a) What have been the major obstacles you have faced in putting a research project together?
There is a lot of literature on my topic, so it was quite overwhelming looking through them and trying to find the most useful for me. I didn’t really know where to start in narrowing down my ideas.
b)What strategies have you adopted to overcome these obstacles?
Talking with my supervisor was helpful as she gave me some examples of leading historians in my research area. Using the advance search on Jstor was also really helpful as it helped me sift through the sources quicker and more effectively.
c)What has this taught you about approaching your dissertation?
I’ve learned to become much more efficient when I am using sites like Jstor in order to find the best and most relevant information for my topic.
d)Which aspects of the 9X6 module have been the most useful in helping you get your project ready to start?
The seminars and examples for the dissertation proposal and methodology assignment were very useful as they helped provide me with a structure for my own. Also, the seminars on how to use archives was extremely useful because I wasn’t really good at using them before. Lastly, just generally getting me to start thinking seriously about my dissertation as I hadn’t really thought enough about it beforehand whereas, now I have a much clearer idea and structure.