Attended the launch of our undergraduate research opportunity scheme today, which went very well. One of the speakers was a former student who had just completed his own MA. He gave us a nice quote which rings true. – “Research is about not knowing what the hell you’re doing” (Or something like that. I don’t remember the exact phrase) But it certainly felt like that over the past five years, (Still does!)

Well, actually no it doesn’t. I think I do know what I’m doing, although at the risk of sounding like an over eager Victorian curate,  I do have doubts all the time. I wonder, for example whether I can really make a convincing conceptual framework out of the functional, structural and behavioural models of the University. It’s just that there’s so much to write about in each model, and I can’t see how I’m going to get it all within the word limit. Or anywhere near. Yes, certainly, if a word, sentence or paragraph isn’t focussed on the research questions then get rid of it, but that’s still nowhere near short enough. I suppose the next thing might be to lose one or more of the research questions. But having spent so much time justifying why they’re important, I’m a bit reluctant to do that either.  Although of course, once you start writing you can lose focus and get carried away and start pontificating. That’s one reason why we revise academic work,  I guess. I suspect that the secret is to be patient and see what I come out with.