Practice presentations on research

Thanks to the folk that made it in today.

Those who made it in all got up and had a go at a short presentation. I had asked for everyone to give a short talk on a source they used for their research for their chosen photographer.

Again, the purpose of this is to share some information on useful sources but also to get us to think critically about various sources. For example, after one of the talks today we had a chat about the kind of information that is found on the internet. One of you made the perceptive point that there are lots of examples of the work and information on the influence of specific photographers on the internet. However, it seems that it is more difficult to find out about specific techniques of photographers by just using the internet - often a textbook, it was argued, is more useful for finding out about technique.

Anyone who missed the opportunity to have a go at the practice talk can do that next week. We will also be looking at turning your oral evaluation of a source into a written piece next week.

We also had a quick chat about the morality of photo-journalism and I showed a poem by Carol Ann Duffy (poet laureate) called "War Photographer".

Thinking and practising the art of writing summaries

Today we looked at a core aspect of research and writing for academic purposes: summarising.

I gave out a copy of 675 words of text from part of the Wikipedia entry on Ansel Adams (the bit about his "Contribution and influence").

I gave out (and talked through) a handout on summary writing tips and then asked you to summarise the piece to about a third of its original length. This is not an easy task but you all worked hard on that.

Once you finished I handed out a copy of my 229 word summary and a copy of the original text with my notes on it.

I asked you to think about what you found it easy or difficult about it. Some common points came up in our discussion and your written reflections on the task:

• It can be quite hard to move away from the words of the original text. I showed one technique that I use which involves first using a highlighter and then making brief notes in the margin in my own words. I then use my scribbled notes in the margin, rather than the original text itself, as a guide when writing the summary. This may not work for everyone but a lot of students find that this is a useful way of producing a accurate and non-plagiarised summary.
• Another point was that the summary that you produce will be based on the purpose of the task and the reader's knowledge of the subject.
• More than one person commented that, once they had read my version, that the task may not have been as difficult as it first appeared.
• A very important point made in your written comments is that we need to understand something before we start to summarise.
• I like the comment that a summary is not just a shorter version of the original.
• More than one person self-confessed to waffling a bit too much - a common trait in all of us sometime.
• Some folk felt they could do a better job of they had more time. A valid point - and it goes back to the idea that in order to summarise we first need to understand or fully digest the information.
• And finally more than one person used the term "ruthless" - in the sense that, having seen my version, that they could have been more ruthless in cutting it down.

Anyway, thanks for your hard work today ...

... next time I see you, you will be doing a short (5-7 min) presentation on a specific source of information that you found useful for your research.

Getting started with research

Today we started on the work that you will be doing in this class over the semester.

As I said, the work that you will be doing is focused around the work that you are doing for Tony Scott.

To start things off we are looking at the research that you are doing on your chosen photographers. I asked everyone, at the start of class, to write down what they know about their photographer. I also asked you to think about what you need to find out.

We had some discussion about the areas of research that you might look at. These areas may also suggest a possible structure for a piece of writing or presentation:

Details about life, background
Style - technique (development of style)
Locations
Work - themes
Legacy

I set a task for the 25 February for a 5-7 min presentation of evaluation of a resource associated with your research.