Primary research Pt. 2

In Friday's EPQ lesson, I emailed two professors of English, who specialize in the topic area of my project, with a series of questions and politely asking if they could provide information under these questions to assist my research. Today I checked my email and was greeted with a fairly misunderstood response from one of those professors as she passionately stated that her role as a professor is not to provide answers. She also advised me to independently search for books to use for my research. I responded kindly and sincerely, reassuring her that my intention was not to ask for answers, but for information, and that I was advised to email experts to boost my research along side reading a variety of books, which I am currently. Nevertheless, I have also emailed another professor, clearly stating my reason for approaching them is for research purposes. Hopefully I will hear from them soon.

Primary research

I mentioned in my initial ideas, in order to gather information and expert opinions in my chosen field of study for my EPQ, that I would be emailing professors of History and English who have studied similar areas to my project. It has, surprisingly, been challenging to find professors that have knowledge in the field relating to my project topic. However, today I managed to find two Professors of English Literature who have both studied and researched eighteenth-century literature and Jane Austen, therefore I composed an email with a series of questions, like a virtual interview, and sent it to them. Hopefully they will reply with some useful information.

Our research trip to the University of Hull

As I stated in my previous diary entry, today we went on a research trip to the University of Hull to take advantage of the incredible range and amount of resources they are privileged to have at the uni. My mouth was literally watering as we looked around at the fantastic facilities they had to offer. It was amazing to see how these have a large, beneficial impact on the students and the ways they help with their studies. The day was already planned out when we reached the uni so I will talk (well... type) you through my day and how helpful I found the experience. 

9am: To begin the day, our group gathered outside our college gates ready to walk to the uni. Luckily, our destination was in a 20 minute walking distance so we weren't too exhausted from the seldom exercise by the time we got there. 

9:45am: This was when our day properly started as we were directed into a lecture room (a very fancy one, may I add) as this was where we were told how our day will go and what activities the helpful staff at the uni had planned for us relating to our EPQ. Until it was time to go on a tour of the library, we went through several powerpoints. The first one told us more about the university and the opportunities the newly constructed facilities provide for students and ordinary people, as well as informing us on how university is much different from college. The second powerpoint was a detailed tutorial on how to use the university's library catalogue system to find relevant books, articles and journals that could help us with our quest to find information. The lady showed us how to insert key words into the search engine in order to refine our search to make it as specific, useful, and relevant as possible. She also went through the different sources of research available to us in the library, as well as on the internet/computers, and the benefits and disadvantages of these sources which will help with my preliminary source evaluation. The last powerpoint was filled with information on referencing, including why is it important, the different types of referencing, and what to actually write when referencing a source of information. The lady told us about direct quoting and paraphrasing, the things we need to give reference to (e.g. images, diagrams, data, numbers), and what aspects to include in the reference (e.g. author's name, year of publication, publisher). After going through this information, we did an activity where we were given a book and an academic journal and we had to reference them with the help of a guide they gave to each of us.

11:30am: This was the part I was looking forward to the most ... THE LIBRARY TOUR! As an English Literature student and a lover of books you can imagine how excited I was to be in a building of millions of books. I may have exaggerated that number but I was beyond excited and ready to explore. There are seven floors to the library ... SEVEN FLOORS! Totally beats our library of just one floor. I couldn't help but look around with my chin practically touching the floor in amazement at all the books that were waiting for me to get my hands on them. And there were so many computers and study areas, and a reading room! I was honestly in heaven. 

12pm: Second best part of the day ... dinner time! We had pizza and chips. I chose chicken. Best decision I've made all year. Also, Chris had two pizzas, thinking we hadn't noticed. We did. Good attempt at being sneaky. 

1am: It was time to research! We were led into a separate computer room which allowed us to access the library catalogue search engine, therefore we could gather a list of relevant books to look for in the huge library. Also, the 'Summon' feature of the catalogue made it really easy for us to search for academic journals and articles that we could easily take a photo of to reread later on. This feature expanded our range of resources, presenting us with extra information and knowledge from different academics. After I collected a list of books to look for, as well as their location, we were taken into the library and let alone to find our targeted books. I didn't find the first novel I looked for as I believe someone had taken it or misplaced it but, in that area where it was supposed to be, I found other novels relating to Jane and Pride and Prejudice that were on my list so I took snaps of a few relevant pages from those books. Although the library system seemed quite complicated at first, I soon managed to understand it and began to find other books, now relating to 18/19th century Britain, really easily. Half an hour, I hopped back in the lift to rejoin my group, ready to head back to college to catch the bus. 

3pm: Back to college we went!

All in all, it was a really helpful and informative day as I managed to collect a bunch of sources to read through and evaluate, and hopefully find some juicy information that will help with my project. In terms of motivation, using different resources and finding information relating to my project, as well as looking at referencing and the benefits of completing an EPQ, has reinforced that excitement I first felt when I heard about this qualification, which has made me feel charged with motivation to delve into my project research and other tasks waiting to be completed. Hopefully this is not a short-term feeling. 

On that note, until next time!

Research, research, research

Tomorrow our EPQ class is visiting the library located at the University of Hull as we will then have access to a huge number and range of resources that may help us with our research. I think this will benefit me massively as I have been struggling with finding a starting point within my research so I believe having access to thousands of books and resources will inspire me on where to start my research and the direction I want to take it in. I know the areas that I want my research to focus on, but actually finding a specific area to begin with is difficult. As we are heading there tomorrow, I thought I would take the opportunity to utilise the free time I have tonight to search for resources using the uni's library online catalog. So far, I have been quite successful as I have managed to gather a list of books and essays that are relevant to my project that I will specifically look for tomorrow. As well as searching for resources, I am continuing with my preliminary source evaluation that I started last week so hopefully I'll get that done tonight.

I decided to create a preliminary resource evaluation table in order to see which resources I will mainly rely on during my research by comparing their reliability and usefulness, and also how they will fit into the body of my study. Of course, by doing this I am not excluding a particular resource completing from use within my project. I plan on finding useful information from a range of resources, however I think that evaluating different types of resources as a preliminary action will make my research that more efficient and beneficial. Here are the headings of the table:

Resource

Positives

Drawbacks

How frequently do I plan to use this type of resource during my research?

I also created a LITERARY REVIEW TABLE which I forgot to update you on so here are the headings for that too:

Title, type of source, date published

Author (and credentials)

Relevance to topic

Reliability

What are the main ideas?

How do I intend to use the information in the body of my project?

I believe this table will ensure that I evaluate every piece of literature I use as thoroughly as possible, therefore when it comes to using the information within the body of the project, I can easily see the most useful and reliable sources that I will most likely use. Moreover, I may use colour coordinate the ones which I think will be most useful to me so it will be even easier for me to identify the sources that are most useful to me.

Anyway, I'll be back soon with a log on how tomorrow went!

Making A Start?

Since I submitted my proposal and Ethical Approval Form, our EPQ sessions have been very independent and subjective as we have now started to look for literature works that are relevant to our project which we can use as part of our research. Chris, our supervisor, has allowed us to spend our sessions searching for relevant information relating to our project while frequently recommending to us several research methods and tools we can use to make sure our findings are specifically relevant to the topic of our project, such as Google Scholar. Before we broke off for half term, he also dedicated one session to telling us about Gantt charts and several other planning techniques we may want to use to plan out our research and upcoming tasks. This was helpful as it led me to start planning my own Gantt chart which I found difficult to do at first but I think I'm understanding now. It also encouraged me to start planning out my next tasks so I can look at the objectives I need to complete, as well as the ones I need to prioritise.

To help me with my research, I have also created a list of research topics since my last post as I believe this assist me hugely when researching for specific areas.

Here are some of the topics on that list:

• Jane Austen's background; family life, social class, relationships, key beliefs
• Era of Jane Austen; key events, Regency England, Romanticism movement 
• Themes in Pride and Prejudice
• Role of women
• Marriage/economic security
• Portrayal of main characters and their relationships
• Austen's aims when writing the novel
• Feminist/marxism criticisms of the novel

Furthermore, here are a few of the websites and pieces of literature I have managed to find relating to my project: 

• https://www.college.columbia.edu/core/node/1765 - Historical context on late 18th century 
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/prosegreatexpect/0prose_greatexpect_contrev4.shtml - the 19th century social, historical, and cultural setting 
• http://www.britainexpress.com/History/Early-19th-century-Literature.htm  
• http://www.janeausten.org/jane-austen-biography.asp &  
• http://www.pemberley.com/janeinfo/janelife.html  - Jane Austen biography  
• http://www.janeausten.org/jane-austen-timeline.asp

• British Women in the Nineteenth Century / Thompson, Dorothy KG  (1989) 
• Ninteenth century Britain 1815-1914  /  WILLIS, Michael  (1990) 
• Feminism for beginners  /  WATKINS, Susan Alice ,  RUEDA, Marisa  &  RODRIGUEZ, Marta  (1992) 
• Feminism  /  SAUL, Jennifer  (2003) 
• Jane Austen, Feminism and Fiction – Margaret Kirkham