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@clare10022,

It looks fine.

If anything, I'd wonder if it was cut and paste from a c.v.

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@ehBeth,

I mean, given that he's an English minor, shouldn't it be:

MFA (Master of Fine Arts) at PAFA (USA)
instead of
MFA(Master of Fine Arts) at PAFA(USA)

* If you're going to spell it out as "Master of Fine Arts", why do you go "MFA (Master of Fine Arts)?

Also:

a full-time painter / a part-time English tutor
Do you use spaces before and after a slash?

2 Replies

@clare10022,

Are you editing his c.v.? or perhaps reviewing his work for publication?

If not, the spacing doesn't matter in the least.

___

Some people spell out their degrees after the initials since different countries / schools have different word combinations leading to the same acronyms. As I said earlier, it looks like a c/p from a c.v.

__

And again - if this is for social / non-professional purposes, it is fine.

1 Reply

@clare10022,

clare10022 wrote:

Does it look real?

Yes

1 Reply

@ehBeth,

It looks like "mini bios" Ive seen many times. Provides everything necessry for an introduction in a professional environmnt. Were it a social environment , the person could have added something like;
"likes dogs and long walks on the beach".

As beth says, its perfectly acceptable, Although PAFA is a kind of "inside" reference to The Pa Academy of Fine Arts and if we would sub , both Pa Academy AND UPenn it wouldnt need the (USA) . But thats looking for flyshit in pepper.

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@farmerman,

Its really not suspicious at all. Its not even "new speak". Its been an acceptqble intro format for many years.

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@clare10022,

clare10022 wrote:

....

* If you're going to spell it out as "Master of Fine Arts", why do you go "MFA (Master of Fine Arts)?

...

Because he wrote his resume (or c. v.) for a computer to read it when looking for a job. Most places take online applications and most of those do various searches for the people they want. He doesn't know, when he applies, if they are looking for the acronym or the spelled-out name of his degree.

1 Reply

@jespah,

Yeah, I get that but conventionally, you go a long version first followed by the parenthesized acronym. For example, "Master of Fine Arts (MFA)". Maybe I'm making this up. Or, you could do "Master of Fine Arts" and be done with it.

A full time this, a part time that - "a" bothers me... doesn't it look wrong? I've never seen a shortened profile introduction that starts like "A father, an actor, a social activist...". It starts without an article, like "Actor, writer ..." I feel like an English minor should know to format and write better?!?

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@ehBeth,

I'm not editing his c.v. It didn't feel like social introduction when he volunteered this information. Just kinda shoved to my face out of nowhere... so I guess I got a bit suspicious.

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@farmerman,

farmerman wrote:

looking for flyshit in pepper.

pretty much what the OP seems to be doing

1 Reply

@ehBeth,

she seems to be hung up on the uses of articles in front of a job or a degree.
I know that Im always wanting MORE whenever a Canadian says "We took him to hospital" , whereas in the US we mostly say "We took him to the hospital (or "a" hospital). No?

BFD eh?

1 Reply

@farmerman,

I went back and looked at her other threads. Similar approach.

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