Week 43: Another chapter written this time on tradition

Maximum number of words:	80,000
Words typed so far:	74181
Words typed this week:	3545
Words lost this week:	0
Total increase:	0
Days I managed to write this week:	3

Yes this feels impressive. I am actually smiling as I type this blog, I have spent much of the bank holiday weekend working on this chapter and I have it finished. I know what the argument I am making in this chapter and I am starting to think both on how it draws on the previous chapters and will in turn be drawn upon in the final chapter.

Now I have written it I can see that this chapter is very much about the big approach to the idea of identity, the next one is going to be about the small approach to the idea of identity, about the ways in which members shape themselves and the congregation in  order to create its identity. I hope to be able to do something similar with it.

The final chapter therefore works out on how to blend and work the whole thing together so as to create an understanding that encompasses both the big and the small. I am being forced into tackling this because I have studied congregation and congregations are neither as small as individuals nor as large as nations. The big scale stuff works very well when looking at a large scale but often fails to deal with the small scale things and the small scale things down build up too well for the large scale. There are similarities but an adequate understanding of what is going on in a congregation has to find a way to meld the two in a way that makes sense.

I am however taking this coming week off writing, not off thesis just writing, instead I will be correcting my final data chapter and sending all of them off to the congregations. As well as preparing for my next supervision. That seems to me to be plenty to do in the week. Oh I also would like to be able to sort out my registering for the University next year but that depends on the University.

Week 42: Better progress on the history narrative of the tradition

Maximum number of words:	80,000
Words typed so far:	70636
Words typed this week:	2975
Words lost this week:	0
Total increase:	0
Days I managed to write this week:	4

I know that chart seems to have come along a lot since last time but please remember that last weeks was no updated but I have done this week. The increase of 2975 is mainly writing history of the tradition. Some things have been very satisfying with doing this. I have actually spent quite a bit of time checking dates and such and what can be said is that I basically had the narrative in the right order even when I did not know the dates off the top of my head. I probably need to put more Scottish stuff in. The Campbellites as seceders from the Presbyterian churches for instance, rather than just a random American sect.

More difficult has been the task has been the knowing when to cite and when to write. I have a tendency  to want to put "William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066 at Hastings (Yeatman, R.J and Appleby S, 1931)", I am at present working on the idea that if my source is Wikipedia it does not need to be cited, if I want to cite something I need to find another source (this is not difficult). Most of the time that means I do not cite anything much. However I do have a tendency to check and double check. This is really a sign that I am slightly out of my area and do not know where I have to cite and where I do not need to.

I have two things still to do, firstly put in more Scottish history, there are bits missing that might be useful (such as secession of the Campbellites) and also the twentieth century. There really is not much to say of the Twentieth century other than stead decline. Maybe a bit about ecumenism but also the loss of civic space due to various things. Democracy and the democratic agenda might also be of interest, what do you do when people outside the church are not used to functioning on committees and your church does.

Finally no I do not have only 10,000 words to write, I have overwritten a lot. At least not too badly on this last piece, I think I may need to loose 1000 but I need to write the next section and then come back. Also at present I am very tired and getting the words out is not easy, I really hope with my extended weekend next weekend I am able to both rest and get this chapter into some sort of shape.


Yeatman R.J & Appleby S (1964 reprint) "1066 and All That" London: Penguin

Week 41: Struggling with emphasis and detail

Maximum number of words:	80,000
Words typed so far:	67,661
Words typed this week:	2363
Words lost this week:	0
Total increase:	0
Days I managed to write this week:	4

I know that is last weeks photo and I will change the picture later!
 
It looks like I am getting back into my stride but this is detailed work, very detailed work. I think I have the basics of my argument around the nature of tradition  having actually sat down and revised Foucault, Weber and Althusser but I could do with some depth on the nature of collective memory as I need to work out whether there is anything more there than I already have. I suspect there isn't but I would still be interested in any theory of collective memory that is not solely word based.

The other thing is writing the tradition is very detailed work. It is not that I do not know it, but that usually I know it and don't bother with sources. I am therefore having to chase various sources to give a hint to the fact it is not just me stating things. The other thing is I have maybe four thousand words to write an account of it and that is it. So I have to be very selective. Am I for instance going to include John Owen. He is without doubt important, but what emphasis do I put on Ecclesiology within the discussion. Something are important lay involvement for instance but mainly necessity drives the English Reformed Church into it style of church government and we are far more pragmatic than our Scottish neighbours about it.

Week 40: Slow progress as I change writing mode

Maximum number of words:	80,000
Words typed so far:	64,103
Words typed this week:	1195
Words lost this week:	0
Total increase:	0
Days I managed to write this week:	3

Slow progress this week, I think there are a number of reasons for this. Firstly I have had a supervision, this does not always cut down the number of words written but when it happens mid-week and marks a change of direction in what I need to be writing then I technically only get half the week to write the experimental stuff. This means the ideas are not flowing at all well by the end of the week.

Secondly there is the change in direction, or rather in the style of what I am writing. Last week I wrote a theoretical piece and this week I am starting to write the theoretical writing big time. In this I am engaging with a number of the big thinkers and begin to ask whether their ideas can be applied to the issues I am talking about. The intriguing thing is that because I am theorising at middle level I tend to find it difficult to find theorists who actually talk at the level I am working. There are plenty who work at the scale of the individual and plenty who work at the societal level but those who work theoretically between those two are few and far between. That is not to say there are not those who work at those levels but their main concern seems to be to provide solutions not necessarily to understand what is going on. It was my frustration with being told that A was the problem and if we did X+Y then Z would be the outcome and finding that though we tried our best to do X & Y, Z did not follow, in fact there were resistances to doing X & Y, which started me off on this research in the first place. I thought a proper diagnosis, i.e. one that treats a situation holistically rather than provides a quick answer might be a good starting point.

Anyway today was Althusser's turn and I managed to read the relevant article and write about it. Next the challenge is to look at Foucault. These provide partial but not complete answers and I am probably going to have to look at social memory as well. Really there is nobody who has theorised what a tradition is, it is accepted as unproblematic, but I am going to have to make it up as I go along because when I look at it, it is anything but unproblematic. It fits into my full working model but at the moment I am not ready to disclose that.

Oh the chapter which is on tradition has changed completely, it now therefore consists of section on what is a Tradition (capital T deliberate) a description of the precise tradition and finally the engagement by the congregations with the tradition. All that in 10,000 words instead of 15,000 on the middle section.