Met With Supervisor!

So! I had a great week in Wales (I'm in London today and fly home tomorrow!). I met with my primary supervisor for quite a while on Wednesday (lunch, office time, book launch, dinner) and then for a couple of hours on Friday. Also, I was in theory modules Thursday and Friday. The theory modules were mostly review, but there was a great session on Semiotics and a great session on text editing. It was worthwhile just to be with some other PhD students and do some theory review.

My primary supervisor and I talked mostly about thesis (dissertation) direction and chapter organization, both of which seem to depend on whether I stay narrow (one author) or go more broad in the first half of the project and then focus in on Haywood in the second half. Some of my contextual research has been interesting, and it's tempting to include it in a way that would broaden the thesis, but for now I think I'm going to assume that it will stay narrow--focused on Haywood. That could change, I guess, when I start writing the contextual stuff in question, but we'll see. The chapter divisions will depend on these same issues.

I also talked to her about how my writing strategies are unfolding. It seems to me that I'm tending to lean in the direction of the following process:

1. read and research for a chapter
   
2. make an outline for a chapter
3. draft a skeleton chapter (about 1/3 the length of final draft)
4. repeat process for other chapters
5. revisit skeleton chapters to flesh them out

This strategy has its weaknesses, the primary one being that I'll have to do each chapter at least twice, and there may be a fair amount of time between the drafts, and I could forget stuff or misplace sources. It also has strengths: I get a chance to see how the arguments shape up on paper, and perhaps I'll see which ones aren't working so well. I get important citations on paper, and I start integrating them. I'll see where the holes are. I won't have to store a whole chapter's worth of thoughts in my head or wait until I've done so in order to start writing. I'll have more knowledge when I revisit the chapters, so I can strengthen them.

I'm sure there are other strengths and weaknesses to such a process; I just hope the former will outweigh the weaker. Regardless, I just think that's how it's going to unfold.

I spoke to my secondary supervisor for about an hour-and-a-half. I think she was a little out of sorts that she and I didn't have more time to talk, but I hadn't scheduled that because I really didn't know if I was supposed to involve her at this point or not. The good news is that she is very interested in my project because I don't think she gets many advisees who share her philosophical bent. I think she's going to be very helpful. I told her that I was worried that I'll never know enough about philosophy to be an "expert" on any part of it, but she reminded me that my examiners will be English faculty not philosophy faculty, so I should be okay. Either way, she's a good measuring stick for me. If I can get past her, I think I can get past anyone (this notion was increased when I found out that she's kind of a hard "grader").

We didn't talk too much about conferences. My supervisor thinks I probably will be ready in about a year or so. I agree with her. I'm sure I could put something together before that if I really wanted to, but if I want to stay focused on the dissertation itself, some of that material should be conference-ready for next year. Each year, there is a grad student conference in Gregynog, Wales (see the photo?), and perhaps I will try to time a visit with that conference. I'll also keep my eye out for other conferences not too far from home. Plus, I'm not sure the husband or the kids will want me to go anywhere else for a while!

My next step is to write the skeleton version of Chapter One. I will try to get that done (or at least 5,000 words of it) by mid-January. I'd better get crackin'! But there's a hitch: I have to write my diss in MHRA style, which I haven't learned yet and which I didn't do for the previous writing submission. But for this one, I'd like to do it correctly. I don't want to get to the end and have to revise the formatting of 300 pages. Ack!

I've had a great week, but other than chatting with my advisors, I didn't get a lot of work done. I've watched TV in my hotel rooms and read novels on planes and trains. I am bad! I've treated it like a vacation, which it sort of is. But when I get home (tomorrow!) after I spend a couple of days inhaling the children, I'll get to work. It will be tough because of all of the holidays, but I tend to work faster when I'm writing than when I'm reading, so I'm optimistic!

BTW, Safiak, I came across John Clare's name at least twice this week!