Katie's Notes

An academic blog by a linguist specialising in qualitative healthcare research & medical humanities

  • Week 108: Neck Pain

    This week hasn’t been very productive. Last weekend, I attended a two-day session on Mental Health First Aider training, which was useful and meaningful. I learnt about treatment and support for mental health issues. Maybe because I didn’t have a chance to properly recuperate from lack of sleep and tiredness last week, I’ve been suffering read more

    Week 108: Neck Pain
  • Week 107: My experience of supervision

    I am privileged to have three supervisors who have all been fantastic academic mentors. Throughout my PhD programme, we have had face-to-face meetings once a month, and they have given me prompt feedback and a great deal of advice on my chapter drafts by email every month. I have found my supervisory team very hands-on. read more

    Week 107: My experience of supervision
  • Blueberry muffins

    Today I baked blueberry muffins as always, using a recipe in Twist by Martha Collison. I’m a big fan and bake the muffins every other week! Blueberry, banana and nuts are great for breakfast muffins. I always leave my dough in the fridge overnight and bake it the following morning. The muffins become very moist read more

    Blueberry muffins
  • Week 106: Coding transcripts

    This week, I sent my supervisors a working draft of my analysis, which was the first version of coded transcripts. This includes the original text, word-by-word translation, idiomatic translation, CA symbols and codes of my analytical dimensions. This text data is saved in Word documents for the moment, but I’ve been thinking about how to read more

    Week 106: Coding transcripts
  • Week 105: New Year’s Resolutions

    It’s a very nice feeling to open a fresh, new diary for 2019, and make a list of achievable tasks for the day while having a morning coffee. On New Year’s Day, I mapped out what my next 12 months will look like. I put the semester dates, thesis milestones, deadlines, and conference details into read more

    Week 105: New Year’s Resolutions
  • Happy New Year! Sky pictures from my flights

    Happy New Year 2019! I would like to share some beautiful photos from my flights. The winter sky above the clouds was clear and beautiful, and it gave me a lot of positive energy and inspiration for a new year. My flight was KL0862, departing Tokyo at 11:30 am. It’s an 11-hour journey from Tokyo, read more

    Happy New Year! Sky pictures from my flights
  • Week 104: Wrap up of the second year of my PhD

    It’s the final week of the second year of my PhD programme, and here’s my reflection on the year. My second year kicked off with fieldwork and data collection in Tokyo. After spending four months collecting audio data, the next six months were devoted to sorting it out, making transcripts, conducting pilot analysis, and writing read more

    Week 104: Wrap up of the second year of my PhD
  • Weeks 102 and 103: Two weeks’ break in Tokyo

    I’ve been feeling a bit guilty about not working on my research for the past two weeks. But one thing I can report is that my paper abstract has been accepted for an international conference taking place in Hong Kong next year – I am going, for sure! It’s also odd, after I arrive in read more

    Weeks 102 and 103: Two weeks’ break in Tokyo