Literature, Literature

Well another month on and progress continues, mainly with the literature. Over the last 18 months I have collected a lot of books and articles which I am now distilling into notes ready to compose the literature section. I had made a start on this last year but annoyingly I have lost the file of typed notes so have had to start over.

It is a slow process as I am probably more methodical than I need be. I type the notes and quotes into a Word table with columns to describe the detail of the note, the note itself, source page number and the full reference. This way I can sort the notes and make sure that I have the correct citation. I'm also anticipating that having the notes will be helpful in advance of the viva as the literature section, at around 12,000 words, will be a very concentrated version of all the work that has been done on time over the last century or so!

I have yet to hear whether I can take a short sabattical around Easter so as to put some concentrated time into completing the draft. Certainly by the end of March I will have got the literature materials together so all being well I feel on course for submitting in June.

A book that I am finding helpful in preparing the thesis is 'How to examine a thesis' by Lynne Pearce (OU Press). It is actually aimed at new thesis examiners but I have found it useful to understand where they will be coming from both in reading the script and in conducting the viva.

Finally - Since my last post I have become a grandad as we welcomed my beautiful granddaughter, Nuala, into the world on 10th January. I now look forward to finishing this degree so that I have more time to spend with her!!