November and December have been busy months regarding dissertation updates, November marks the first month that I've made significant progress. I'm still slightly ahead of my initial phase plan which is positive, I've been managing other assignments alongside this quite well. The past couple of months has been peak deadline season and the start of me applying for grad schemes.
Following on from last month, I'd just published my survey and started undertaking primary research. Since then I've gained my total sample of 50 responses, collated all the data and put it into an Appendix. Data analysis was another part of this process, going through a mix of quantitative and qualitative data making graphs and forming conclusions. I always want to ensure that I'm focusing on the interdisciplinary skills I've learnt throughout my degree. This process was aided by a discussion with my supervisor going through our preconceptions of the data, what was expected, unexpected or perhaps even biased. The actual writing has also started, following the advice of my supervisor, I made the decision to wait to start with the introduction. Instead, I started with the methodology of primary research, this seemed like the most logical decision because I was carrying out the primary research now so the processes were still fresh in my mind. I've also made a note of critical evaluation points that I can discuss further in the related Appendix. Writing a methodology was something I initially found difficult because as a humanities student I've never really needed to write one. In this instance, I sought help from one of my good friends Lottie, who was able to give me some guidance based on her psychology dissertation methodology. Her advice was: "spell it out so that anyone could follow your research and replicate what you've done. If you had exclusion criteria or incomplete responses that meant you had to remove a participant that can often help to fill in the gaps." This advice gave me the chance to read back over what I'd previously written and make changes and adjustments.
Chapter One of my dissertation is focused on popular culture and globalisation, it aims to conceptualise these two themes in relation to both the geopolitics of fashion and TV/media. In phases 1 & 2 (see the previous post for more details on the phase plan) I spent time reading and curating an initial bibliography. This process enabled me to make a general plan for each chapter and the direction of my writing. I'm hoping to get this first chapter finalised by the end of December, amongst lots of Christmas celebrations. This is also a reminder to take a break where needed and spend time with family and friends. Even if you don't celebrate Christmas take this as an opportunity to indulge in some self-care.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment