Research Blogs
All Graduate Junction researchers get a mini blog to share their day to day experiences. Log in to see who is posting and make contact.
Well, I've finally finished transcribing Danielle's interview. It's only taken a month (sic). It proved to be more difficult and therefore time consuming than I'd anticipated. Of course, having RSI doesn't help. After about 2 hours sitting at the computer any further typing was literally a pain in the arm.
Most of the problems were related to hearing what was actually said on the tape. Firstly the difference in the timbre of Danielle's and my voices was extreme. I knew that I had a voice that was easily heard at a distance, even when I was speaking at a normal volume. To allow for this I had placed the tape recorder as close as possible to, and facing, Danielle. It was at least a metre away from me. Yet, several times on the tape it proved impossible to hear Danielle while my comments were clearly audible. This made the transcription process very frustrating as I played sections of the conversation over and over in an effort to hear what was said.
Secondly, I had chosen to produce a verbatim transcription of the interview. With all the Um's and Ah's, pauses, affirmations, and interuptions. While this process was very informative I don't think I'll do it again. It was interesting that in the same way that "we read what we expect to read" I also tended to "hear what I expected to hear". As I was doing the transcription I kept expecting to hear written English rather than spoken/conversational English.
I'll definitely need to 'edit' the interview transcript before I give it to Danielle for checking.
The advantage of doing my own transcribing is that I already have a good idea of the main themes that were appearing during the interview. Already Danielle's responses have raised some issues for early school leavers that I haven't seen mentioned in the literature that I've reviewed. There is clearly some potential for using the work of Carol Dweck on the role of students self-theories on intelligence with regard to motivation to study and as a factor that could lead to withdrawal from 'difficult subjects'.
My next hurdle will be working out how to present my analysis in the thesis. I find it very frustrating that each chapter of the thesis seems to require a different style of writing. My approach so far seems to be working though - write early - even before your ideas a fully formed. My writing is my research!
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i promised myself two weeks ago that i would not pull another all- nighter. yet here i am, again, finding myself writing all throughout the night into the early morning hours. i cannot get to bed because as mind continues racing towards the finish line. surely i have a couple good hours left in me? do not know how i will manage to be chipper at my 1 p.m. lunch tomorrow. writing-up has been nothing but disastrous for my social life.
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Poster competition is now well underway with entries coming in from across the world. For anyone thinking about entering the Graduate Junction international online poster competition there are some great resources on the Graduate Junction website to help you create your poster www.graduatejunction.com/posters/support This includes hints and tips on how to design and create a successful poster as well as links to lots of other great resources. Keep checking the poster page www.graduatejunction.com/posters for updates.
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Now I have to refine my research questions?
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Graduate Junction is delighted to be named in Associate Degree's 100 Best Social Sites for Students, Academics and Educators. http://associatedegree.org/2009/07/20/100-best-social-sites-for-students-academics-and-educators/
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once again sat here taking in through musical osmosis the dulcet tunes of sigur ros, yet all I can think of is the next simple minds album to pop up in my itunes player that will surely break my writer’s flow. the needless worrying is distracting because why does the thought even cross my mind when what I really need to do is concentrate on the editing task at hand but can’t seem to clear the thoughts of the chores I’ll never get to and the fact that I had a point, somewhere in this stream of consciousness that is beginning to take on the shape of page and a half long paragraphs that I am too tired to chop and edit now because that’s all I’ve been doing for the past 3 weeks solid. logic dictates that I write write write until I get to my point which at this point never seems to be a coming as my mind wanders off into non-sequitors and lame attempts at Dave Eggars prose and again sat here worrying, oh, dear lord, of all those words already written up in my thesis that I fear are not original but rather some sort of mixture of thoughts and phrases accumulated since the begin of my literature review and try as I might to achieve peace of mind, I am no master of zen and so, methinks, yes, definitely, time for a ‘weird break’ (what is a ‘weird break’? visit the GJ Blog to find out http://www.graduatejunction.com/gposts/27).
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Much of this information is already available on the Rails API (http://api.rubyonrails.org/), but for those of us who are too lazy or too frightened to cock a look in that direction these instructions should suffice. I want a drop-down menu that takes id values from one database table and populates the foreign_key_id of another. This is pretty simple fare but something I find myself doing on a regular basis. Part of my confusion is due to having done it different ways throughout my developments. The first is by using the select helper thus:
select(object, method, choices, options = {}, html_options = {})
select("post", "person_id", Person.find(:all).collect {|p| [ p.name, p.id ] }, { :include_blank => true })
This will produce the desired html form with the names and ids in the appropriate places and perfect for your form. There is however a helper method designed specifically for this purpose.
collection_select(object, method, collection, value_method, text_method, options = {}, html_options = {})
collection_select(:post, :person_id, Person.all, :id, :name, {:prompt => true})
I think you'll agree collection_select is a more readable and easy to implement solution, fit for purpose. I'll be using this every time now without fail.
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editing and sigur ros is a match made in heaven.
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Researchers interested in how the recession might be affecting their research careers should take a quick look everyday this week on the Vitae website www.vitae.ac.uk where there will be a new article addressing this topic daily. There is also a discussion forum so that postgraduate researchers, research staff, staff supporting researcher development and anyone with an interest in the potential impacts of the recession on researcher careers will be able to engage in the discussions.
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in our quest for evermore success, achievement and glory, why is it that we sometimes fail to see that what we have in this moment is more precious than what will be. a tragic tale follows: http://news.hereisthecity.com/news/business_news/9207.cntns?so=1
