DOUBLE JEOPARDY

The business of being a research student is finally at hand. The 3 day induction was reasonably painless. The process of putting together a research paper is just that, a process; however; there are obstacles along the way. The first hurdle is slightly disconcerting. Having been accepted on the program on the basis of a proposal and an interview involving a 10 min power point presentation and 20 min of questions, one has to submit a fresh proposal in the guise of what is referred to as an ATR, an Application to Register. It cannot be any longer that the 1000 word proposal already submitted. It is in effect a more refined version of the initial proposal. The ATR’s are presented to two committees or RDCs (Research Development Committee) - one at Falmouth and the other at the University of the Arts London, under whose auspices Falmouth University must continue to function until Falmouth receives its own licence for accreditation of PhD degrees.

Thus, having been enrolled at Falmouth as a PhD student from the 25^th September, if the Application to Register is turned down, what is one supposed to do.  It feels a bit of a con. One is encouraged to apply and pay the dues, only to have to re-apply with what is suggested is a more refined version of the initial application.

Whilst I understand that a research project must be focused on as specific an argument as one can muster, it seems a bit of a swiz to go through the process of refining the first 1000 words into yet another 1000 words which run the risk of being knocked back. One goes through considerable time and expense to be accepted, only to find one has to go through the whole thing again on the basis that it is a more considered application. More expense and time. It feels a bit like double jeopardy.

If the initial expression of interest, proposal and interview are not sufficient, what is the point of them? Why not say from the outset that acceptance on the research programme is a four stage process:

1-    Expression of Interest

2-    Initial Proposal

3-    Interview

4-    Application to Register.

Only after one has been accepted from stage four, should one be enrolled. It seems a very cumbersome process.

I understand the need to hone one’s research question into something manageable and indicative of some degree of original thinking on a subject, but that is presumably what the first year of a PhD is about, and the supervisors’ job is to guide the student towards that end.

Am I wrong to feel disgruntled about this process? Comment please.

WHAT TO DO ?

JUST ANOTHER THOUGHT

Next Wednesday we begin the holzweg or pehaps it is the feldweg. As to Holzweg, it is generally described as is a path in the woods made by foresters. It may refer to the space cleared to allow a large tree to fall unrestrictedly to the ground: it may also be the path created as the cutting of trees progresses ever more deeply into the woods. In both of these forms, a Holzweg is a "path that leads nowhere." It is a mental exercise. The feldweg is the dirt road we follow on the holzweg and as such perhaps is a direction towards somewhere or something. Whatever the path, it exists in thought. Thinking is itself a performance, a practice not so much to provide answers to questions, but to keep the questions alive.

"Thinking ... is no more and no less an organ of perception than the eye or ear. Just as the eye perceives colours and the ear sounds, so thinking perceives ideas."

However, “Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.”

To that end we embark on education level 8 as regulated by Ofqual.

Ofqual is the regulator of qualifications, examinations and assessments in England and vocational qualifications in Northern Ireland

“It’s our job to maintain standards and confidence in qualifications. We look after GCSEs and A levels in England, and a wide range of vocational qualifications both in England and Northern Ireland. We also regulate the National Curriculum Assessments in England.

We are independent of Government ministers and we report directly to Parliament in Westminster and the Northern Ireland Assembly. While we are independent, we give advice to Government on qualifications and assessment based on our research into these areas.

We regulate by recognising and monitoring organisations that deliver qualifications and assessments as set out in the Apprenticeship, Skills, Children and Learning Act (2009) and Education Act (2011).”

Doctorates are awarded to students who have demonstrated:

1. the creation and interpretation of new knowledge, through original research or other advanced scholarship, of a quality to satisfy peer review, extend the forefront of the discipline, and merit publication;

2. a systematic acquisition and understanding of a substantial body of knowledge which is at the forefront of an academic discipline or area of professional practice;

3. the general ability to conceptualise, design and implement a project for the generation of new knowledge, applications or understanding at the forefront of the discipline, and to adjust the project design in the light of unforeseen problems;

a detailed understanding of applicable techniques for research and advanced academic enquiry.

I have no thought/idea if any of the above will apply at the end of this feldweg.

WRITING ABOUT WRITING - IS IT PERFORMANCE?

I recently Googled “writing about writing” and found that the phrase has spawned an acronym WAW, i.e. a method or theory of teaching composition which puts emphasis on reading and writing about writing in the writing course, and reimagines first-year composition as an "introduction to writing studies."

First-year composition is an introductory core curriculum writing course in North American colleges. This course focuses on improving students' abilities to write in a university setting and introduces students to writing practices in the disciplines and professions. These courses are traditionally required of incoming students, thus the previous name, "Freshman Composition". First-year composition is a discipline of composition studies. Composition studies concerns itself as much with the making of meaning—learning how to marshal facts and opinion to support various points of view—as with the development of standard or "proper" grammar.

The piece goes on: This is not to say WAW advocates teaching a first-year writing course as if it were an introduction to a writing major, but rather it advocates merging the how of writing with its practice. An introduction course to a writing major has both a different audience and purpose than a first-year composition course framed in WAW. The development of WAW is largely credited to Elizabeth Wardle, University of Central Florida, and Douglas Downs, Montana State University, after the publication of their 2007 article "Teaching about Writing, Righting Misconceptions."

A relatively new area of first-year composition, WAW continues to emerge and change as it gains recognition by academics and composition scholars.

Writing about Writing: A College Reader

Published in 2011, Doug Downs’ and Elizabeth Wardle's book is described as “encouraging students to draw on what they know in order to contribute to on-going conversations about writing and literacy.”  In the preface for the instructors, Downs and Wardle describes their frustration with composition courses that are based around themes that have nothing to do with writing. They list several reasons as to why WAW is a "smart choice" in terms of an approach to teaching first-year composition:

•    WAW engages students in a relevant subject

•    WAW engages students' own area of expertise

•    WAW helps students transfer what they learn

•    WAW has been extensively class tested—and it works.

The book addresses several questions geared towards helping the student understand multiple components of writing: Why study writing? How do readers read and writers write? How do you write? How have you become the readers and writer you are today? How do communities shape writing? How do you make yourself heard as college writer? A mixture of selected readings from both scholars, authors, and students are provided, as well as various activities and discussion questions associated with the readings.

ELIZABETH WARDLE is associate professor and Chair of the Department of Writing and Rhetoric at the University of Central Florida. Her research interests centre on genre theory, transfer of writing-related knowledge, and infusing composition classrooms with the field's best understandings of how writing works. She is currently conducting a longitudinal study of writing transfer with colleagues from UCF and Auburn University.

DOUG DOWNS is an assistant professor of rhetoric and composition in the Department of English at Montana State University. His research interests centre on research-writing pedagogy and facilitating undergraduate research both in first-year composition and across the undergraduate curriculum. He continues to work extensively with Elizabeth Wardle on writing-about-writing pedagogies and is currently studying problems of researcher authority in undergraduate research in the humanities

Here is some wonderful writing:

YULE BRYNNER - FIRST MOVIE 1949

SKYWRITING

When I was a kid in New York I remember a lot of skywriting overhead. It was much more common then and mainly at the seaside. A brief account follows - 

In a 1926 letter to The New York Times one Albert T. Reid wrote:

A newspaper paragraph says skywriting was perfected in England in 1919 and used in the United States the next year. Art Smith, who succeeded Beachey in flying exhibitions at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915, after the latter had been killed, did skywriting, always ending his breathtaking stunts by writing "Good night." This was not a trial exhibition but a part of every flight, and was always witnessed by thousands.

Major Jack Savage, former RAF pilot and writer for Flight magazine, had a successful skywriting fleet of Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5 aircraft in England. He flew throughout the 1920s and 1930s, bringing the practice to America as well. The first use of skywriting for advertising purposes was on November 28, 1922 over New York City.

The typical smoke generator consists of a pressurized container holding a low viscosity oil such as Chevron/Texaco "Canopus 13" (formerly "Corvus Oil"). The oil is injected into the hot exhaust manifold causing it to vaporize into a huge amount of dense white smoke.

Wind and dispersal of the smoke cause the writing to blur, usually within a few minutes. However special "skytyping" techniques have been developed to write in the sky in a dot-matrix fashion, and are legible for longer despite the inevitable blurring effect caused by wind.

Digital Skywriting, also known as dot matrix skywriting and skytyping, digital skywriting is the process of using 5 planes in formation and advanced computing to choreograph puffs of smoke being released from each plane. When viewed from below messages can be seen very clearly being written in the sky by the squadron of skywriters. These digitally sky-written messages written at 10,000 ft can be up to 1250 ft tall and over 5 miles long. Digital skywriting allows planes to put any message into the sky in any colour without having to do advanced and acrobatic flying manoeuvres.