Working Schedule

I have finally turned the corner after a couple of weeks of assorted illnesses and issues that have rather absorbed my time and halted progress on my chapter. It hasn't been helped by the distraction that is the German reading skills course (enjoyable as it would be if I didn't have so much to do), more specifically a looming grammar test in class next week, which makes up part of the course's overall assessment. I managed to get 70% in the translation/literary appreciation assignment, so I'm hoping that that will make up for any deficiency in the grammar section! I must stop competing with myself on this one - it matters not a jot how I do in this module, I just have to be seen to be doing it!!! Absolute madness, this training needs business. So why am I wasting time blogging if I have so much to do? So I can monitor myself: here's my commitment.

i) Start work every morning by 9.30 latest

ii) One hour of German grammar revision, primarily tense forms.

iii) Read through my supervisor's comments on my last tranche of work, consider his suggestions and apply if appropriate.

iv) Parse the remaining chapter of 1 Corinthians and then move onto 2 Corinthians (ongoing over holidays at a rate of at least 1hour per day except Christmas, and possibly Boxing, Day.

v) Note and consider variant verb forms in 1Corinthians.

vi) Try to undertake a regular session of Greek translation, tentatively scheduled at three times a week.

vii) Two hours reading of secondary literature per day, and work on assembling an annotated bibliography.

There! Now it's in print it feels more organised and possible! Fingers crossed that I manage to avoid the nasty cold currently circulating the household.....

OK...let's get going....Will try and keep a daily update on progress.

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.....)