Research title: first and foremost

Struggling, struggling & struggling! I am now drafting and schedulling my research thesis structure with Microsoft project professional. This is a good software for a project planning to be completed on time. With this schedule, it is my highest hope to see everything will goes smoothly as planned and I got to be optimistic.

For the past few months I 've been thinking hard on the research title as the title was in the broad understanding of new media. I've come to a stage where I couldn't fix the title to be narrowed as much as possible. (My topic is to examine the psychological effects of children's learning in new media convergence world) But, it was so lucky that due to the professionalism of my supervisors since day one, they instructed me to read, examine and argue literature review writings from the secondary sources available based on 'dialogue' and technology relating to children which I've followed. Normally, he reads my writing and gives his comments besides conducted Q & A on it. He did that to make sure I understand fully what I was mentioning in the writing. Most of the time, I was told to be careful and think deeply before I decided to read and write. I should say that it was a slow phase to phase of supervision as I was trying my very best to fit in and familiarising the research scope at the beginning. The supervisions were conducted mostly once a week in the first 6 months. As I was only given a certain period of time to complete by MARA, I try my best fulfiling the supervision sessions and usually bring something/work for the sessions. By weekly basis, I show some progress such as: research bibliographies selection print, mind maps, rough thesis' structure, 3-5 pages of books' or journals' reviews or 5-10 pages of my own writing literature review based on secondary sources which I found very useful and extremely related to my research' topic. I was aware that I have to play the major role in this studies and therefore I've determined my research' title roughly in the beginning. This, has resulted me struggling in searching and reading the materials continuously. The process undeniably tough in the first 6 months as I was in the situation of unable to recognise which is which; book to purchase? to read? and to write? It was huge! Thus, everyday slowly and steadyly I spent 1st 6 months on researching articles, journals and books on these topics; learning technology, new media, dialogue for learning, psychology of children's development, media, social culture, media convergence, TV etc. It was really a matter of forcing my energy to the highest, read, write, consult, discuss, again and again. These processes actually remain the same untill now. At least, I get myself ready from time to time in examining and analysing my research.

I do not know about others; researchers whose planning their topics and scheduling their working methods, I supposed it is varied. Here, I am recommending you to make in such a way that research title is the first and foremost to fixed and confirmed if possible. You should begin with the research title/scope and try not to change it. Undoubtedly it takes time and hardwork. I guess most of the researchers fixed their title properly and then followed by researching literature review, conducting their methodology relating to their research requirements, then the research problem/question, contribution to knowledge and lastly conclusion. Aproximately 60,000 words altogether. This is the right flow of a thesis writing and it is the best if you could.

But, what I am trying to share here is that there are possibilities that you could be trapped in the same situation as I was. You could be confused with the 'big topic' where you are facing difficulties in narrowing it down to the exact field or scope that you are interested in. As this blog is dedicated to share, I would like to remind that if this happen to you, you are going to face risk later on. The reasons behind are: you may wasting lots of time in re-finding secondary sources, re-reading, re-writing etc. Looking at my case, fortunately it turns out OK because I've set/fixed a topic where the scope of the examination is on 'dialogue and children'. That said, all my writing so far were on 'dialogue and children', which means I can still use the writing no matter how many times I switched the object of the research. It was not my intention at all but it did happen, from time to time I was trying to keep the topic narrowed. It was because 'dialogue and children' are the main focus in this research, so it is just a matter of matching it with different perspective or scope of the 'technology' that I am interested in. Syukur setakat ni I can say that this matter is solved.

Last month, I was busy sending the appeal letter on the scholarship matter with MARA, I wrote to a few key people in charged described and explained my situation as I believe I deserved to appeal. Last month also put me and my husband in the miserable stage where the council of Welwyn & Hatfield insisted in instructing my husband to pay for the council tax. It was actually a mistakes as we are foreigners with visas on student and student dependent which we do not have to. Alhamdulillah, now that the matter is solved after I called the officer in charged and told her about my status. For any Malaysian students (pls note that there is a phrase written on your visa that you are stated as 'no recourse to public funds, which means you are exempted from paying council tax as you are not entitled to have public fund' supports in UK)

Now, I've been looking and searching for a studio to live as I 've decided to move from my current rent apartment. My daughter Sara is finishing her GCSE soon, she wants to have a break. We probably need to locate ourselves in a place nearer to town as I can just take the bus easily to University more often. I thought I wanted to make a routines going to school 5 days a week since there is a room, computers and office equipment has been placed for the research students.

For my friends out there, please plan nicely if you have the intention to visit UK/me as now the weather is good and you can stay at my place.. SPRING time now!! If you come here after August, I can't promise you on the place to stay since I am going to rent a studio only. I've seen the studio 2 days ago for a viewing arrangement with the agent, there are a small room AKA bedroom, a small kitchen and a bathroom. Takpelah, kita tengoklah camne nanti..itu pun belum tentu I ambik yg itu..ada lagi yg lain2 belum tgok..


To be continued....