Well, well, well.
I finally got down to some work and after a few hours of sort of working and sort of not working I have been working away.
And it is really interesting and brilliant, actually, how easily my brain has got back into thinking about it all again. In fact, even though I have had some shitty work to do it has almost been pleasing. (Almost.) Like, Sup wanted me to look at two other examples that correlate with my case-study, which basically means reading reports about, understanding and then regurgitating two more case-studies when I have been studying this one for FIVE years. I hated reading the reports for this PhD! (Who likes reading reports?!) It took me ages! So much reading! So much paper! But today I managed to filter out the actual reading I needed to do, rather than reading everything (it is for a purpose - to be referenced! If it won't be referenced, don't read it!) I grabbed the quotes I wanted straight away and wrote them into the chapter, then referenced them in endnote straight away. In the end I have added 1000 words of analysis and explanation from about 4 good references - I might need more refs but they show what I need to say so why not just leave it at that for now. (I wish I had a couple more refs but actually there aren't any more online to be found for now.) But it looks like I know what I am talking about and that I have a point to make, the same as if I had reams of notes I hadn't used under my desk.
I have written no notes and not done my usual read, write, think, regurgitate into chapter.
I think this is very interesting and shows that I have come a long way from when I started out on the PhD, when I was researching and would read everything, and have tonnes of notes. It means that I have enough background knowledge now that I can work with surface information in a more in-depth way - I am using the info to back MY ideas up, ideas I have had for years, rather than learning everything anew. This is interesting and a real development. In this sense I am glad I had corrections to do because I didn't know that I had learnt to work like this... I thought being an academic would mean starting from scratch with notes etc but actually, it would be working on what I know and I seem to know more than I think. I do feel rather grown-up about it all, like writing a paper about what I know - which obviously I would do - from the PhD wouldn't necessarily be arduous and take forever. It is about my thoughts and then I think 'ah! so-and-so writes about this let me see if I can get a quote' and on we go. Typing is quite fast in comparison with when you start out and don't know what you want to say/how to say it/who to use to back it up.
Very interesting! And motivating!
x J
I finally got down to some work and after a few hours of sort of working and sort of not working I have been working away.
And it is really interesting and brilliant, actually, how easily my brain has got back into thinking about it all again. In fact, even though I have had some shitty work to do it has almost been pleasing. (Almost.) Like, Sup wanted me to look at two other examples that correlate with my case-study, which basically means reading reports about, understanding and then regurgitating two more case-studies when I have been studying this one for FIVE years. I hated reading the reports for this PhD! (Who likes reading reports?!) It took me ages! So much reading! So much paper! But today I managed to filter out the actual reading I needed to do, rather than reading everything (it is for a purpose - to be referenced! If it won't be referenced, don't read it!) I grabbed the quotes I wanted straight away and wrote them into the chapter, then referenced them in endnote straight away. In the end I have added 1000 words of analysis and explanation from about 4 good references - I might need more refs but they show what I need to say so why not just leave it at that for now. (I wish I had a couple more refs but actually there aren't any more online to be found for now.) But it looks like I know what I am talking about and that I have a point to make, the same as if I had reams of notes I hadn't used under my desk.
I have written no notes and not done my usual read, write, think, regurgitate into chapter.
I think this is very interesting and shows that I have come a long way from when I started out on the PhD, when I was researching and would read everything, and have tonnes of notes. It means that I have enough background knowledge now that I can work with surface information in a more in-depth way - I am using the info to back MY ideas up, ideas I have had for years, rather than learning everything anew. This is interesting and a real development. In this sense I am glad I had corrections to do because I didn't know that I had learnt to work like this... I thought being an academic would mean starting from scratch with notes etc but actually, it would be working on what I know and I seem to know more than I think. I do feel rather grown-up about it all, like writing a paper about what I know - which obviously I would do - from the PhD wouldn't necessarily be arduous and take forever. It is about my thoughts and then I think 'ah! so-and-so writes about this let me see if I can get a quote' and on we go. Typing is quite fast in comparison with when you start out and don't know what you want to say/how to say it/who to use to back it up.
Very interesting! And motivating!
x J
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