MasterBlogs

And there was me thinking no one read it!

What a great weekend - great people, great fun, great opportunity. I'll look forward to seeing many of you later this year.

Soooo, catch-up time. Now, where was I. Oh yes.....

Chelsea went out of Europe to a last minute shocker but salvaged the season with a fighting comeback in the FA cup Final. No work that day!

First assignment now marked and very pleased with outcome, particularly a smiley face from Rachel. On the down side she implied I wittered on in my introduction. Moi? Witter on? Some mistake, surely!

Second assignment largely done - had to rush it as off to Florence tomorrow and little chance to do any more before hand-in date. And no assignment work this weekend for obvious reasons. Had opposite problem form first where I struggled to get the word count up but had some good material. This time I'm already over 3,000 but not sure I have anything like the same degree of critical debate. Quantity not quality, methinks. Will try to devote some time to it next weekend.

And now, an early night (for once)!

Arrivederci.

What a week! 1 birthday, 2 champions league semi-finals, 3 study nights missed. And yet, and yet.....good progress. No research, a little re-reading, loads spent hitting the keyboard (sometimes literally!). Result? 2,500 words! Not bad for end of 3rd week. Next week will be spent concluding, completing references and checking that it all hangs together.

Almost there.....

It's the end of week two and time to check the stats.

Oh dear, study time down - barely made 10 hours this week. I blame Champions League football, bank holiday weekends and work. Anything but me! Next week probably much the same as my birthday on Tuesday then away on business Wednesday and Thursday. Might sneak in a few hours but am bracing myself for a low count. Will aim for a real push on Friday and Saturday.

Research mostly done but had to give up on certain leads as am not paying $30 just to view some same-old, same-old article on CSR. Yes, Emerald limitations unchanged. However its amazing how much you can find (for free) via Google.

Reading also going well and the words flowing freely on the laptop - saved to hard drive and two memory sticks just to be ultra-safe.

And that all-important word count: 1,780. Woop woop! Half way there and then some.

Logging off.

Sooo, one week down four to go till we submit first assignment. A good time to take stock. Glass of wine in one hand, lap top fired up, so here goes.

I thought an optimistic target would be 50% of research complete, 30% of the reading and 10% of the writing. In fact its more like 30/30/30. First the research - started well than ran into the vaguaries of Emerald. I know it only has 75% of the articles but why does it only have 50% of the ones I want! Reading going well and writing better than expected - word count up to 688. All in all, not too bad.

As to study time, seem to have settled into a routine ok. Mon-Fri I tend to do an hour's research after work (6-7ish) then go home, cook etc, than an hour of reading/writing from 8-9ish. About 10-12 hours in total. Nothing this weekend but, hey, it is the weekend. Had kids and constructed a 10' trampoline so not all frittered away. No kids next weekend but Chelsea in champions league semi mid-week so some catching up required.

Well, that's enough from me. MOTD on shortly and glass needs refilling. Later....

Ok - so the dissrtation proposal is in - the last assignment is in - and we await the marks accordingly.So did we do ok - or is it back to the drawing board ? But we cant wait to find out cos the clock is ticking and time is available now so .....methodology literature - where is it ? surveymonkey - how does it work ? permissions - is this going to work ?

Oh yeah and there is always at least one student who decides to move house which if everything goes according to plan - will be me this year. When will be the best time ? Like I can control it !

OK - grindstone - pen - web - lets go.