Library stuff

I love the fact that I have two academic libraries at my disposal. It's so very nice to have all those resources.

I recently discovered that Curtin's FindIt thingy has some lovely little things that JCU's FindIt thingy doesn't.

When you click on "FindIt at Curtin" in Google Scholar (you can set it to pick up Curtin in preferences whether you're a library member or not) it doesn't take you immediately to the article. It takes you to a page where you have a number of options depending on the article...

And one of those options (more often than not) is downloading the citation into EndNote. You don't even have to sign in! As long as you've got EndNote on your computer, it will just download the citation information for you. So, even if you don't have access to that article through Curtin, you can still get something useful out of them.

Very nice if you, like me, occasionally can't be bothered trying to figure out how each particular database wants to play with EndNote when you're doing your research in the first place.

My latest brilliant idea

I think my university should go bilingual.

I think they should pick a language which a) has a sizable number of "home language" speakers in the region and b) is spoken by a large number of prospective intentional students (and, maybe: c) is spoken by a sizable group of the international community). They should then offer subjects and, yes, maybe even courses in that language as well as English.

I love the idea of people being able to come here to take a degree entirely in Italian or German. I love the idea of local students having the opportunity to study subjects in a language other than English. How cool would it be to be able to study German literature in German? Or Italian cinema in Italian? And all without having to move to the other side of the country or another continent?

Imagine how much our student base would swell if, in addition to the students we already get because we're the "local" university, and the students we get because we advertise well overseas, we also attracted students who wanted to study in an English speaking country but didn't think their English was up to the challenge? Or potential mature-aged students from all over the country who speak English as a shaky second language but would still love to get a degree?

It could be the best and most vibrant thing we ever did - and could probably net us all sorts of interesting funding options from the government.

Of course, they would have to stock the library with enough books in that language to make it viable. And, of course, the existing staff would be offered free language courses to cope with the new bilingual environment, while the ability to speak XXX would be a valuable skill in potential employees...

A challenge? Yes. Expensive? Well, duh. But honestly, sometimes you get good returns from putting in a bit of effort.

A Lack of Clear Guidance

Or: My Kingdom For a Flowchart

I used them all the time when I was teaching - visual guides for how to set out an assignment.

They came in all sorts of shapes and sizes, but my favourite ones (and the ones my students seemed to like best) were flowcharts.

They were wonderful, magic things that helped you to understand the form of an essay by literally showing you the shape of one - a box standing in for the sentence you would write here, a line guiding you through the checklist needed for a good paragraph there.

If you put your main points in the appropriate boxes, writing the assignment was like running a hot knife through butter. It was a simple matter of wrapping some sentences around those points according to the specified rules (this sentence must give a general introduction, this one must point back to your thesis, that sort of thing).

I know how useful these things are. I know how much they benefited me when I was stuck on an assignment, and how much my students appreciated them. I still direct students to them all the time.

But I can't find one for a thesis. I've been asked if I know of one, and I've looked, but no one seems to think such a thing is worth producing. Now that I'm writing my own Masters thesis, I'm really feeling the lack of such a clear, simple guide.

You want a guide for writing a thesis? Here, have a whole book on the subject, full of wonderful things you don't have time to read and not a single thing resembling the simple, clear flowchart you desire. Or, here, look at a couple of examples of other theses. Surely you can glean what you want from here? Or, wait, here are some general guidelines for things you should think about when writing a thesis - what do you mean, they don't give you any actual writing guidance in regards to form? Why would you want that?

Just draw me a picture, man! Show me what the shape of the thing is supposed to look like.

I don't have time to read half your prattle - especially when most of it is great advice, but not relevant to the particular problem I have right now.

I want to see the form. I want to have it staring in my face. I want to be able to assemble my sentences like one of those jigsaw puzzles that have the shape of the missing pieces etched into the backboard. I've got fifteen thousand words to write, and I want to make sure I know where each of them are supposed to go before I waste any more time.

Oh, and if someone out there actually has such a flowchart, what the heck are you calling it? Why isn't it turning up in any of the most logical searches? What book have you buried it in without mentioning it to anyone?

Really, people, it's quite frustrating.