Monthly Archives: February 2012

beginning the literature review: the art of scan-reading

Posted on February 26, 2012 by

It’s important at the start of a piece of research to try to get a sense of the field – to establish the kinds of articles and books that are going to be useful. This is often a particularly hard … Continue reading →

Posted in coherence, literature review, reading, scan-reading | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

why doctoral researchers should go to the modern art museum

Posted on February 18, 2012 by

Really?? Why should early career researchers bother themselves with contemporary arts? Well, the answer could be to hold better conversations at dinner parties, or to help the team at the pub quiz. Or it could be to help the stroppy … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, contemporary arts practices, deconstruction, epistemology, knowledge production, ontology, research education | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

why it is helpful to read ‘out of your area’

Posted on February 11, 2012 by

Here’s a somewhat round-about explanation of this assertion… Bear with me through what might seem like a long way to get to an answer. Once upon a time, when I was studying for a PhD, I joined a reading group. … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, Bakhtin, intertetxuality, reading | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

grammar, the apostrophe and me

Posted on February 4, 2012 by

The title gives it away, right? I’m a grammar liberal, not a conservative. I prefer my sentences to sound more like talk. In my book(s), even academic writing can break syntactical rules sometimes. It’s all in the interests of readability … Continue reading →

Posted in academic writing, APA, apostrophe, grammar | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments