Week 17: Well still writing despites cold and computers interfering

Maximum number of words: 80,000
Words typed so far:33,912
Words typed this week: 3068
Words lost this week: 0
Total increase: 3068
Days I managed to write this week: 4

This won't be long, as you can see a pretty credible increase this week, indeed I actually have not written up all I have drafted, my head became too fuzzy to concentrate due to a cold. The cold is a pain in several ways. It stopped me going into work on Friday which would not matter but it meant that I could not pick up my new router, which as my old one went defunct due to the prelude to a powercut means my internet connection is quite low. Although I am at present feeling like grumbling about this, it may be a good thing in that it allows me to get through more reading which I really need to. Does any doctoral student get enough time to do all the reading they need to.

The good news is that despite this I have found a place in Barth where he states the standard Reformed understanding on sacred space. No this is not new take on Barth, nor is Barth being particularly clever rather he is just the only Reformed theologian to actually think it was worth writing about, after all there was no controversy, you learnt it at Sunday School and that was that.

Next week I am going to have to re-write my stuff around theory and space. I don't think I did it particularly well first time through but now having written most of the rest of the chapter I think I may have a better idea of what I need to write. I need to check through several things and there are things I need to include that I excluded.

February's Supervision: Some progress

Another month and another annual progress review through, probably the last one of this PhD. Intriguingly my supervisor suggested that I was ahead as is another student, as by my calculations I am slightly over time, there is obviously an unspoken assumption that despite the way the degree is set up, that it is a four year full time course or eight year part time.

Martin took me through the first section of my location chapter in detail, I am going to have to do some major re-writing, I may even take the first section to writers group. Actually I may need to take one piece to my writers group, it is descriptive but the description does not work. The next section needs a major rewrite so both proof readers can expect to get it again. I need somehow to pull in more of the information that I actually know but have not put down.

On the other thing my actual section on describing the congregations seems to be fine, although I need to intensify the theorising that is in the sections I have written but did not take to this supervision, yes another chapter is almost written. So I am beginning to think of the next chapter.

The methodology is put down to mature, it is still too long (although shorter than it was) and I really have to decide what is essential to have in and what is just noise. The problem in some ways is I work as a Methodologist and it is getting me going on the topics I am very good at. Similarly with my review, I was aware that I do an awful lot of methodological development totally informally, I have to for my job but how to categorise that in a review sheet.

Anyway in the next month I really should finish the location chapter and be starting the chapter on community. This will be interesting, it relies more heavily on the interviews that other parts, there is more literature around and I will need to explore further. It all works together to make and interesting time.

The picture by the way is of the University of Birmingham main library, it is building I have never actually been in. I have been in the one out at Selly Oak and I do use their online resources but have never physically been into the main library.

Week 16: finally got to grips with part of the editing of my methodology chapter

Maximum number of words: 80,000
Words typed so far:30,844
Words typed this week: 2720
Words lost this week: 2321
Total increase: 399
Days I managed to write this week: 4

Yes I managed to cut over two thousand words from my methodology chapter! Most of the time it was looking for when I put in stutters because I was not confident of what I was saying. The indicator for the stutter was usually the first person singular pronoun, that is I was using "I" rather a lot. Indeed sometimes I used it in places where it was positively unhelpful. For instance I did it when I was paraphrasing someone else's work to indicate it was my interpretation. It drew attention to me when basically I should have been taking a back seat. I have since found another one, I use "the fact" when either it is unnecessary or I mean something else such as "evidenced" etc.  Spotting these nervous ticks as a writer is the start of improving one's writing.

Other than that my location chapter is getting going. I also have two note books, one for each placement and in them I am making notes about how I am writing them up because there is a fair amount of fictionalisation required so as not to make obvious to rather a lot of people who exactly said what. It also makes things easier for the reader to follow if their are fewer people. I think I have got the introduction sorted, there is now a section on carparking written. Why isn't there any theology of Carparking, I can't even find a book on the use of the car within congregational studies yet surely the car has had a very profound way on the way we do church.

Other than that I have a supervision this week and so have had to get papers ready for that. We shall see what I end up doing next week. I am now writing about buildings and such. Done the bit about domains, now I need to look at the style.

Week 15: Writing going more fluently, just wish I was as good at cutting words

Maximum number of words: 80,000
Words typed so far:30,445
Words typed this week: 3103
Words lost this week: 581
Total increase: 2422
Days I managed to write this week: 4

It looks a good week and it was writing wise. I am realising the section I am at present writing of my location chapter will take about 4,000 words. I wrote 4,000 this week, there are six and a half thousand in the previous and another section to go for this data chapter. If you look carefully at the triskele you will see the start of filling in the next sub-branch on this branch. I only put one or two pieces on but you can see them.

What is being hidden in these numbers although there is that I actually still need to loose a lot of words. I have now started to find them and know what I am looking for. I had accidentally got into the habit of reminding people rather regularly that it was me that was writing. Now the thesis is written in the first person, that is fairly normal for this sort of thesis but there is no need to have a reminder that it is me every couple of lines and often these reminders are quite verbose. They need cutting and I am going to have to get rid of them! That will mean hunting during the week as the proof reader who offered to do this for me has not got back. Also I note he does not know what to look for now but I do so maybe I should just get on and do it.. The reason it is so little is I had a minor migraine yesterday which meant both the writing and the editing has had to be fitted into today.

The other good news is my NVivo files are ready and being used in anger. So the only thing I have done so far is look for something specific in my diary. I have a lot more work to do on interviews, videos and pictures. I also have two analysis books, these are books where I make notes on the congregations that appear in my thesis. The need to anonymise and present in narrative form means that I have to alter considerably the details and I am not going to remember them all in precisely unless I have notes in a journal about who is who. Even so I seem to have far too many people.

Week 14: Location is becoming to come together

Maximum number of words: 80,000
Words typed so far:27,923
Words typed this week: 2326
Words lost this week: 786
Total increase: 1540
Days I managed to write this week: 4

Sorry if those numbers aren't quite right. I have just found out that I have been counting the words wrong. The 80,000 is excluding all footnotes and I have been including footnotes Duh! There thus has been corrections to my numbers.

The chapter on location and the way congregations interact with that as part of their identity is coming along slowly. There definitely is an interaction between the congregations own understanding of who it is, and the location but it is not deterministic. I am also getting a feel for what I need to write. It is intriguing trying to present two anonymised congregations in something like their complexity. I am having to keep a notebook of whose who and what characteristics I have given them. I will get what I have written off to one of my proofreaders today.

Yes this is Saturday mid day. I have not finished for the weekend, what I am going to do is put my data into NVivo and try and start sorting through it. Or at least put some of the data in, there are about four box files of other stuff, plus I am waiting for a notebook to be returned. So still plenty to be done. I guess the first thing is to try and code things for each of the three big themes.