Last Sunday I finished the first draft of the methodology and sent it off to my supervisor. Having this blog proved really useful as it meant I could check some of the detail for the methodology without having to rack a tired brain to recall things from months ago!! I suspect I have included some justification that is not necessary and possibly not included enough detail on other aspects. No doubt Andrew will advise in due course.
I have a week off next week and aim to get the findings written up. I have a large folder containing all the various print outs so that is my starting point. I have been through it this week and collected the different headings together into an outline structure for the chapter. I have a feeling that there may be a need for more analysis but hopefully not too much.
At present I am about 50% through the first draft of the thesis. If I complete the findings in the next week that will be around 70% done. With a fair wind the whole thesis could be complete in draft by the end of June.
Thursday 21 May 2009
Monday 4 May 2009
A RED LETTER DAY!!
Finally after 4 months in total, and a huge amount of reading and drafting, the first version of the literature review is complete and has been sent off to my supervisor. Actually the writing has only taken a month although it seems longer as I have put a lot of hours in at weekends and before the day job.
The version as it stands is actually the third draft and each of the three have refined and reduced the 75k words in notes first to around 50k words then to 27k words and lastly to 14.5k words. This is still more than the 12k that I had allowed for the review but there is little point going further until I get feedback from Andrew and the rest of the thesis takes shape. At the moment all the words are pretty precious so it has been hard to cut stuff out. No doubt in a few weeks they will not be so sacred and I can be more objective about losing some.
I have been pretty assiduous in keeping my references. They need tidying up but there are over 200 books, articles and papers listed which I think shows reasonable diligence but really highlights the breadth of 'time' as a research area. Trust me to choose a focus that requires several gallons to be squeezed into a pint pot!!
The bonus of the last month's exercise is that I now have a number of notes to build into the methodology so with luck I will be able to complete this in the next 10 days or so. The end of July is not looking impossible as things stand! Just at the moment though I am enjoying the warm glow of finishing what I consider to be the trickiest part of research.
I feel a large gin and tonic followed by several glasses of wine is needed to celebrate - do join me!
The version as it stands is actually the third draft and each of the three have refined and reduced the 75k words in notes first to around 50k words then to 27k words and lastly to 14.5k words. This is still more than the 12k that I had allowed for the review but there is little point going further until I get feedback from Andrew and the rest of the thesis takes shape. At the moment all the words are pretty precious so it has been hard to cut stuff out. No doubt in a few weeks they will not be so sacred and I can be more objective about losing some.
I have been pretty assiduous in keeping my references. They need tidying up but there are over 200 books, articles and papers listed which I think shows reasonable diligence but really highlights the breadth of 'time' as a research area. Trust me to choose a focus that requires several gallons to be squeezed into a pint pot!!
The bonus of the last month's exercise is that I now have a number of notes to build into the methodology so with luck I will be able to complete this in the next 10 days or so. The end of July is not looking impossible as things stand! Just at the moment though I am enjoying the warm glow of finishing what I consider to be the trickiest part of research.
I feel a large gin and tonic followed by several glasses of wine is needed to celebrate - do join me!
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