Reflection
on the past two weeks, 1st November 2016
Nothing visual to
share from these past two weeks, unfortunately. A combination of a couple of
days away then picking up one of these bugs that’s going round meant I didn’t
get into the print room. I did, however, join the new Leeds Print Workshop and
had my induction and that made me want to get printing again. There are also
lots of interesting buildings around there so I have earmarked that area for a
bit of a wander as soon as I have time, whenever that might be.
Most of my “spare”
time has been spent on structuring and editing my dissertation. As I mentioned
in my week 43 blogpost, I’d realised that the structure wasn’t correct. I’d
written it as a kind of series of analyses of different theories and techniques
– heritage theory, identity theory, psychogeography – then I was struggling
with relating this to my own practice. I’ve now moved things around such that
the theories form a backdrop to the Armley urban wandering I undertook back in
February, and that wandering and its outcomes are the body of the essay. I then
move on to describe that the theoretical perspectives and the wanderings form a
methodology. Possibly methodology is a bit too grand a term, but it’s a working
method that works for me.
I’ve been quite
surprised at exactly how much work it’s taken me to do this restructuring. I’m
used to writing business reports and to putting together an argument. However,
having to reference and evidence everything in an academic essay is much more
time consuming than I’m used to. Writing the dissertation as an introduction,
three chapters and a conclusion is odd too. The chapters are only two or three
pages long so they are not really called “chapters” in my head. Siloing the
information is proving problematic too. I can only think that it’s one of these
things that would be easier the next time you did it.
Anyway, I now have
the first draft that actually has some proper flesh on the bones, so to speak,
and though it’s woolly in places, it does have the basic flow of what I want to
say. It’s about 5000 words and the target is 6000-8000 so it is well on its
way. I’ve got to the point where I’m so close to it that I need a couple of
days away from it as I can’t tell whether a paragraph is rubbish and needs
deleting or whether it is crucial to the argument. I have a tutorial with
Sharon on Thursday 3rd November so hopefully that will give me a bit
of clarity.
I am aware that I
am still relying heavily on a small number of books and I discussed this with
Karen, the academic writing tutor. She advised me that you don’t necessarily
need to “compare and contrast” but you do need more than one author’s supporting
ideas within the essay. She told me to envisage it like being in the room with your
“favourite” authors for a day. After that you would want to hear some other
voices and ideas. I liked this viewpoint. Whilst I was doing the restructuring,
I deliberately didn’t read any further texts as I wanted to concentrate solely
on the structure. The next tasks will be to start reading again, and possibly
to think of other forms of research, although time remains of the essence.
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