Roadblocks
What do you do when you hit a roadblock?
It seems that I’ve been living with roadblocks throughout the course. I began well and had a lot of pre-course work completed, a lot of writing done about the topic, and a clear problem statement. Still when it came to writing during the course I hit roadblocks. These were both mental and physical.
Mental seemed to be getting my thoughts organized into a proper flow and get that flow down in writing. Physical was a series of neuromuscular issues that prevent long bouts of sitting and a more recent flooded basement.
The draft of the literature review is due in a few days and I am working hard to get my final thoughts organized. The funnel technique is working very well. In fact, it is having n unseen benefit in helping to organize my Zotero notes. I’ve taken prior writings in this area and moving them into the literature review, as well as the gap analysis paper. Both are helping to flesh out my ideas.
Over the next day I will put the final touches on my reading. I’ve been painstakingly looking for other resources in the literature. Essentially, there are commonly drawn on sources and I need to incorporate those to give the paper weight and to use primary sources (per APA and UOP wishes).
This weekend is the big push on writing. I’ve prepared my family for the long hours of writing, I have a chiropractor appointment on Saturday AM to better prepare my back for the long sessions of the weekend, and I am cleaning my office up for a stress free environment. There is even some consideration of taking Friday and Monday off to give me more time. On Monday I will have the draft completed and turned in. The roadblocks will be broken and I will await the feedback of my mentor so I can redraft the literature review.
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Is it a road block or writers block? As crazy as this seems, Blue Oyster Cult at just above the threshold of pain cleared my writers block every time.
You will experience writers block several times over the next couple of years. I think one of the problems with the literature review is that it is a literature review. In reality, you are regurgitating what has already been written by others, and sometimes those others said it so well that you wonder how you can add original thought to it. I think when I finally figured out that I was free to interpret how what others wrote applied to my problem/research, it went smoother. I sort of felt like the gloves were off.
I think if some of my original sources were to read how I interpreted their works in my lit review, they might question my logic but what I really felt like I was doing was telling the story the way I saw it, not necessarily how everyone else saw it.
Pretend you are a CSI. Each thread of evidence tells one truth in the context in which it is discovered, but may tell a different truth when viewed in the context of other evidence.
Does this help or did I just muddy the waters?
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Dan,
This does help. It is more of a writer’s block issue. The other things blocking me just complicate or serve to distract from working through the writer’s block.
It is good to know that interpretation is my own and not linked to the author’s original intent. I’ll bet they would be shocked at how I am reading their work and using it to justify my own work.
Mike
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[...] my juices flowing and making some major headway on the literature review. Special thanks to Dan for his comment allowing me to interpret things as I see them and not as the author may have intended, this was a [...]
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[...] advice from [...]
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