A Clueless Person's Lair

Thesis woes

October 17, 2008

Taking a mini break from blogging about my trip, mainly because I’m just too lazy to resize and upload pictures.

I have just printed my chapters which I gotten back from the supervisor. I have never met anyone quite like him before when it comes to writing a thesis but I suppose that just means he has very high standards. He picks on ALMOST everything I write. I’m trying to regard his criticisms as constructive criticisms but sometimes it’s only so much than your ego can take right?

Anyway I just went through them and somehow found some humour in his comments and criticisms. One of the things he keeps reiterating is the way I write and I quote:

“PLEASE STICK TO WRITING ACADEMICALLY. REMEMBER, YOU ARE NOT A JOURNALIST…”

or

“HMMM THIS PARA[GRAPH IS] VERY NEWSPAPER-ISH IN WRITING STYLE. DO YOU REALL NEED IT? CAN NOT THE STATEMENT OF THE FACT THAT HIGH QUALITY CONSTRUCTION IS HAPPENING SUFFICE? JUST THINKING ALOUD”.

Let me give you an example of why he says my writing style is very newspaper-ish. I wrote this in a chapter about foreign-direct investment (FDI) in China and what are the factors drawing FDI into the republic:

These highways are brightly lit and offer quite a view at night. In the words of Fishman (2000 p. 119), the highways “turns the Shanghai night into one of the long-exposure shots of urban nightscapes that makes every city featured in the National Geographic seem to move at warp speed.

Now, my defence. Writing Reading a thesis can be boring for anyone. I figured including this little would spruce things up for the him since the supervisor has said my thesis is dull at one point. So how now brown cow? Letak salah, tak letak pun salah jugak. ADUHAI. [It’s “wrong” to put it in, it’s also “wrong” to not put it in. Le sigh]

Yes, a long time ago one of the things I wanted to do “when I grow up” was be a journalist of some sort. Apparently that didn’t happen and I am now channeling my “inner journalist” on my thesis. And I thought blogging was a form of therapy for me. Hah! Subconsciously I may be using my thesis as a therapy tool too. Oh I sound oh-so-psychologist now (which was also one of the things I wanted to be “when I grew up”).

Then there are his criticisms on my vocabulary skills:

“PLEASE USE THE QUEEN’S ENGLISH. APPARENTLY YOUR COMPUTER IS SET TO AMERICAN ENGLISH“ (I know! So sarcastic right?!?! Queen’s English…LOL)

or

“IF YOU USE FIRSTLY, THEN EVERYTHING FROM *edit* THEIR THERE ON MUST HAVE SECONDLY, THIRDLY…ETC”

It’s not that my computer is set to American English. It’s the fact that my brain works and thinks with American english. I hardly watch Brit-ish shows. I speak to Rob everyday with my version of English which is, according to many, very Americanized. It’s not like I go out of my way to speak with an American accent. It just happens. It’s just the way my English has always been like.

Ok from now on I will try to speak like a stuck-up Brit.

I saaaaaay, would you like a cup-pa tea with those crrrumpets?

or

I’ve gottttt tttto go wwwatchhh a bloodie footttie matcchhh this afty and freeze my bollocks off!

or

Oi, you lit-el tart. Go and fetch me mobile!”

or (This one is really good. I found it from a website)

Look at that bloke! He’s got a face like a bulldog licking piss off a nettle! (Don’t exactly know what that means but it sounds “bloody nasty”!)

Oklah, enough fooling around. 😛

Posted in: Thesis Woes