Data analysis

Tomorrow, will be closing my surveys. I have enough respondents I think... 

Yesterday, met with my SV for data analysis and next week, there will be another meeting. I feel OK even though I suspect some results will not go as I expect (that's kind of normal, right? You just have to play with the data and provide the proper interpretation)....

We are also busy tying up loose ends. I can't believe we are almost saying goodbye to the place we have called our second home for the last five years. It's been bitter sweet; I've met unhelpful and rude people, but I have also met sweet and kind people along the way. It's been a learning experience and I don't regret any of it. I might have done a few things differently but... 

Hence, this chapter is almost ending. And I am feeling sad, but also excited... It's time to settle this and embark on another journey.

Qualitative: I quite dig it!

I am in the midst of writing my final proposal for the qualitative class. When I first took the class, I was quite disoriented. I've been trained so much in quantitative that everything was alien to me. I was prepared to reject everything that I learned about qualitative research method. Surprisingly, it's not so bad!

What I quite like about it is the freedom. You don't have to have a detailed conceptual framework; a description on research traditions is sufficient (at least for the proposal stage). And you can change things quite a bit after you collected the data and at the stage of analysis. With quantitative stuff, if you don't have a good framework you're pretty much done for. My instructor last semester told me if your idea is not good, and your theory is not linked to the idea, your methodology will be crap too! So in that sense I like qualitative. Of course I just took one class on it; there's so many different approaches to it though so I can imagine how complicated it gets when you start delving into the specific methods.

Would I consider choosing it for my thesis? Unfortunately, NO. For one, my department is completely quantitative. The last expert for qualitative left last year, I think. The program is also mainly quantitative; so if you're going for a purely qualitative approach, you're in the wrong department! Secondly, for us to be considered doing mixed method, I have to take another class to be considered 'competent'. And that I will not do because I can't afford to spend more time on my coursework. What I am open to is choosing to use it later for future research. It's not so bad after all...

Drama in the classroom

Wow... it's been quite some time since my last entry. There was a lot of things to write but not much time. This semester, my confidence is falling a bit. I am taking statistics with Dr. K, who is a lot less articulate than Dr. C. I really miss Dr. C. He was so good at what he did! Now I appreciate his detailed instruction, the friendly and non-judgmental teaching as well as his pain staking way of explaining the smallest details. You can never assume that everyone knows everything! One thing good from this is at least I have two models on how to teach statistics and how NOT to teach it. If I ever have to teach undergraduate stats. He he he. (Jauh betul fikir!)

Funny thing happened in class the other day. We were having one of our more livelier discussion on research in mediated communication, when one individual, perhaps stoked on the discussion and had a strong compulsion to voice her thoughts, blurted out that the research article written on that topic was 'commonsensical, shallow and wasting time'! We were all so shocked at that, there was complete silence for two or three seconds. Luckily, sensitive Dr. H, who replaced Dr. L for the day kindly saved face by acknowledging the person's comments, but nevertheless stating that 'no research is useless' and that human beings are by nature, unpredictable so that is why we, as communication researchers are continually researching the same topics (albeit with minor alterations) after thirty, twenty years. We haven't found the answers! Another classmate quipped 'common sense can be wrong!'

Me? I am just flabbergasted that the person had the gall to be that direct! Drama does occur  when you least expect it, and in in the most benign of places. He he he he.

New layout!

Hey all...

It's now semester break, so I have time to design a new layout for this blog. I didn't want to mess with my other blog, because changing it into a three column design messed the whole look. This PhD blog though doesn't have a lot of things in it so I am able to upload another template without doing much tweaking! :-)

Anyway, this week I am getting a good rest after last week's summer scholar class. It was tough. I hope I passed the class. I wasn't really putting much effort into it because I felt so burnt out. Next week we have a Getting Published Workshop, but it doesn't look half bad. Dr. E changed the time for it to finish at noon, so we have more time to rest in the afternoon. And after that, summer break!

My first entry!

I wanted to record my PhD journey for the longest time, but just hadn't had time to do it. I've been doing it on my main blog, but since I have so much to write, I thought I would move my entries to a new blog. (Plus, those of you who are bored to death with my PhD entries now have an option to click or not!). Ha ha ha ha.

I think it would be useful. I think it would help me reflect and organize my thoughts. Plus, if I am stressed it would be nice to see how far I've progressed in my journey. I'd also like to help out others who may already be doing their PhD or thinking of doing one. Reading other people's entries on their PhD experience would definitely inspire you! Hey, if I can do it so can you!

So, with that in mind, here I am. Happy reading! :-)

p.s: I wanted to do one on my old blog but since I forgot the password, its better to start afresh!