Lecture 5 - Resolving your reserach project

 

•Don’t lose sight of your central goal / overall question

•Prioritise- don’t obsess over how things look or read

•Involve your tutor

•Manage yourself

Project Self Assessment

•Write down the major aims of the project

•Give a brief summary of the work so far

•Comment on your time management

•Do you know what the final project will look like?

•What steps will you take to ensure it gets there?

•What areas of the project are you worried about?

•What ‘risk management’ plans do you have?

•How are you going to use the remaining tutorials?

 

 Running out of Time

 

•17th Jan- 5 weeks away 

•Refer to your original plan 

•Be more disciplined than ever 

•Don’t prioritise the practical over the written element 

•Scale down your ambitions if necessary 

•Set targets

Some Other General Advice

 

•Look again at your question or theme…have you done what you set out to 

do or do you need to change your title?

 
•Make sure everything in your project relates to your title/question or theme (if you have 

wandered off on a tangent you may be penalized). 

•Make sure your dissertation is pitched at the right level i.e. avoid lots of description and include lots of critical analysis supported by relevant theory (see the earlier lectures).

•Justify everything you say with discussion or examples.

•Support all of your assertions with references and evidence.

•Introduce each chapter with a brief statement telling the reader what you are setting out to do and how this chapter fits in with the whole thing.

•Conclude each chapter by stating what you have achieved and how it links with the next ‘bit’.

•A general overall introduction and conclusion should also be included giving the reader an insight into what is to come (intro) and what you have achieved (conclusion).

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Academic Conventions : Lecutre 4

Ways of writing, ways of laying out written work, the tone of voice, style of referencing.

Quoting nd referncing is about showing where your arguments is coming from. Clarity and honesty is key.

EVIDENCE

At this level you are expected to be able to:

Demonstrate a critical knowledge of practice

Apply theory to practice

Analyse relevant material

Evaluate theory and evidence within the context of study

Reflect – critiquing and critically reflecting on your learning and using this to improve practice.

Blooms Taxonomy of Learning

Need to be analyzing and Evaluating and Applying theories.

Superficial Learners DONT DO THIS

Concentration on Learning Outcomes

Passive acceptance of ideas

Routine memorisation of facts

Sees small chunks

Ignore guiding patterns and principles

Lack of reflection about, or ignorance of, underlying patterns and theories

Little attempt to understand

Minimal preparation and research

Don't do this! Need to explain and push quotes and theories. Push the boundries.

DEEP APPROACH DO THIS

Independent engagement with material

Critical and thoughtful about idea and information

Relates ideas to own previous experience and knowledge

Sees the big picture 

Relates evidence to conclusions

Examines logic of arguments

Interested in wider reading and thinking

Ongoing preparation and refelection

 

How to Evidence Deep Learning

Analyze and critique all evidence!

Be precise

Don't use cautious words.

Back it up with evidence.

Be confident in writing.

Don't try and make points sound more grand....TOTALLY ...back it up with evidence.

WRITING IN 1st PERSON (not acceptable)

 

In many academic disciplines, writing in the first person is not acceptable as it is believed to be too subjective and personal. Many tutors prefer impersonal language to be used in assignments.

STRUCTURE

HARVARD REFERENCING

Use various sources, triangulate, 3 or 4 quotes a page from different theorists.

AUTHOR  >  DATE  >  TITLE  >  PLACE  > PUBLISHER 

This style:   MILES, R. (2013) Why Referencing, Leeds: LCA Publishing

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS USED

Reference Pictures like you would reference a book

Methodologies and Critical Analysis Lecture

Methodology

How the information you have found is ...

 
•Sourced
•Collected
•Collated
•Presented
Qualitative and Quantitative data.
Who WIll I talk to ? Why? What will I ask?
 
You need to clearly evidence why you selected these methods of gathering information and selecting evidence and why they are the most appropriate for your study...

This will make you appear to be in control and aware of what you are doing...
 
Ultimately a methodology is there to show I'm in control. Talk about the methodology in the introduction.
 

 

Is it appropriate?

What is the organzing principle?
What is the inquire procedure?

To describe and analyse… methods, throwing light on their limitations and resources, clarifying their suppositions and consequences, relating their potentialities to the twilight zone at the frontiers of knowledge… (Kaplan, 1973:93)

It is not that we must somehow ‘please’ our critical colleague audiences; the deeper issue is to avoid self delusion. After that we can turn to the task about how we did study, and what worried us about its quality. Without such methodological frankness, we run the risk of reporting ‘knowledge that ain’t so’. (Miles & Huberman, 1994:294)

CHOOSE ONE KEY THEORY

These can help you decide upon the methods you use

Alternatively the material you find may suggest the appropriate theories

 Could include practical work

Examples of theories often used by students:

•Psychological- S.Freud; C.Jung; J.Lacan; L.Mulvey etc.

•Communication theory- J.Fiske, etc.

•Postcolonialism- Spivak, Said, Bhabha etc.

•Social History of Art- T.J.Clarke, J.Berger etc.

•Marxism / Post-Marxism- Frankfurt School

•Gender Studies / Feminist- G.Pollock; L.Nochlin

Action Research - Testing - Letterpress

Need some sort of critical Lense

There must be some theory.

 

WRITE A METHODOLOGY WHICH INCORPORATES A THEORETICAL APPROACH

 

Critical Analysis is Needed

 

WE DON'T WONT PERSONAL OPINION! Just the truth.

The opinion needs to be arrived at by evidence of research and logic.

 Being critical is about interrogating the sources you are using.  Try consider different points of view.

How is my choice of topic influenced by my emotions; aspirations;context.

 

CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING

 

Why was he making it, What was he doing?

 

Don't just make points! you need to back it all up with evidence!

• Empirical
• Practical
• Data from surveys

FIND MORE THAN ONE SOURCE TO SUPPORT MY CONCLUSIONS AND ARGUMENT

ARGUMENT

What do I want to say?

Have I got the evidence to back it up?

Where else do I need to look in order to find more evidence?

TRIANGULATION

Pitting alternative theories against the same body of data

 Need a Clear Logical Plan

Keep it simple- refine what you want to say and focus on a few key issue

Look into your key issues in depth and bring in the maximum evidence in to support your views

Discuss your issues and the evidence you have found in a clear and logical manner

Move from the general to the specific

 

 CRITICAL ANALYSIS STEP BY STEP

Step one

Identify an aspect of your specialist subject that you would like to explore.

Step two

Select a writer or theorist and a particular piece of writing about your specialist subject.

Step three

  Make notes that

  Identify the key points in the writing.

Step four

What evidence is used to support or 'prove' the key points'.

Step five

Is it convincing?

What else needs to be said in order to 'prove' the key points?

Step six

Write a response to the piece of writing and comment on:

the implications for your work; do you agree/ disagree with what has been said ? Does it help to support 

your views/ argument?

the thoughts you have had as the result of reading this piece;

on the evidence used by the writer.