Dr. Pope made an excellent point: I probably should use the newness of this research topic as an opportunity to create my own models for online text analysis. I also need to keep my area of focus flexible and future-projected so that what I'm doing today doesn't become obsolete tomorrow.
My strength is apparently linguistic/discourse analysis, according to Dr. Pope, so I intend to concentrate my thesis in that area. I also want to consider various topics such as synchronicity vs. diachronicity, visuals, semiotics, pragmatics, construction of identity, gender immediacy, and formality when I sit down to write my formal thesis proposal.
I have spent some time today searching and bookmarking various pages relating to online communication. I shall reference those in the bibliography section, along with some reading material from my MA research, when I determine which will be most useful. However, I will keep in mind that quoting other materials is not as important as my own methods, models, and procedures of analysis.
I'm kind of worried, though, because there is mandatory research training in the first year. The training itself sounds very useful, but I'm going to work for IBM soon, and I don't know how I will manage to get to the weekly night classes in the first year if I'm based really far away from Oxford. I don't have to reply right now because I haven't heard from the studentship yet, so I will use the next few weeks to find out how I can make my PhD and my new job work together.
The evening research classes seem like they will work out fine. During the first term, the classes are weekly, starting on Wednesday, October 25th, from 6-8 p.m. But in terms 2 and 3, the classes are fortnightly. I will only be attending a total of 15 classes, so I don't think anyone at IBM will have any objections to this arrangement. It also seems that in my 2nd year and beyond, I will be attending 3 seminars per term (in weeks 1, 5, and 9) on Wednesdays from 6-8 p.m. I'm not sure when I will be having my face-to-face encounters with my supervisor. I hope I can combine some of these Wednesday nights with those meetings, because I don't want to have to leave work early more than once in any given week.
"Before students are allowed to register with the University, they are required to submit their proposal (of between 2-3000 words) and a literature review (of between 2-3000 words) to the HRC, and to 'defend' their proposal and work in an interview with the post-graduate sub-committee of the HRC. If the committee is satisfied with the proposal and the student's progress, students are then permitted to submit the proposal to a sub-board of the RDB for approval and registration. Students who fail to satisfy the School's requirements and standards for registration will be referred and permitted to re-submit their work within three months. Students who are unable to meet the registration standards will not be allowed to progress beyond the probationary period."
This sounds pretty scary. Does this mean that I have to create a new proposal in 6 months, even though I won't really be into the meat of it yet? Will my literature review simply cover the other models of analysis and analytic works that I will be reading for the next few months? These are things I'll have to ask Dr. Chamberlain on September 30th.
I also found out about fees that I need to pay. It seems that, because I am not European, my fees will be three times that of any of my fellow students. This is the case despite the fact that I have a job and pay taxes that are supposed to go into a governmental education fund. If my fees are going to be that high, I don't think I will be able to continue with any formal study until I can apply for British citizenship--which won't be for another couple of years!
Unfortunately, I would wager that someone else will be researching these very same concepts while I'm having to wait out a governmental formality. One of the things that is most interesting to me about this subject is that I haven't seen too much scholarly research covering the new forms of language. If I could get started now, I could be part of a ground-breaking community of researchers. Later on I might just be another follower.
Another thing that I hadn't considered before that's interesting me now is the recent surge in mobile text messaging. The language used in text messaging has evolved into its own special form for exactly the same reasons as any other online language. The space constraints of a text message's buffer requires the texter to squeeze as much meaning as possible into a tiny message. Of course, the uninitiated see only gibberish and therefore dismiss texting as irrelevant and ignorant--just as they do with chat rooms and the more informal forms of email. But the texter and textee have experienced communication with just as much meaning, emotion, humor, and possibly even eloquence as found in any face-to-face interaction. There are enormous possibilities for research in this field alone.
I've decided to post some of my M.A. work on this page as well. My dissertation was pretty simple and didn't make any groundbreaking discoveries, but I think it was a good way to get my toes in the water. I've also included some papers from Text Analysis, Dramatic Discourse, and International Englishes classes.
I found today, to my dismay, that I seem to have lost about half my work from my year at Nottingham. I know when it must have happened: my laptop stopped working and had to be restored to factory settings. I'm sure I have a disk with the other papers on it somewhere, but I have no idea where it is right now. I suppose, worst case secenario, I could find the papers and retype them. Somehow I don't see that happening any time soon, though!
It's kind of a shame, really (since language is the only thing that really interests me) that I continue to find myself in non-language jobs. I want this PhD, but I also want to be able to feed myself and buy some clothes every once in a while.
I'm keeping an eye on the way language is developing, though. I just saw the new Nokia phone that's specifically designed for text messagers. I know this kind of design isn't new, but it's intriguing that text messaging is becoming so mainstream. It almost seems like a primitive form of chat room. I mean, text conversations were all the rage in 1992. I wonder if a usenet-type interface will develop for txtrs. Call me cynical, but it looks a little bit like re-inventing the wheel to me.
Oh yeah, I fixed the feedback form. Sorry about that, if anyone noticed.
Thesis (coming in a few years!)