workingtowardsthatphd - Tumblr blog

[workingtowardsthatphd]

immediately screwed up this morning by dropping my full coffee all over the floor/tables of the study room, while one of the cleaners was present. Thankfully she was very nice about it but I do feel VERY BAD

[workingtowardsthatphd]

Summer break's here and this is such a mood.

[workingtowardsthatphd]

how i use AI in my research and essays

Creating a plan: Sometimes, I get an essay question and I just have no idea where to start with it, so I'll put it into chatgpt and ask it to generate a plan for an essay. The plan it then gives me provides me with some starter topics for research and some key words that I can use to search databases such as JSTOR. It's important to remember here that the plan it gives you may not be accurate and will be only based on what already exists on the internet, so research is required, especially to get further research or add something new to the topic. This plan also tends to be very simplistic, requiring a lot of development to get it up to a good standard.

Clarity and breaking down sentences: I love a run on sentence. It is the one thing that people point out to me when reading my work, and I often struggle to realise when I'm using them. Chatgpt comes in handy here, I can put in one paragraph and ask it to identify any run on sentences that are present. Once those are identified, I can go back and shorten them - sometimes I struggle to do this, and chatgpt can be helpful here as well to suggest how to break it down. Obviously don't just take the shorter sentences it gives you at face value, sometimes the way it rewords the sentence changes the meaning.

Suggestions for feedback: The best place to get feedback is from the people who will be marking your work. However during deadline season especially, it can be hard to get in contact with those people, and it tends to take a while for them to get back to you. Instead, when I think I can't work out any more improvements myself, I'll put a section of the draft into chatgpt and ask for feedback. Normally I ask specifically for what I need to do to bring my grade up to a first. Generally it will provide a list of things such as further analysis, grammar, strengthening the thesis statement, etc. I find this really useful when I've been reading the same thing over and over again to have some actual points to look for.

Breaking things down into smaller tasks: I can get really overwhelmed sometimes, and having adhd does not help with that. A lot of the time, I am able to break things down into step-by-step myself, but when I'm not, I can put the list of tasks into chatgpt. It will then break these down for me into smaller tasks and I can work through that list one at a time.

I don't use AI to write my essays, I did try once just out of curiosity and it was honestly one of the worst essays I have ever read. AI does not have the ability to analyse sources in the same way a person does, and it does not have access to all the research materials that you do.

Hope this was helpful! Feel free to add on how you use AI at uni.

[workingtowardsthatphd]

2024-05-06

The end of the semester is strange indeed.

It is to look up from endless papers, scrambled word documents, and ink-stained hands to notice, only then to see —

You’ve gotten so far and there’s so little, yet so much, just ahead.

[workingtowardsthatphd]

Saturday 18th May

Been a while since I did one of these, I've mostly been relaxing and trying to make my way through my unread pile of books now that I've finished my degree.

To do:

I'm trying to complete an award that my university offers, so I need to fill out a mock application form and send that off.

Agreed to work on an oral history project for a local librarian, so I have some notes from the first person lined up to interview (handwritten, very hard to read) that I need to go through and make notes on which bits I want to follow up on in the interview.

Plans and paperwork for various activities I want to run in the next few weeks. Risk assessments and budgets are my least favourite thing.

Complete:

Mock application form complete and sent off. Hopefully it will be accepted and I can move on to the next stage rather than having to re-do it. Apparently it can take up to 21 days to come back.

Coffee: 🧋🧋

[workingtowardsthatphd]

black ink flowing on notebook pages, ice cubes slowly melting in a tall glass of coffee, linen against skin & a gentle wind. birdsong, peonies, sunbleached book covers & the soft creaks of a library parquet.

[workingtowardsthatphd]

4-5/50 days of productivity | 16-17/5/'24

just been picking myself up.

[workingtowardsthatphd]

And so being young and dipped in folly, I fell in love with melancholy - E.A. Poe

[workingtowardsthatphd]

welcome to my studyblr!

(I know this is a bit late, considering that I've already been posting for a while, but I didn't have a chance to make it while I was working on assignments.)

 ☕ about me!

Cal, 21, UK, she/they

 ☕ studying!

history! currently BA History at undergrad, but hopefully next year I will be doing an MA in Historical Research! every so often I try to learn a language on duolingo, normally french/italian/latin.

 ☕ hobbies!

writing, reading, painting rocks and then leaving them around for people to find.

 ☕ tags:

#cal talks #ask me #dissertation

[workingtowardsthatphd]

hello anon i have gone back and correct those posts

in your previous posts: did you write 7th and 8th of April instead of May on purpose? got me thinking it's april again

😭😭 nope that was an accident, I apparently cannot keep track of the month.

[workingtowardsthatphd]

sorry for the lack of posts these last few days, my computer screen broke and I had to take it in to get fixed. seems to be working again now, so back to your normally scheduled updates

[workingtowardsthatphd]

Studying in old gloomy buildings 🌚

[workingtowardsthatphd]

in your previous posts: did you write 7th and 8th of April instead of May on purpose? got me thinking it's april again

😭😭 nope that was an accident, I apparently cannot keep track of the month.

[workingtowardsthatphd]

Last weekend was perfect: I went to my second book club meeting on a boat bookshop, ate delicious Pinterest standard cake and saw a rainbow in the Paris skyline ⭐️✨

[workingtowardsthatphd]

It's just me, my laptop and my coffee against this word document.

[workingtowardsthatphd]

Studying is hard work, but it's all worth it when you finally get the grades you deserve.

[workingtowardsthatphd]

Friday 10th May

I am so close to finishing my undergraduate degree, it's kind of terrifying. I've decided that I'm gonna add some things to my dissertation notebook once I'm done, things like the annotated bibliography paragraphs that I typed up, just so it's all there in one place for me to look back on and think yeah, I did that!

Incomplete from Yesterday:

Reading an example first class essay

To do:

Finish making my essay the best I can and submit it!

Get tickets for an event I want to go to tomorrow (only if I submit today)

Complete:

Completed and re-wrote my essay. It has now been submitted and I am free!

Got the tickets for the event tomorrow.

Made some insta posts for the society events.

Cups of coffee: 🧋