PhD diary
A journey as a doctoral student between 2017 and 2020. I keep these posts because, looking back from my early days, I can see how much my perspectives have shifted as a reminder of the learning journey.
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Week 100: Conversation analysis and pistachio cake
My PhD diary has reached Week 100! I cannot believe that it’s been two years – the time has gone by so quickly. I’ve written about my activities in research, teaching, and baking every weekend, and I’m now starting the third year of my PhD. As a mini celebration for Week 100, I baked a read more
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Week 99: Initiation of data analysis
This week was relaxing and productive in terms of a transition from theory review to data analysis. Based on the plans my supervisors and I made last week, I mapped out audio data to structure analysis chapters, and I set a weekly schedule for conducting each process and writing chapters for the next year. I read more
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Week 98: Hard work pays off
My room smells of vanilla and chocolate because I’ve just baked chocolate chip banana bread! This feels like a bit of a special treat for this weekend. Yesterday I had the last supervision meeting of the second year of my PhD programme, and I was glad to hear that my supervisors are happy with my read more
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Week 97: De-stress and healthy quiche
A supervision meeting scheduled for Friday was postponed to next week. I’ve been spending this week attending seminars and outlining Chapter 4 and my conference paper at quite a slow pace. When waiting for supervisors’ feedback on my draft, I always have mixed feelings: nervousness, excitement, a bit of relaxation after writing it up, and read more
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Week 96: Draft is done and espresso chocolate blondies
I’ve finished my third revision of Chapter 2 at last! The past four months have been really intensive, and I must admit I have been struggling to write the chapter. But now I know that the difficulties were important to me. I developed the habit of writing for fixed hours every day. I found that read more
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Week 95: Tidying up
Research has been moving forward little by little. The literature review I have worked on for the past four months was initially for just one section, but as I discussed it with my supervisors, we extended it to further relevant scopes and added references, and it has become a chapter. I am very happy about read more
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Week 94: Writing and Anpan-making
I have been making progress in revising Chapter 2. What motivates me most now is the thought of sharing my findings with my research participants when I fly to Tokyo and visit them in December. I booked my flights, clarified which tasks should be done by then, and set personal deadlines. I am very excited read more
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Weeks 92 and 93: Coffee break with colleagues and my birthday
I’ve been working on my conference paper by clarifying descriptions, adding more references and grouping data more precisely. I’ve also submitted my proposal for a conference taking place in Hong Kong next year. Two weeks ago, I was struggling to stay motivated, and listening to audiobooks on how to be productive. This week, my colleagues read more
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