Dimensions

I didn’t send the quick sketch version of my draft to my supervisor in the end. Instead, I spent the whole week describing the relevant dimensions of my framework and building the structure of it. My draft is due next weekend, so I am going to spend the next six days writing up a chapter.

I liked the sketching process and making index tabs and post-it notes for my notebooks. Sometimes I just can’t stop making index tabs. I spend hours organising my notes, papers and literature, as well as my personal diary. This habit helped me a lot when I was studying for school exams and it still does now.

Transcription

Transcribing audio data is really time-consuming. My supervisors often tell me that I shouldn’t waste time in transcribing unnecessary parts of data. That’s why I’ve concentrated on determining narrow components for my analysis. I selected a few sets of data as examples for my presentation and this week I transcribed one case using the website app Transcribe. I found this very useful.

Teacher training programme

This week I also resumed an online teacher training programme for Japanese teaching and submitted a piece of coursework for the first time in seven months. The course is a two-year programme. I completed the first half of the course last year and then took time out to focus on my research. I am supposed to finish the whole course by the end of this year, so I am going to spend the next three months finishing the rest of the coursework.

PhD advice

My main notebook is Evernote, which is like the headquarters where I digitise all my handwritten notebooks. I have just found an interesting note about PhD advice. Before starting my PhD programme, I read The PhD Application Handbook by Bentley (2006), thoroughly, several times, because I liked the author’s insights into doing a PhD and his advice. As I read, I jotted down bits of advice from the book. Although the title is Application Handbook, these still help me greatly. One of my favourite quotes is:

‘Your objective is to communicate clearly, not to obscure and make yourself look clever. Always try to give enough information to make your work reproducible by others. Learn to read the words that you actually wrote and not what you meant to write. Treat your words as though they are disposable. Never spend an hour trying to perfect a sentence you’re stuck on—just delete it and write it again. Your message is the important thing. You can always use new words.’ (p.124)

My achievements in week 84

• Built a structure of my framework so that I can spend the next week writing the chapter.
• Transcribed the audio data of one case.
• Resumed an online teacher training programme and submitted a piece of coursework.

Goals for week 85

• Finish writing my draft chapter and send it to my supervisors.
• Transcribe audio data.
• Make Curry Buns.