Homar, who is here on a mission to help with COVID Vaccine roll-out and I had a long discussion about our PhD classes. We agreed that it has been amazing in the past year to see how much this new COVID environment has re-shaped our worlds. For me, it has not changed from one type of stress to another as it may have for many who have lost their jobs or find themselves working from home. In my case, our organization never closed down.
My training organization continued to see learners all throughout the pandemic and have had to adjust and change our responses based on the new guidelines and to keep our trainees safe. For a long while each day started with a COVID Strike Team meeting that focused on how we as an organization were responding to the events of the pandemic. Thankfully, we are "almost" back to normal. Still, it has certainly changed everyone's "day-to-day" stress levels around here and how we prioritize our lives. COVID is a trump card so to speak. Everything lately has been viewed first through the lens of COVID.
Regarding your discussion introduction on plagiarism. When I first started writing papers for these classes I enjoyed quoting from experts and from articles. I am a very black and white person. I don't have a problem with reading direct quotes as long as they are assimilated well. Too often the quote changes the writing style and tone and can make for a more disjoint reading. BUT, I do enjoy having the direct quote. The more I write in class however, the more I see that framing ideas and quotes in our own words is more the accepted form of practice (perhaps I'm wrong). This is certainly an area where I have lost some sleep. One of my favorite authors when I was in high school was Stephen E. Ambrose. When he was accused of Plagiarism in 2002 for passages in The Wild Blue, I saw how his career fell on ignominy. Was it purposeful? Was it willful? I would like to think not, but then other articles tend to show he might have done this throughout his academic career.
Regarding mastering writing and technique. I read through The Dissertation Journey prior to the start of class and now go back to check notes and re-read as necessary. I've been having trouble with refining my question or research question and writing an introduction. Re-reading last night I ran into the funnel technique described in Chapter 8. "To help you focus your introduction, first, draw a large funnel and fill it in to help you visually focus your topic. The top of the funnel begins with an introduction, a description of the general area to be studied. Next, identify a more specific problem within the general area. Say why this problem is important to study and specify what is already known about the problem. Then, specify what is not known about the problem that is important to study. Finally, state a specific purpose statement in one or two sentences followed by research questions that guide the study" (Roberts & Hyatt, p. 99). Having re-familiarized myself with this technique, it's helped me re-simplify my writing.
References
Roberts, C. & Hyatt, L. (2019). The dissertation journey (3rd edition). Corwin Press.
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