So! For those of you who don't go to my university, as part of our Year Abroad we have to complete a Year Abroad Research Project or YARP as we call it.
We have our first deadline coming up for it in Week 20 so I thought I'd tell you a bit about that. Such fun!
Our first deadline consists of writing an abstract of 1000 words in the target language about the progress of our projects since we wrote our proposals back in April. If I'm honest I'm not too worried about this deadline. I've been doing bits of research for it over the last couple of months so all I needed to do was put it into written form. My updated Methodology took up about 600 words and then talked about how I'd narrowed down my focus for everything in the 400 left over. Happy bunny! (Me that is).
I'm completely chilled about it! It doesn't count marks-wise towards our final deadline so all we had to do was hand the piece in on time. Although I'm not going to lie, the new hand-in system worried me a bit!
But everyone in Europe seemed to be panicking a huuuuuge amount about it! This is just my observation, but I wonder if it's because I've spent that much longer abroad than them already? Maybe because we started term a lot earlier, we've already had practice for coursework in the target language, and longer in the country to think about our projects and settle down a bit, so we're unfased by the prospect of another similar deadline? I don't know. But that's what we were thinking here in Brazil :) But all the same, I'm also not too happy with the year abroad online hand in system, so as one of the course reps, I created a feedback sheet for everyone to comment on, so the lecturers can see what students are thinking.
And my actual project?
Well, I've got as far in that I'm now at the stage of putting together questionnaires for participants and I've got the foundations of my research together. However I haven't actually started writing my project properly yet. I'm going to do some more reading first and then begin, rather than adding random paragraphs in different points. It'll be slow, but that's what works for me :)
I also had a 4000 word literature essay due for an UFSC (the Brazilian university) class this Wednesday so my focus has been there for the last couple of weeks. Took waaaaay longer than I thought it would, but all handed in and over now!! :D
We have our first deadline coming up for it in Week 20 so I thought I'd tell you a bit about that. Such fun!
Our first deadline consists of writing an abstract of 1000 words in the target language about the progress of our projects since we wrote our proposals back in April. If I'm honest I'm not too worried about this deadline. I've been doing bits of research for it over the last couple of months so all I needed to do was put it into written form. My updated Methodology took up about 600 words and then talked about how I'd narrowed down my focus for everything in the 400 left over. Happy bunny! (Me that is).
I'm completely chilled about it! It doesn't count marks-wise towards our final deadline so all we had to do was hand the piece in on time. Although I'm not going to lie, the new hand-in system worried me a bit!
But everyone in Europe seemed to be panicking a huuuuuge amount about it! This is just my observation, but I wonder if it's because I've spent that much longer abroad than them already? Maybe because we started term a lot earlier, we've already had practice for coursework in the target language, and longer in the country to think about our projects and settle down a bit, so we're unfased by the prospect of another similar deadline? I don't know. But that's what we were thinking here in Brazil :) But all the same, I'm also not too happy with the year abroad online hand in system, so as one of the course reps, I created a feedback sheet for everyone to comment on, so the lecturers can see what students are thinking.
And my actual project?
Well, I've got as far in that I'm now at the stage of putting together questionnaires for participants and I've got the foundations of my research together. However I haven't actually started writing my project properly yet. I'm going to do some more reading first and then begin, rather than adding random paragraphs in different points. It'll be slow, but that's what works for me :)
I also had a 4000 word literature essay due for an UFSC (the Brazilian university) class this Wednesday so my focus has been there for the last couple of weeks. Took waaaaay longer than I thought it would, but all handed in and over now!! :D