Journal

White Paper: Writing a Research Bid/Proposal

Sue Jeffels — Tue, 06 May 2008 00:43:39 +0000

Whether you work as a contract researcher operating out of a university, or you are a freelancer interested in community research, at some point you may be called upon to tender for a project. This white paper gives you a basic understanding of the main points that such a document should cover.

Life, The Universe, and Research

Sue Jeffels — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:24:32 +0000

Contract Researchers Guide to the Research Galaxy My apoologies to Douglas Adams author of Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy, but just lately the research side of my life is encountering problems that I didn't know existed. Just to backtrack a little, I work on occasion as a contract researcher, and one of the projects I am dealing with is causing me more headaches than it's worth. In my experience projects rise or fail depending on how they are managed,

Is Your Cuppa Looking For a Fight?

Sue Jeffels — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 01:36:59 +0000

I sit myself by the tv,

Put my laptop on my knee, when the phone rings

So I answer it you see.

I forget about my tea, resting at the side of me

Til it flows towards my laptop

Full of glee.

But I think you ought to know

I moved quite quick and missed the flow,

Which must have had my laptop sighing with relief.

It's reallly not set up

To handle liquid from a cup.

Too much of that, and its life would be quite brief.

Don't do what I have done

A ruined laptop's not much fun

Eschew the armchair when you're sitting down to write.

Remove that cuppa by your arm

Don't be smitten by its charm,

You never know when it is looking for a fight.

Wordpress Woes

Sue Jeffels — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:02:58 +0000

Wordpress

A couple of months ago I finally got a proper domain name - the url has a deliberate spelling mistake as I particularly wanted it to be http://squidincwritngandresearch.com but in order to get it I had to leave off the i between the t and the n. You might think that it was all plain sailing after that. You'd be wrong. Trying to work out the intricacies of both cpanel and wordpress have proved too much for me on more than one occasion - but today, I cracked it. Woohoo.

Adsense Ready

I picked a theme that was adsense ready thinking that it would be easier - don't be fooled. In my naivety I didn't think that the reason the ads were showing up on my blog was because the Adsense system had the theme author's code in it. However, I have now changed all that and added some adbrite adds for good measure.

The Latest Evil

My doctoral thesis covered feminism, domestic violence and theology; which is probably why I sometimes think in theological terms like good and evil. I have to tell you that plugins are an instrument of torture designed by Wordpress to trap poor, unsuspecting, only slightly web savvy, writers like me. Be warned! Plugins should not be taken lightly. Once I got the hang of them I fell into the usual trap of adding one thing after another - result - I have been sat over my laptop all day playing with my Wordpress site.

My plan for tomorrow is not to interact with wordpress and their plugins in the hope that I will catch up on all the lost writing time of today. Just thought I would share my Wordpress woes, what are yours?

P.S. If you are totally web savvy then please treat this post as you would the ramblings of an unhinged mind - we can't all be web entrepreneurs.

Working on the Long Tail

Sue Jeffels — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 23:17:05 +0000

Writing and Page Rank When I started this website at the end of October last year, I knew a bit about page ranking and was quite surprised that two of my other blogs had been ranked, on with a PR2 and the other with PR1 - now they are both PR2 and this site, which has only been live for six months is also a PR2. I am trying t

A Bit Like Monty Python's Flying Circus

Sue Jeffels — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 15:41:50 +0000

And Now For Something Completely Different

Well, my life does sometimes resemble the famous show, if only for its complete randomness at times.
As you'll see if you look at my life generally. Yesterday I posted something on here that should actually have gone to my creative writing blog.

And then I got the surprise of my life. A couple of weeks ago on Fictionwise I interviewed author Patricia Guthrie's new book "In the Arms of the Enemy" and then yesterday she offered to host me on her blog with regard to my (not quite finished) thriller "Two Women a Week". I nearly fell off my laptop As a work at home mother my world is filled with freelance writing and research, only my bits of spare time go into creative stuff. Anyway, if you feel like reading something completely different to my usual ramblings then take a look here.

Is This The Age of the Freelance Writer?

Sue Jeffels — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:32:40 +0000

Zeitgeist

I have just read this post over at Daily Writing Tips and it got me thinking. The term was first coined by the German philosopher Hegel regarding when an idea, practice or philosophy have their particular time and certain concepts come to represent the Spirit of the Age. The rise of the internet and people's desire to get out of the rat race and work from home has led to a huge increase in the number of people attempting to start a freelance writing career. So my question is whether or not this is the :

Age of the Freelance Writer

If Hegel was right in his assumption that certain things happen because of the times we live in does this then mean that we are living in the age of the freelance writer? Every day a new website emerges that is dedicated to the craft or business of writing and freelance writing. Some of these will stay the course and the writer may well make a living from their craft, while others will eventually be left to gather dust.

If we do live in a freelance writing age what does this say about us as people, is the world becoming more or less literate; or is it simply that the 9-5 or later rat race has finally got to us all. That is not to say that freelance writing is not hard work, it certainly is, but it is hard work without all the worry of a boss, office politics, and fighting our way through rush hour traffic.

What do you think, is this the age of the freelance writer.?

Publishing Chapter by Chapter

Sue Jeffels — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:58:18 +0000

This post was actually meant of my creative writing blog but I was using scibefire and posted it in error here - age you know.

Writer's Notebook

I do try to keep a notebook but I don't enter stuff every day, there is a temptation to put almost everything in files on the computer. Having read this post
I feel that I really do need to be more diligent about keeping my writer's notebook as my creative writing often gets passed over in favor of my freelance writing. The other thing that struck me on reading this post was that an increasing number of writers are choosing to publish their novels bit by bit on their blogs.

Two Women A Week

Two Women A Week is the title of my (not quite finished) thriller about the disappearance of a dometic violence victim and the researcher (who is a reluctant private investigator on the side) trying to establish what has happened. I don't know whether I shall post the whole thing but will certainly publish some excertps on this blog over the coming days.

Write A Winning Research Paper

Sue Jeffels — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 00:19:30 +0000

Structuring a Research Paper

At some point in your academic studies you will be required to produce a research paper. If you are a sociology or cultural studies student then that research paper will probably involve some kind of empirical research. Below is a mock research paper proposal laying out the different things that you will have to look at if you are required to produce such a proposal.

Research Proposal

Research Question:

The rationale for this research was an interest in what motivated mature students to pursue a course of study at University. The hypothesis was derived: that mature male students had very different motives for wanting to study than their younger counterparts. From this hypothesis the research question was developed and is shown below.

Do mature students have different motives for undertaking a degree course than their younger counterparts, and if so, what are those motives?

Aims:

To discover whether the financial situation of a student is a significant factor in their decision to apply for University.

To assess whethe mature male students' decision to study is related to their financial situation.

To ascertain whether mature male students have a different motivation for studying to those of younger students.

Approach:

The research will draw on relevant literature relating to higher education and the motives of students seeking to further their education at University. The study will take a quantitative approach and this will be implemented through survey research.

Methods:

The research instrument will be a structured questionnaire. The study-sampling frame will draw on a non-probability purposive sample of students, i.e. looking at specific members of a population for an identified purpose. Conceptual indicators will be motive, finance and educational patterns, these will be operationalised through the use of different types of questions e.g. multi choice and scaling. Questions relating to reliability and validity will hopefully be addressed in the initial stages. The questionnaire will be piloted and any necessary adjustments made to the questions.

Ethical Considerations

An ethics form will be submitted for approval and once this has been dealt with the research will proceed as above. All respondents will remain anonymous and the information received will be confidential. Findings from the research will only be used in the context of the current project. All participants will be offered the opportunity to view the finished report.

What Do You Do When You Just Can't Write

Sue Jeffels — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:04:14 +0000

Writers Write

Writers, including freelance writers are writers because they write, but what happens when a writer actually resists the writing, puts it off and does something else? Is that writer still a writer? Do you have periods when writing is the last thing on your mind, when you'll do anything to avoid starting a writing project. Does your blog sometimes lie neglected for days and your computer think its gone into forced retirement?

Just lately I have found writing one of the hardest things to do, and yet it usually comes quite easy, now I find myself forcing the words onto the page and getting little or no satisfaction from what I have written. The only way I have found to get myself out of this writing slough of despond is to keep sitting down to write until I finally crack my own resistance. How do you pull yourself out of the writing resistance mode?