Exciting Times

So, personal crisis sort of over I am back properly.  I am also out of the doldrums of existential angst thanks to DB hurrah!

We went away over the weekend to get away from horrid work and house and demands and life generally and came up with an ace plan to go travelling for a bit at the end of the year :0)  I am SOOOO excited and cannot wait.  I am dreaming of palm fringed beaches, beach huts, grilled fish and rice, snorkelling and calm turquoise seas :0)  Bean will be nearly 3 so potty trained etc and the thought of him spending every day with us and the sea and sand and just chilling out (haha, he will be exhausted more likely) is a dream!  We want to go to NZ, see a few people we know in Oz and I would like to go somewhere a bit kinky (well, with a toddler!) like the phillipines, soloman islands or fiji.  We only really properly talked about it last night but are both hugely excited and are getting together a rough plan.

This has served to give us a real sense of purpose and lifted us out of the horror that is just working to earn money, to get a house, to have another baby, to just exist.  We are going to live!  To relax for a few months, and then come back refreshed and ready for a new phase of our lives down south when I can get a job and then get preggers and we can start afresh.  It also means we have an end in sight for living oop north which, as much as I love it, I think it is time.

Which is so bizarre because last week I thought I wanted nothing more than to stay here: we have a nice house, nice jobs, well, we are just settled, but we didn't realise that we weren't settled so much as in a horribly unrewarding rut.  We love love love travel and experiencing other cultures and learning new languages and even though this is a home-from-home adventure really we would love to see Oz and NZ and see our friends and have, I suppose, relatively safe adventures, being with beanie and all.

Ooooh!

So now my PhD seems like just a small thing compared to a big plan that takes us to nearly this time next year.  However, the PhD is also looming rather large.  In fact it is right in my grille ;0)  I have no time to do a LOT as I have wasted the past two weeks being a quamire of, well, utter shit.  Having a goal to work towards is really very motivating :0)

God as well, my hands are really swollen!  Why?  I can't wear my rings and so this is freaking me out.  I have to make a doctors appt but am frightened!  I shall, I shall.  We have a history of rheumatoid arthritus in my family so am frickened, I don't want it.

Righty.  Must make my new plan and do some work!  head out of clouds!  Might just quickly buy a guidebook or two first :0)

x J

knack all

Oh crikey, I have done nothing today.

I am really shattered and cannot read anything :0(  I am trying to read my supervisor's latest article and I just cannot read.  I have to re read every sentence again and again.  I am most unimpressed, particularly after yesterday's success, I thought it would be another good day today, and particularly because it is Thursday -  usually work well on Thursdays knowing that it is the end of the week for me.

I think I know what is up.  I am very tired.  I am stressy and also I am feeling really down about work.  I think, or maybe personal down-ness is affecting work feelings?!  Too confusing?!  Try being me today!  :0) 

bah.  Who knows, i reckon I will spend then next hour wandering about the house aimlessly.

No, I know.  I am in on my own tonight with little dude, so shall plan to do some work tonight maybe instead?  Let my brain chill and then come back to it later...  although I think I may be tired and grumpy then too ;0)

Arf.  I should just hide in a cupboard until tomorrow!

x J

Planning day :0)

Oh I love a good planning day.

Today is about reaquainting (I've spelt that wrong I think?!) myself with my timeline and with my ideas and reading for the discussion.  I have moderately revised my timeline and stuck it on my wall and am most pleased with it.  I have 5 weeks to read and write my discussion chapter which is pretty fine (i think eek) and the rest is all fine.  I will then do some reading and get back into the flow of da woik!

My toddler was up all last night being antsy and i feel run down today so nt working to full steam.  Feel like I am working through a fog and burst into tears when DB started talking to me about taxes!  Nice easy day today thank goodness ;0)

x J

How to make a bad PhD chapter good

In the words of clare who just left a comment!

Sooooooo.  I do not know the answer to this, of course.  However I do know what I am doing and what my sup wants me to do, so will scribble that down if it helps anyone.  I am sure it will help me in the future as I always forget and have to go back to my checklist of how to write a chapter :0)  Oh, as well, I can only advise on humanities subjects as that is what I am doing.

Firstly, remember that this is a test of academic rigour, not trying to change the world.  So whatever your thesis make sure your references, knowledge, reading and theory is tight - this is actually what you are being marked on, not how wonderful the idea is (although this obviously contributes to your success, but isn't the be-all-and-end-all).  This is also not a test of journalism.  You are trying to show the development of your ideas as well as your current knowledge.  that some of the stuff you are talking about happened five years ago and doesn't seem relevant is actually a good thing.  In your viva you will probably talk about how your ideas have developed - this shows your growth as an academic.

Okay.  Big one this.  Make sure your chapter is argument driven.  I read back through an old one and realised that I had laid out the information, then stated my conclusion from it.  This is Wrong.  From the outset you need to say, 'this chapter is showing THIS and THIS'.  'It is argued that...'  Be explicit!  Examiners do not want to be kept guessing.

Which leads me to point two.  Make sure your chapter is well signposted.  State from the outset what you want to say.  Then say how you are going to say it, who influences you (philosophy/theory/academic argument wise) and why it is important.  As you go through your chapter you will have subheadings, make sure that at the end of each important section you summarise what you just said, and at the start of the next section say what that part is going to say.  This may seem super repetitive but if what you are saying is quite complex it keeps your reader with you, and happy.  It also helps you to summarise - it makes you realise if you can't summarise what you have just written it is most likely a stream of unreadable consciousness.  You need to keep your reader with you, so clearly mark sections under subheadings (have lots to start with if it helps then narrow them down later if you want), write what is relevant under that subheading and move on.  This will keep your info contained, neat and understandable.  My last chapter had a whole load that read: 'and then so and so said this, and I found that and this shows this and this and that' and it was hard to follow.  The arguments (even if I do say so myself) were grand but I felt out of breath reading it and a bit stressed.  If you signpost and spoon feed the info to your reader they will love you for it and surely forgive lesser errors :0).

Bear in mind that your examiners will probably skim-read your thesis (so says my Sup, a Professor Emeritus), paying particular attention to your introductions and conclusions for the info.  So these need to be tight, extremely clear and just wonderful.  If there is a chance these are the only things your examiner might hope to read if they are good this could give them a wonderful impression of your nous and fabulous intellect and stop them reading too much of the meat (which would be ace!) ;0)  It should tell them exactly what you are saying and why, and, as I said above, show off your knowledge by saying who you are drawing your argument from - such as:  'Drawing from foucault's contention that bla de bla, the chapter shows that...'  Name drop shamelessly.

According to my sup, research and chapters never argue, they show/illustrate/demonstrate.  I was always saying 'this chapter argues that'.  No, apparently not. 

Be aware of wordiness.  Keep your own glossary/thesaurus of lovely words you come across.  Do try and be accessible though, you don't want an examiner being suspicious that you are hiding behind fancy words, or even worse, read something you wrote out to you at the VIVA and you have no idea what it meant ;0)

Make sure you cross reference between your chapters.  Remember if you explained something before/will elaborate something in the future and draw attention to this.  This will bind the thesis together, make you look like you know what you are saying and is a nice way to show off that you knew something, somewhere, once.  Cross referencing also refers to talking about stuff in you wrote in another chapter but with a new bent on it, or referring to a theoretical angle/philosophy etc again.

In your 'contentions' chapters (ones that aren't descriptive like the intro/concl are) make an effort to refer to your theory/principal contention/philosophy at least six times in an 8000 word piece.  This will keep you focused on bringing it up and refering back to it while in the quagmire of relating fieldwork/discourse analysis etc.  This makes you Well Clever and is most definitely necessary for PhD standard.

If your thesis is the standard 80-100,000 word length aim for each chapter to be 8,000 words. 

Don't forget to ask yourself 'why' (does this matter) and then 'why', again.  The second 'why' will automatically bring up your analysis to Clever levels :0

And make sure that the end of the chapter sums up and ties together the contentions made within.  Else it will be all parts and no sum :0) and nonsense.

I can't think of much else.

So, when you have written a chapter ask yourself:

Is it argument driven?
Is it well signposted?
Are the intro and concl tight as tight can be?
Is it concise?
Have you cross referenced between chapters?
Have you paid attention to your theory/academic bent/philosophical influences?
Have you said 'why', and then 'why' again?
Are all the contentions tied together at the end?

And, by my reckoning, if you have these things down it should be a nicely written chapter methinks.

I am sure I have missed out something major but really can't remember what!  Please feel free to add!

x J

Done!

So the chapter is finally edited to first draft standard (I hope)...

Phew!  And whee!

I do still need to go through and add a couple of refs and neaten one sentence but I need a book to do that which I don't have.  I can do that when I am going through each chapter just before I hand in.  At least the argument is there, the structure is sound, the intro and conclusion is done, there is good signposting, cross referencing and I have made sure I have brought it all together at the end.

Sooo, hurray.

Tomorrow I am replanning my timeplan (seeing as this is two weeks overdue.  heck) on a massive wall calender I got free with lurpack (! lucky me!) and putting that up in pride of place in my office, then need to just revisit my discussion plans I had going, then I shall get back to my reading!  i am really lookng forward to not having to do any writing I have to say.

okay dokey, going to get ready to pick up mah boy now.  I am so relieved and really quite impressed that personal circumstances have not completely disabled me for another week :0)

x J

hahhaaaa!

I've nearly done it!

Whee!  Am well out of page 11!  I just finished that bit then the next whole section of about 10 pages was just dandy! 

I am off now for some r and r, then shall come back, check this last section (which I have edited before so i know it is fine) and then this avo just need to make sure the intro and concl are representative of the, largely tinkered with. whole. 

I still have some refs to check and one sentence to neaten but i know to look in a certain book and get a quote so that is easy enough.  I can't be bothered to do that now, i shall do it when I am generally going through with my pedant stick at a later date.

Then I shall be DONE with editing this chapter hurrah!  It is tip top toodally bing bong.

Tomorrow I shall be back to reading for the discussion, hurray!

x J

re-write, re-write, re-write

I reckon, surely, that by the time I have finished jiggery pokering about with this chapter it will be exactly as it was when I first started messing with it

Seriously, I don't think there is a paragraph left that hasn't been moved around!  And I am back to being on page 11.  Bleedin' page 11.  I did get beyond it yesterday, but then today realised I had to go back and make sure it all flowed properly, which it most certainly didn't.  It was a stream of consciousness.  So today I have been making sure that it is in clear sections that flow logically into one another so as to create my argument. 

Oh to get beyond page 11.

x J