Stephen Mitchell

As part of my uni research, I’m going to be setting up a journal so I can access my thoughts on a range of reading and lectures quickly and when required.  It’s hopefully going to be a good way to categorise my thoughts (using tags etc).   In the last module, I tried to write a few ’15 minute writes’ but they didn’t really help when it came to structuring the summative work.

I considered the best way to do this and decided that an electronic blog was the best way – it allows people to come along for the ride and comment… if they so wish!  Inspiration is taken from Anesa Hosein (https://researchtips.wordpress.com/2008/02/26/keeping-a-research-journal/).  These won’t be shared on twitter or put into the world, but I’ll be able to access them on wordpress and ask for opinions on ideas when I feel it is appropriate.

The intention is that I will keep a written blog on thesis ideas and thoughts – I might also include reflections and barriers on the current module in there too.  Reading notes and ideas directly relating to the module will go on here – maybe?  But I also might write them.  Basically, I’m going to see which format works best for me.  I think it will probably be electonic, but it can get a bit much if reading from the screen regularly too.

Where possible, I am going to try and separate the present with the future.  Thesis thinking and reading needs to be in a different place to the current module; I’m quite sure of that.

Incase I do actually come back to this blog for inspiration, there are some really good examples of different reflection formats here (again, all from Anesa – thank you!):

• Reflections or reports on seminars/conferences I’ve been to (e.g. Exemplified by Examples)
• Reflections on papers I’ve read and how they tie into my research (e.g. Theoretical Frameworks)
• Problems that I’m encountering: technical and research (e.g. Problems with the firewall)
• Reports and reflections on meetings (e.g. Supervision meeting)
• Things relating to my institution like paperwork etc. (e.g. Problems with tall people in open-plan)
• Reflections on data analysis (e.g. Data analysis)