New words

I've had a term of coping with new terminology, and words that I think I know then find that they mean something else in this academic context, or something more than I had understood. This week's words were intersubjectivity, locutionary and illocutionary and perlocutionary, which have to do with Searle's speech act theory and I read them in Ethnographic Research: A Reader, in a chapter on 'Distributed cognition in an airline cockpit' by Hutchins and Klausen. By the time I got to asking husband about a synedoche, which wasn't in his dictionary either, both of us were all jargonised out. I mean, that we'd had too much jargon. So when a couple of days later I found this poem in the introduction to 'Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography' editors Clifford & Marcus, it really spoke to me. The editors prefix it with

"Finally, as an Invocation, we offer the following verses composed in mock despair by our first editorial reader, Jane Kepp, dictionary in hand."

The Hermeneut's Dilemma, or, A Jargon Poem

Twas prelapsarian, and the hermeneut
Sat huddled with his faithful trope,
Sunk in thaumasmus, idly strumming his lute,
Lost in subversion with nary a hope.

Then with heartfelt apoplanesis he cried,
O come, interlocutor, give me your ear!
In my pathopoeia, I've slandered and lied;
Now of my grim project this discourse you'll hear.

I've dappled in vile phenomenological rites,
And joined in a secret synecdoche,
Squandered my received knowledge in bibulous nights,
And embraced epistemological heresy.

O, but now my metonymy is too great to bear!
This ecphonesis has become too deictic to hide!
I've lost all the poesis I once held so dear . . .
And, with typical hypotyposia, he died.

Assignments thick and fast

Us students on the MRes had to get another essay in last week. It was on either:

• ethnography - rationales for

or

• discourse analysis: compare and contrast two types

Well, yeuch! I don't like essays and compare and contrast essays are even more difficult to structure because I can see a 2 by 2 matrix in them (that's the business side of me-MBA students get heaps of 2*2 matrixes).

So I chose the "Critically assess the rationales for ethnographic or qualitative research option". Qualitative methods tutor (QMT), who's been very sympathetic to my writing struggles, said that this option was a linear structure, and certainly I found it comparatively easy to produce, though I haven't got feedback yet.

Now, this week there's another TMA due in. This one is for the business model, and is quite fun in that it relates to real research. It has to be a proposal for research, with a long discussion of the ethical and political issues of doing it. Fellow student (FS) and I have been comparing notes. FS said late this afternoon that she was getting bogged down in the practicalities, which she would because she's been a real practising and successful manager, and I have been getting bogged down in the ethical issues.

I came home thinking I could type up my work this evening, but by the time I'd fed teenagers before they went out babysitting or socialising, and dealt with answering personal email, and Christmas cards, dear old husband was back from keep fit and needed feeding too. And now, look at the time - nearly 10 o'clock and wine time. Too late to type.

Essays & qualitative research

I'm still struggling to write essays, but was cheered by an exercise in the Doctoral Training Workshop this week. Writing Tutor (WT) gave us a set of six short excerpts of writing to criticise. These included one on science, one on stats, one on discourse analysis and one on object modelling complete with diagram. At last here was something that I recognised, something from my computing experience. However, no one else in the room had any understanding of the topic, whereas some knew and had experience of aspects of qualitative research such as discourse analysis. Earnest student (ES) enthused how easy it was to read the discourse analysis, and student in wheelchair (SiC) said that it seemed to be written in every day language! "Ah! - Not", thought I. And must have said it aloud because ES at the far end of the room, caught my eye and looked amused.

Anyhow, it gave me the opportunity to explain to WT that if everyone else in the room had had to start learning about objects, draw models and use them within two months of starting the course, in the way that I've had to learn about qualitative methods and write essays, then they would be struggling and be as despondent as much as I am.

Friendly student (FS) pointed out that eventually I would be able to write essays whereas she will never be able to (and doesn't want to) create object models.

Essays

Why do I need to write an essay?

I can write reports (I think). I can write computer code, and I know it works when it works. I can write letters and emails. They work because people write back to me. I write blogs (no-one reads them; I never get comments). But essays! Yeuch! It's an art form like a piece of poetry. It has to have a beginning, a middle and an end, but the bit in the middle has to be an argument, but I don't have an argument. I don't have a coherent logical flow to argue. Er, perhaps today's blog could be an essay on why I have to write essays. :(

Here's some advice I've been given on writing essays:

• show the content of the argument
• provide references for assertions (I have to realise that they are assertions first)
• contextualise the points within the broader argument
• add an evaluative dimension
• explore concepts in detail
• create narrative in the argument
• specify how the research question fits into previous research
• provide detail in theoretical account
• emphasise the interpretive nature of qualitative research
• spell out what the assumptions were that underpinned the idea I was discussing

I've searched and read. One useful book is Writing for Academic Success: A Postgraduate Guide. It covers general issues such as managing the writing environment as well as specific types of writing. However, it includes essays in with book reviews and exam papers. So I looked at a few web sites:

The Writing Center has extensive advice on a number of pages including several on writing essays, arguing, counter arguing and editing.

The ABC of Academic Writing has a set of guides in various hues and tones. It says:

"The word essay means an attempt. Like a single throw in a javelin competition, it should deal with one issue in a unified way."

and links to a discussion of argument in an essay.

Then there's the UNC Writing Center on argument.

And OU sites that I have to sign into, such as the OU Knowledge Network eWrite.
I think that the link to the PhD writing skills is most useful.

So you'd think I'd have enough advice ... :(

Research questions brain dump

1. How far does consultancy help the client to account for the use of consultancy?
2. What accountability does the public want? Which members of the public? Which stakeholders
3. Are there suitable other models of accountability in other professions that could apply to consultants?
4. What is accountability?
5. Is internal accountability assumed? If internal consultancy is used, what accountability exists?
6. What politics lead to the use of external consultancy rather than internal?
7. What ethics are involved in requiring accountability for consultancy?
8. Should accountability be only financial or is there something else?
9. Who should account? The purchasers of the consultancy or the consultants?
10. Is accountability a one off event at the end of a consultancy project or a process through out it? What should it be?
11. How can you measure accountability for use of consultants? How does a consultant account for the work?
12. Is accountability required only when a problem is discovered?
13. What are the ethics of accountability?
14. What different roles and responsibilities relate to accountability?
15. How far is the client responsible when consultancy work goes wrong?
16. What is the relationship between accountability and leadership?
17. What system of accountability can apply to consultancy?
18. Does use have to be justified during the process or only at the end?
19. Are some clients more likely or able to account for use of consultants?
20. How do types of client influence need for accountability?
21. How does accountability vary with different types of consultancy?
22. What management of impressions reduces the need for accountability?
    
23. What’s the relationship between accountability and effectiveness when a client uses external consultancy?
24. What ethical rules does a business need in order to be able to account to its stakeholders for the use of external consultants?
25. Who takes the responsibility for the process of consultancy?
26. Who takes responsibility for the use of consultancy
27. Why do clients avoid accounting for the use of external consultants?
28. How do clients account for their use of external consultants?
29. How do clients avoid accounting for the use of external consultants?
30. Who do clients account to for their use of external consultants
31. Who requires accountability for the use of external consultants?
32. Why does anyone want clients to account for their use of external consultants
33. What accountability is possible from clients who use external consultants
34. What form of accountability is possible from clients who use external consultants?
35. Who achieves accountability for the use of external consultants?
36. What standards of accountability for the use of external consultants exist?
37. How do clients account for the use of external consultants?
38. What external appraisal of management consultant is possible?
39. Who are the stakeholders in a management consultant contract?
40. What are the performance management criteria for management consultants? And how do they apply to a consultancy firm?
41. Who should account for results of management consultant’s work- the management consultants or the client?
42. How far does governance pertain to management consultants?
43. How much are public-organisation stakeholders accountable for the use of external consultants?
44. What systems exist to evaluate management consultant performance in public organisations?
45. What participative approaches improve management consultants’ work?
46. How can a stakeholder systems approach contribute to a more accountable relationship between a client and external management consultants?
47. Are there pressures for accountability on management consultants? If so, what and what corporate or social responsibility is there?
48. What transfer of responsibility is there when external management consultants are used?
49. How far does a management consultant fulfil obligations to all stakeholders?
50. Should management consultants account to their peers or to a range of stakeholders?
51. What are the stakeholder perceptions of the role of management consultants?
    
52. How do you know a good or bad management consultant when you see one?
53. How do you assess a management consultant's competences before employing?
54. Do public bodies need to be better at assessing management consultant performance?
55. What are the generic requirements pertinent to the appointment of a management consultant? How can these be attained when employing a management consultancy that provides the consultant(s)?

Spray diagram

I used Inspiration to produce this. Spect I'll add to it as I go.

Thesis title

"Public Accountability for the Use of External Consultants" is the title. Those words give lots of scope for different interpretations. I've created a spray diagram from it and will load it here soon.

Masters in Research - why I'm doing this

At the EPRSC web site, it says a Masters in Research is a sub-brand within the masters training framework, full-time (not so because the OU does a part time one) as an enhanced route to a PhD through research.
That's one reason I'm doing this. Here are some others:

• for the process;
• because I've wanted to since I was in my late twenties;
• to prove that I can;
• to learn to write;
• to contribute to knowledge;
• to find out;
• for a better career - they've raised the hurdles ;
• to be competitive;
• to get things done;
• have a long term goal;
• think;
• be expert on my subject;
• to have command of my subject;
• to know something really well;
• because I enjoy reading;
• for the buzz of finding out, for the buzz of new knowledge;
• to discover things;
• to be in an environment with a lot of intelligent and thinking people;
• to practise thinking
• to change the world a little.

Our tutor in the doctoral training workshop said we should write out our reasons now at the beginning of the three or four years because there would be times when we'd need reminding.

There's advice at http://www.suslik.org/Writings/phd.html on doing a part time PhD, though it is worth while reading for full timers too.