Category: A2_CS

A2.CS: Literature review update

Some housekeeping on my blog, as I prepare for assessment.

When I first wrote my literature review, I was uncomfortable with setting out a defined set of research resources as I knew that the breadth of research I was exploring would most likely take me in new or different directions. The literature review concept felt like it belong to another time, when resources would be limited to what once could access through a library rather than the vast breadth of material now available online. However, as I researched ‘research’ and benefitted from the Zoom discussions hosted by Dr Ariadne, I came to understand the literature review as something that would most likely evolve with one’s research. Something I did not glean from the OCA course materials and threw me off the scent of its purpose. The literature review became something meaningful to me – a way of sharing more information about important research resources used in building the dissertation; a discussion that sits between the references appended to the dissertation and the body of the dissertation itself. I some academic papers, I’ve noted that it is placed in the text as part of the introductory materials.

I completed the final update of my literature review in November after completing my dissertation. It is this update that I will submit as part of the assessment process.

A2.CS tutor feedback

For the first time, I am writing about feedback received without sharing the work itself on my blog. Following discussions in a photography 3 hangout, some long-standing students pointed out the risk of plagiarism and self-plagiarism when publishing writing that might form the basis of a future essay submitted for formal assessment. The irony of conscientiously maintaining a study blog, only to be undone by it at a later date!

A2 was a literature review – an overview of literature that will shape the direction of my L3 essay, but without yet taking a critical position. Overall, encouraging feedback was received; that the work has moved on and is developing much more focus and confidence. In this short post, I note areas of attention for upcoming work.

  1. Continue to keep intros clear and to the point.
  2. Open up the discussion of things / events that may have changed the meanings of canals; ‘de-industrialised’ them.
  3. Good to expand the use of texts beyond the non-academic, but be sure to make the most of them in the essay.
  4. A couple of journal articles shared by my tutor concerning ‘nature’ and ways of thinking about the imagined and the constructed. I’ll read and reflect on these separately.

We discussed A3, which is an essay plan for the substantial essay. This potentially becomes an anchor-point for further substantial writing and research. It is something I’ll move onto quickly to allow time for refinement before moving forward – I presently have very little time for photography, but significant commuting time that I can use for reading and note taking. I’m targeting the end of October for my A3 tutorial.