What an intensive and hectic seven days last week!
The biggest achievements of the week were that I got my ethics clearance from an organisation (no more ethics applications required!) and that I got the inspiration for my methodology from a meeting with the scholar I mentioned last week, a ‘very cold person’. His tone in his emails seemed reluctant to talk to me, but he agreed to see me. I visited his office at the hospital where he works. I was very, very nervous.
It turned out that he was very nice, cheerful and helpful. He gave me a lot of information that I wanted. I got a bit confused about the difference in personality. He was smiling throughout the meeting, and what’s more, he offered to send some academic books to my address, which I really appreciated.
In the meeting, I confided in him that I was concerned about the potential disconnect between my research questions, methodology and answers. He immediately understood the point and gave me advice on how to better answer some of my research questions, which resolved all the anxieties I had been suffering from over the past months. It was almost a miracle.
Meet with an expert
It would be one of the greatest benefits of fieldwork to have a face-to-face meeting with an expert and gain a deep understanding of what actually happens in the field, not just what the literature says.
However, fieldwork is not all fun and productive. My work in Japan has involved a great deal of walking, meeting, and interacting with people, leaving little time for writing. My aim for Week 59 is to edit my paper and write some reports.
My achievements in Week 58
- made contact with three physicians, to whom one of my research participants introduced me
- started collecting relevant books for a systematic literature review
- arranged some details for focus group discussions that will take place in March
- wrote a draft of my proposal for a conference
- got the ethics approval from an organisation
- had all my worries on methodology solved
Goals for Week 59
- submit my conference proposal
- write my first report on my fieldwork to share with my supervisors
- edit my paper for an online journal
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