This blog is an experiment in using blogs in higher education. Most of the experiments done here are the first of their kind at least in India. I wish this trend catches on.... The Blog is dedicated to Anup Dhar and Lawrence Liang whose work has influenced many like me . . . .
Friday, November 05, 2010
Thursday, November 04, 2010
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Phd Advanced Research Methodology - Standard Style Scholarly Writing Resource
4. Online resource for ACS style University of California, Berkeley
1. Download the AIP Style Manual. 4th ed from American Institute of Physics (Pdf document)
2. AIP Style Manual resource from Gustavus Adolphus College.
2. Purdue Online Writing Lab Resource
2. Online Resource on The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers. 7th ed by Northwest Missouri State University
3. A quick Guide to The CSE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers. 7th ed. (Pdf document)
Phd Advanced Research Methodology MLA Guidelines for Scholarly Writing
If you have any questions or comments or supporting ideas to share regarding the various issues discussed yesterday Academic writing do post them in the comment section below this post.
I will put up links to some of the issues discussed there including links to the Citation styles for science and law streams.
I enjoyed the time I spent with you. Thank you for the wonderful experience.
Warmly
anil
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
MPhil General Research Methodology Oct 2010 - Academic Writing
Shortly I will give links to resourceful websites on various issues I discussed on Academic Writing. Keep checking this page for updates.
In the meantime, feel free to give your feedback on the Academic Writing classes.
Warmly
anil
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
MPhil General Research Methodology 25 Oct 2010 - Academic Writing Classnotes
- Works Cited, Reference and Bibliography are commonly used words while writing a thesis.
- Works Cited and Reference mean one and the same. Reference is the term used in the APA (American Psychology Association).
- Bibliography: This is a list of books which may have helped you in writing the thesis directly or indirectly. It also contains works cited.
- While writing a thesis we lay down our arguments on certain strong foundations. If half of the thesis is based on that has already gone into the field of research, the other half is built referring to the work already done.
- During research we have to be careful not to plagiarize. If a thought or ideas is taken from another author and you try to pass it off as your own without giving credit to the original author it is plagiarism. The word plagiarism comes from the Greek word-plagiarius meaning to kidnap. The consequences of plagiarism are many. The chances of plagiarism detection are higher with UGC is requesting all universities to put all the thesis submitted to them on INFLIBNET
- Plagiarism may be intentional or unintentional.
- Avoid unintentional plagiarism.
- Presenting someone else’s idea as your own or paraphrasing it and then, presenting it as your own also constitutes plagiarism.
“The lack of distribution of food grains caused
If it is reproduced as “In fact the main reason for the great
To avoid plagiarism the same idea could be presented thus giving credit to the writer. E.g. “According to Amartya Sen the main reason for the great
If it is exact words then use quotes“ ”. E.g. According to Amartya Sen “The lack of distribution of food grains caused
- The principle of Citation is: Move the idea forward with minimum distraction and maximum precision.
- One should never plagiarize as it is injustice to the person who formulated the idea. Apart from that one’s thinking as well as his/her personality remains unexposed.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
MPhil General Research Methodology 19 Oct 2010 - Academic Writing Classnotes
In the fourth session of academic writing the following areas were touched upon and discussed in detail.
- Area of study----E. g., if the major area is psychology, one needs to specify whether its child psychology or developmental psychology or social psychology and so on.
- The key elements--- main focus in your research.
- Methodology/Approach
Friday, October 22, 2010
MPhil General Research Methodology 18 Oct 2010 - Academic Writing Classnotes
Topics covered
- Thesis Statement.
- Structure of Dissertation.
- Preview.
- Heading (E.g. Proposal for M. Phil. English Studies dissertation).
- Tentative Title
- Objectives
- Methodology. (Analytical, what are the theories used to prove a phenomenon).
- Chapter Divisio:
- Chapter 1: Introduction
- Chapter 2: Literature Review
- Chapter 3: Research Design and Methodology. (Crucial for Qualitative Research. Must mention why one has chosen this sample or this particular phenomenon. Tools and testing techniques have to be established.)
- Chapter 4: Findings / Deduction / Analysis
- Chapter 5: Conclusion.
- Works cited/reference
- Appendix/ces
- Limitations: Time cannot be a part of the limitations
- Selected Bibliography: Works that are crucial for your research. Key texts crucial for the formulation of your research questions should be mentioned especially recent works.
- Heading
- Title
- Abstract (Summary of the entire proposal. 150 -350 words.)
- Introduction (State Research problem. Give the context of the research problem and then evolve the major issues of your research and then come to a specific issue. E.g. This research will find out….)
- Need for the study
- Methodology (Research background. Quantitative research will include the hypothesis which one must prove or disapprove. Qualitative Research will include Thesis which is normally one line. Research questions and objectives are also a part of methodology)
- Chapter division.
- Budget (If it is a funded research)
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Feminism
Feminism is not a singular ideological viewpoint. Rather it is a collective term for a set of ideas and theories that pay special attention to women's rights and women's position in society. Many theorists talk of many 'Feminisms' as these theories engage with a various other areas such as linguistics, psychoanalysis, Marxism, poststructuralism, cultural studies, postcolonial theory, queer theory and gender studies. In the context of our syllabus, we focus on two major kinds of feminism, namely Pre-poststructuralist Feminism and Poststructuralist Feminism.
Pre-poststructuralist Feminism
- One of the most important works of this strand of feminism is Mad Woman in the Attic by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar.
- In this work, they examine the Western literary tradition and say that the word 'woman' in connection with 'writer'.
- Gilbert and Gubar talk of a metaphorical connection between 'pen' and 'penis' that seems to have created such a tradition and limited women writers.
- They explore different possible causes for this: (1) it could be because of the anxiety created by unsure paternity (not knowing whether they are really biologically related to their children) or (2) it might be a reaction to the threat of castration.
- Works of such feminists radically altered the way we think about women and literature. As a result, today works of many women writers have been raised to a canonical stature.
Poststructuralist Feminism
- Though Gilbert and Gubar questioned male dominance in literature, they did not question writing itself.
- Important theorists of this strand of feminism are Helen Cixous, Luce Irigaray and Julia Kristeva (French Feminists); Judith Butler and Dona Haraway (American).
- There are also some Indian women who have contributed to the feminist theory by pointing at the gaps of Western theories.
- Mary E. John, Tejaswini Niranjan, Sussie Tharu and others argue that Western theories do not fully explain the Indian scenario. So, they seek to fill the gaps so we might be able to get a holistic view.
Helen Cixous
- Cixous picks up Lacan's idea that women and men enter the Symbolic order differently.
- She talks about Western cultural structures as 'Phallogocentric' meaning a system composed of binaries such as man/woman, day/night, culture/nature, etc. and the concepts on the left side of the slash are preferred more.
- It is a combination of two concepts namely Phallic (Freud) and Logocentric (Derrida).
- Then, Cixous gives a metaphor of the theatre where men are closer to the centre and women are on the periphery.
- So, it is easier for the women to escape the authority of the centre or Phallus.
- Men on the other hand suffer because of they do not have the possibility of escape. They do not have access to their own sexuality because it is defined in limiting terms.
- Cixous further says that most women write from a masculine position because they are caught in the phallogocentric system.
- Therefore, she talks of the concept of l'ecriture feminine as feminine writing. This according to Cixous is possible only in poetry because it does not rely on stable signifiers.
- She further talks about the concept of jouissance.
- She says that women must find their own sexuality, one that is rooted in their own bodies and write about that pleasure, which she calls jouissance.
- She does not want to define such feminine writing because that goes back to the idea of stable signifiers.
- Cixous favours poetry because it allows for such feminine writing. Novel on the other hand is more direct and based on stable signifiers.
- 'The Laugh of the Medusa' is one of Cixous' most important works where she looks at the myth of Medusa,a woman with snakes for hair and whose stare can turn men into stone.
- She argues that snakes represent a lot of phallus which is fearful to men.
- She upturns the Freudian idea of female sexuality that is defined be a sense of lack or absence. She characterizes female sexuality as complete and not as an absence of phallus.
Luce Irigaray
- Irigaray carries forward some of Cixous' arguments specifically finding a link between language and bodies.
- In her essay 'The Sex Which Is Not One', she argues that female sexuality has always been defined in male terms.
- She points out that this is flawed because we are focused on finding one single female sexual organ and the visual is given more preference over the other senses. So, vagina is seen as absence.
- Irigaray further says that a woman's sexuality is based on touch and she is complete unlike the man.