A new start

06/11/2010 by admin.

Well, after several months of blogging apathy, I have decided to try and make a new start. This blog forms part of a module on dissemination (or at least that is the aim), so it is important that I make a better effort to keep it up to date.

I met with my sup last week for my…second?… tutorial. The main problem is that in my last tutorial he recommended – quite strongly – that I come away from traditional layout of intro, lit review, method analysis and conclusion, to move towards a layout where each chapter considers a different aspect of learning. So, I integrated the chapters so that I had separated social models from cognitive models and had a chapter that independently looked at work-based learning. Last week he questioned why I had done this (I told him) and recommended that I return to the traditional layout. This means that I have to change the layout a second time, with all the additional work that this involves.

I have about 20,000 words at the moment and I have a clear idea about what more I need to do. the traditional layout is a darn sight easier to understand and write for, but I can’t help but feel peeved that I have had to rewrite so much. I am not sure if this is a failing on my part for having written poorly or because he hasn’t remembered advocating the alternative layout .

I am well on the way to completing the Intro, having previously dismantled it almost completely, and feel good about its contents. Moving back to the old layout means I can now incorporate the systematic review as a separate chapter once more and I am hoping this will save a lot of time as all of the searches have been completed already. I have one chapter (social paradigms) to alter to reflect its new position as ‘analysis’ and the chapter on cognition is well underway. Part of the bonus of the traditional layout is that the chapters are much shorter (from twelve and sixteen thousand words to eight and ten thousand).

Time is pressing though and I am keen to to be on the ball – making sure I complete this blog is one way in which I can do that.