Nose to the Wheel....Shoulder to the Grindstone etc...

Back from uni. and quite inspired on the academic front: it's really good to feel a part of an academic community rather than hovering around on the periphery as I have done for the past couple of years (since I finished my MA, I suppose). My supervisor seems to think that I'm basically heading in the right direction (which is quite heartening) and is urging me to consolidate my random thoughts into some solid doctoral writing. And I wholeheartedly concur: I've identified that (just) one of my personal failings is an inability/unwillingness to pursue a topic, pin it down, wrestle it into submission and tie it up in a pretty bow of words. I'm really good at appropriating research, hounding out papers and digging up references only to let it drift and move onto new areas of interest. I've got to ditch the heavyweight butterfly approach and follow my current topic to its natural conclusion. That being so, I've been tasked to produce 3000 or so words (by our next meeting - in 4 weeks time) tackling the status questionis, specifically the scope of my thesis.
If I consider that I will probably have a total number of seven chapters, and seven terms left until a nominal submission date in 2012, that falls out at one chapter per term - an entirely reasonable rate of work. I've decided that a good way to mentally and physically organise this will be with seven actual 'chapter boxes' (boxfiles) wherein I shall keep all the references, bibliographies, references pertinent to that particular section. This will impose a sense of order as well as a satisfying visual indication of progress. Obviously, some chapters will prove far trickier/time-consuming than others, so I am not going to be too pedantic about it. But at the same time the background reading will be enormous, and it's all too easy to postpone it as 'not really productive' (although it is absolutely essential!) or, conversely, kid oneself that any sort of reading is 'doing work'. So what with that to contend with, plus the German Reading course (starts next month too), the conference circuit (which I'm really looking forward too) and the dreaded papers that I'm expected to present, it is clear that the academic writing is the very tip of the iceberg. It's the bit that showcases everything that underlies it, its consummation if you like. I'm all too aware it's time to buckle down.
(And, since you ask, the campus Starbucks was full of students!!! Can you believe it? Grrr! Couldn't get near the counter.....)

Off down to the university tomorrow - virtually 3 hours to get there on the disgustingly smelly CrossCountry train, and another 3 hours to get back! When I first started down there I thought that I'd never, ever get used to the travelling: but one does. Now that I'm embarking on full-time as opposed to part-time study, I'm expecting to ramp up the attendance somewhat. I'll see what my supervisor says. I don't think supervisory meetings would benefit from being any more regular than once a month, with concentrated periods of reading/writing in between. I just hope that my nearest and dearest recognise that, as a full-time, fully-funded student, it'll be the same as me having a 40hr-a-week, full-time job, and that I just won't be up for casual visits, prolonged lunches or trips into town. I always found it to be a considerable problem when we ran our own business and I worked from home. People didn't consider that I was doing real work, and that because I was at home, I was available at the drop of a hat for this or that. I might have to do some straight talking, never mind drop veiled hints! Got to pick up a new ID card, go to the library and check out a new Starbucks on campus, which is in the same block as the new Special Collections facility.
Wallace Chafe's book is very interesting - I'm going to read it and make more notes on the train. He approaches language from a cognitive point of view as a manifestation of consciousness that reflects the individual's capacity to focus on certain events whilst maintaining the context as a semi-active background programme. His division of information as active, semiactive or inactive fits quite nicely with imperfectivity, perfectivity and stativity in verbal aspect though I'll have to have a good, long think about it. Discourse, Time and Consciousness is such an interesting book that it'll be quite difficult not to forget what I'm supposed to be up to, and get swept into digressive backwaters. I must discipline myself to recognise what is actually useful and what is merely fascinating!