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| Piecing the jigsaw together writing PAD |
Hey Im back...how long has it been 2, 3 months, I guess I have been waiting for something to inspire me again and yesterday's workshop was it....'writing in creative practice' was a reason to write again...Anyway what a great and interesting day...the workshop was held at Staffordshire University (2nd July) and led by Nancy de Freitas, Associate professor at AUT University, New Zealand and Editor-In Chief of studies in material thinking. She presented to us through the course of the day, the context of material thinking practices, thinking about methods and insights on good structure, clear writing and style as an underpinning to research, processes, images, objects and spaces. For example; thinking about subject matter, and keeping focus, in terms of positioning yourself.
We looked at checking out our own target audience, considering journals (there may only be 2!) and writing an abstract that can be viewed as something that is 'made up' in the first instance, to act as a sign post, however should not be seen as fixed as (i know through experience) it will change often. What else? oh yes the application of visuals to assist in the writing (this again is a method practiced heavily during the MA strand of my PhD) and further to set a word count to allow writing to become more manageable.
Referring back to positioning yourself what was useful here was to consider keywords, that is to check out what other people are talking about and reference it back to the field of 'where do I sit'?? Short sentences, being direct and not being afraid, to BE explicit and stick to one argument only. The conclusion should leave the reader with something, ie keywords, what next?? Ok another good thing we addressed was 'snack writing' little bits of writing' to form a different way of thinking (blogs help with this train of thought). Postcard idea, YES!! was an interesting notion, to write on it your RQ or even keywords and take it with you, if you find something interesting do the postcard check...keeps being focused intact!!!
We looked at checking out our own target audience, considering journals (there may only be 2!) and writing an abstract that can be viewed as something that is 'made up' in the first instance, to act as a sign post, however should not be seen as fixed as (i know through experience) it will change often. What else? oh yes the application of visuals to assist in the writing (this again is a method practiced heavily during the MA strand of my PhD) and further to set a word count to allow writing to become more manageable.
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| Journal notes |
The afternoons session was part led by Alke Groppel Wegener blog-http://tactileacademia.wordpress.com/, who looked at genre and academic writing (i think?) actually we looked at FiSh...she told us a story about her experience of Frankenfish. Quite simply there are various surface levels in which fish are seen to occupy in research that is....the 1st level i.e. are goldfish, the 2nd level i.e. sea creatures, 3rd level i.e. sharks and PhD well ABSTRACT FISH=Frankenfish!! What is my fish? I could only think about the 'old lady who swallowed a fly' perhaps she is my fish...??????????????????
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| Journal notes |
To return to Nancy for final input, we were given a table: Clarify your Practice...must locate its proper name?? anyway the headings were broken up into 4 sections..under each heading we were required to put for example;Concept-this work explores= conceptual narrative (see below) once established we were asked to on the next line (see image for easier interpretation) required to move words around, i.e. so now Concept-this work explores=film theory, Context- in relation too teaching and learning etc etc...Great!! I shall try this method out indefinitely.
- Concept-this work explores = conceptual narratives
- Context-in relation too = creative process
- Focus-with a focus on = teaching and learning
- Methods-by means of = film theory
References:
Gavin Melles and Julia Lockheart, Writing purposefully in art and design: Responding to converging and diverging new academic literacy http://ahh.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/02/28/1474022211432116
Nancy Roth, Writing as pretext: On the way to an image http://ahh.sagepub.com/content/9/2/256
Robert Nelson, Toward a history of rigour: An examination of the nasty side of scholarship, http://ahh.sagepub.com/content/10/4/374
Brian Paltridge, Sue Starfield, Louise Ravelli and Sarah Nicholson; Doctoral Writing in the Visual and Performing Arts: Issues and Debates
Helen Sword - stylish academic writing; YouTube
