I am concerned that I have not been in formal learning for 20 years and that I have forgotten the way to think academically. I have been writing throughout that time, but it's mostly been technical and commercial.  I suspect that a career of simplifying caomputer training texts for the lowest common denominator may not be the best training for writing a dissertation in the Humanities.

Also I have been at home with my children for five years and I am out of the habit of adult interaction.