"Rather to fail with honor than to succeed with fraud." - Sophocles
Quote from Antigone:
Έρωςανίκατεμάχαν
Wonders are many on earth, and the greatest of these Is man, who rides the ocean and takes his way Through the deeps, through wind-swept valleys of perilous seas That surge and sway. He is master of ageless Earth, to his own will bending The immortal mother of gods by the sweat of his brow, As year succeeds to year, with toil unending Of mule and plough. He is lord of all things living; birds of the air, Beasts of the field, all creatures of sea and land He taketh, cunning to capture and ensnare With sleight of hand; Hunting the savage beast from the upland rocks, Taming the mountain monarch in his lair, Teaching the wild horse and the roaming ox His yoke to bear. The use of language, the wind-swift motion of brain He learnt; found out the laws of living together In cities, building him shelter against the rain And wintry weather. There is nothing beyond his power. His subtlety Meeteth all chance, all danger conquereth. For every ill he hath found its remedy, Save only death.
Sophocles
Sophocles (Σοφοκλής) (around 496 – 495 until c. 406) BC, born in the town of Colonus, a village not far from Athens. Sophocles is the second of the three great Athenian tragic poets, and the one with whose plays we are most familiar: the names of Ajax, Antigone, and Oedipus are well-known. Of his 118 plays (some sources as the Suda say 123 plays), however, only seven remain, in which people are confronted with extremely difficult situations.
Fortunate Sophocles who after a long life died, a happy and a gifted man after writing many fine tragedies he made a good end, having endured no evil.Phrynichas
First ever (I claim so after googled!) pictorial explanation on step-by-step how to do a literature review.
I come up with this while looking at the articles while typing my thoughts into words onto my Microsoft Word.
Here I use an article as example.
開始する!
1. Ping style of reviewing literature is bymaking notes while reading. You can choose to use a ball pen or pencil. No need to read the rest of this entry if you dislike to do conteng on your books and articles----like my hubby >_<
2. If you come across with a point which is similar or contra with other book/article you've read, write down the name of the author and the title of the book/article so that you can compare notes and writing about your discovery of contradicting/similar point of view by different authors.
3. Noting any unfamiliar writing style you come across and highlighting it by drawing a star or an arrow (my style) or any other symbols that mean something to you. Be sure to check the writing style of the author with your University Writing Guide/Style.
4. If you like how the author organizing his/her/their writing, drawing some symbols and writing down the way you are going to organize your own writing
Here I put a black arrow head and make sure I will "form a paragraph arguing 2 opposing views" like the author did in this paragraph.
5. Here I like the way how the author connecting his paragraphs on the related-ideas. Some people tend to write a paragraph that will span one-Good-Lord A4-page because we thought an idea should be fined to one paragraph. But there are more brilliant ways to connect your ideas. Learn them from brilliant people.
6. Noting points that are super relevant to your study that you MUST write them into your thesis (Literature Review or Chapter writing).
7. All in the sudden you have sea of ideas, WRITE THEM DOWN immediately! If your PC or laptop is on you can type them out immediately. If not, save the time of turning on your laptop and write them down on the blank space of the book/article. By the time you are waiting for your laptop turning on and opening up Microsoft Word, your flight of ideas all GONE already.
If not enough, can continue on next page some more.
8. Ask questions as you read (and write them down!). The more the better---> you are reviewing them!
9. Express your emotion as you read. In this case, I was making crying faces because I am upset by some evidences provided T_T
10. When there are pages you left blank without any scratches, read them for a tripleor quadruple times to make sure there is no information you REALLY need out of these pages. A must-do especially if that article is exceptionally relevant and important to your research. Clean pages are rare for me because I'm gonna make sure I'm not gonna waste my time in the future to read the clean pages ;p
11. I found a sentence which may be an important evidence on the point I am trying to argue. Look for the footnote/endnote/references for that particular point. If the author makes no reference to that point, mark a WHERE? (my style)besides the line(s) so that you will attempt to look for it in other documents. When found, take out this copy of article again and marked "FOUND in xyz's document" or just simply write/type the evidence found into your Word document right away.
12. Mark how the author repeated his/her point.
13. Points are hierarchical. Ranging from "important" to "VIP" to "VVIP" and the list goes on.
This point is obviously VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY important to moi.
14. Making fun of some facts out of boredom, in a serious way.
15. Question the points the author made, again and again, tiredlessly. Remember you have to do a critiquing analysis in literature review as well.
16. Checking out some good authors in the list of footnotes and references.
17. Checking the documents that are useful and GET them. Conclusion: At the end of the scratching, make sure you've jotted down all relevant thoughts. The next time you touch this article or book again, you are NOT going to read the paragraphs and pages again, but only the notes you made and the lines you draw. DON'T HIGHLIGHTthe whole paragraph. "Summarize" the whole paragraph in a sentence or a few words or simply underline not more than 5 words from one paragraph. The less you underline/highlight, it shows the more understanding you gained through reading and thinking.
Typed the result of your scratching (which happens to be your own thoughts, your original ideas) into the Word document.
Voila!
P/S: This blog is dedicated to "Say no to Procrastination" spirit. On the procrastination part of doing literature review, click HERE.
Although my boss had gave me a 'go' on my current proposal, fear arose as I am preparing for research grant application. In order to convince the institutions and the overseas advisor on my research, I suddenly fear that my proposal is, or seen as:
Not an original idea Rationale is weak Writing is vague Uncertain outcomes Does not have relevant experience Problem is not important Proposal is unfocused Project is too large.
Title inspired by L'Arc~en~Ciel's Ready steady go. (humming the music while writing this post)
Meeting with supervisor today and my work is set for panel meeting in August. What I need to complete before the meeting is now bettering my thesis overview, research question, chapter outline, and research schedule (which I've done all of them, but, being a perfectionist nothing is really good enough, especially when it comes to something as crucial as candidature confirmation!). Plus a 10,000-word writing, in my case would be the literature review (the most difficult writing in terms of critiquing skill and should be written in the best academic manner possible).
My boss is going to write my half-year progress report for UKM. I was told to apply for Korea Foundation's research grant (deadline 31 July), and file the ethics approval application to Research and Graduate Studies Office (RGSO) simultaneuosly. It could take up to three months or more to get ethics approval, which my boss quipped: "sometimes asking for money is easier than getting ethics approval". After hearing and learning experiences in the research ethics workshop for Social Sciences postgraduates in the past months, I agree on that.
Things to be accomplished before end of August:
Polished research proposal (Chapter 1)
Literature review (chapter 2)
Panel meeting in late August
Korea Foundation research grant application
Ethics approval application
Much anticipated September until November:
Candidature confirmation following the outcome of panel meeting
Proceed to Chapter 3 and 4's writing organization
Grant approval (will be notified in November if successful; if failed, proceed to plan B: Texas A&M University's research grant)
Ethics approval (may be notified in October or November)
If God's willing, may the study progress well and that I am able to graduate in the shortest time span possible. I want to go back to Malaysia, badly. With hubby's encouragement, everything seems possible. Thanks for being my great personal and academic adviser during the hard time. Your presence is the greatest motivation a wife could ask for and always pull my feet back on the ground or pull me up while I'm drowning in the sea of academic depression (the research shows depression leads to lower academic achievement, cut it out people) so that I can stay as a down-to-earth person during every phase of my study here. Thank you so much darling.
Not an original idea