CrossSearch is the University of Dundee’s database for journal, magazine and newspaper articles. It’s useful for quickly surveying what’s available in a particular area, then accessing PDFs or physical copies of things you’re interested in.
Using CrossSearch for the first time can be tricky but once you’re used to it, it’s a piece of cake… Well, very chewy cake.
Read the tutorial to get started or, if you prefer, view the video walkthrough below.
Remember at school where you were always supposed to be quiet, work on your own, and not let anyone see what you were doing?
I read a great comment from someone today:
Ten minutes spent talking to a friend is better than an hour spent thinking about something on your own.
That sums up a core philosophy of the Design Studies modules – get talking and sharing your ideas. Stick them up on walls, ask people to help you work something out, don’t be afraid to start a conversation about someone else’s work.
Talk is cheap. It can save you time, spark new ideas, make you think – and help you make new friends. What’s not to like about that?
(NB not during my lectures though…)
Image by Joan Mas
It’s often believed that it’s wrong to use “I” in academic writing, and that is one of the reasons why academic writing gets a bad name.
The problem with “I” is it’s like a symptom of a worse problem. It isn’t the “I” that’s the problem, it’s what caused it. Imagine you keep finding black mold in your bathroom. You can clean it off and wait for it to grow again or you could think “wait a minute, maybe I should find out what’s causing this just in case something else is going on.”
Using I in itself is not “bad” if it’s justified. It’s all a matter of style. If you are writing a polemical piece (a personal argument) then you really should be using I to ensure that people don’t think you’re making claims for the rest of the world.
E.g. “I think all designers should wear black turtlenecks and grow goatee beards” is a better way of making a personal argument than “all designers should wear black turtlenecks and grow goatee beards”. What is “unacademic” is if you then fail to make a good case for why you believe that. Just saying it doesn’t make it right.
So rule number one about using “I” – it often signals a poorly made argument. And it is often a lazy way of making an argument without making a good case for it. That’s why using “I” is often “unacademic”.
Rule number two relates to another instance when it’s a symptom of a worse problem.
Imagine you are reporting on some research that you did and what you discovered. You interview someone (let’s call her Maria) and she tells you that in her experience, she has met more goatee-bearded designers than clean-shaven ones.
Which of these is better:
It’s the last one. Why? Because the designers with the goatee beards are the subject of the sentence. When you use “I” or “me” you’re making yourself the subject of the sentence, and you shouldn’t be.
(Why is the third version wrong? Well, because I’m making it clear that this is Maria’s experience or opinion, not a fact, and I’m placing Maria at the end of the sentence to focus on designers and their facial hair. It’s a stylistic thing and I only mention it to help you see what is meant by the “subject” of the sentence.)
So here, rule number two isn’t about being poor “academic” writing, just poor writing.
It’s important to know the difference between the “object” of a sentence and its “subject”.
The subject of a sentence is the thing that is doing something. (The verb)
The object of the sentence is the thing that is having something done to it.
Get these in the wrong order and you have a weaker sentence than you want. For example, compare these two sentences:
Which is a better sentence? The answer is the second because it is written in the “active voice” - the verb is more immediate. In the first sentence the subject of the sentence (the man), isn’t doing the verb (the biting.) We call that the “passive voice”. In the second sentence the subject is the dog, and the dog is doing the verb, i.e. biting the man.
The problem with the passive voice is that we tend to write in that style quite naturally in English. I’m sure there’s a cultural reason for it. But it isn’t good style for various reasons, one of which is that it distances us from the action and what’s important. In an episode of House, a patient may turn up with a bite wound. “What happened to him?” says House. “He was bitten by a dog”, says Chase. Cue 40 minutes of dead ends and blind alleys while they try to figure out why the patient is frothing at the mouth. If Chase had said “a dog bit him” maybe the next question would have been “did the dog have rabies?” Admittedly it would make for a very short episode, but will no one think of the poor patient?
Apart from anything else it uses up far more words – in that dog/man example, seven words compared with five. When you’re writing to a word limit, you need to keep your word usage down (believe it or not, despite the most common fear of writing a dissertation, getting to 7,000 words is not the problem, it’s getting down to 7,000!
Using “I” or “me” is often a sign that you’re using the passive voice instead of the active voice. You’re swapping the subject and the object round. “Maria told me that…” or “I was told by Maria that” is extraneous language. Who cares about you and Maria? We want to know about the hairy designers! We know it’s you finding this stuff out, your name’s on the front of the dissertation!
Incidentally, if all this is too much for you, word processors such as Microsoft Word have a grammar checking tool which will alert you to passive voice. So there’s really no excuse…
So that’s why it’s “wrong” to use “I” or “me” – it’s often (but not always) a symptom of a weak, passive writing style, not an attempt to diminish your role. That’s why it’s okay to say:
But not:
However in those circumstances I’d advise keeping quiet until you speak to a good lawyer.
When you’re doing research there will be several times when you find yourself overwhelmed with ideas. This can happen at the start when you’ve just done a brainstorm or mind map, for example, or later on after you’ve read lots of books or articles, or carried out interviews and observations.
Those of you taking Design Studies will no doubt get fed up with us mentioning things like mind maps, post-it notes and index cards but trust me, we don’t mention them because we have shares in the companies. They really are useful tools for getting stuff out of your head, or off a piece of paper, and into a format that you can play around with.
A typical use of cards is to classify research from reading and/or interviews or other methods. Students on the Design Studies modules do various types of research like this in level 2, and then continue with them in both studio projects and for the final year dissertation where they may be interviewing or observing lots of people, and reading a great deal of information from a variety of sources.
There is a temptation to use the latest technology to organise things, and I for one am constantly using various databases, cloud-based tools and different note-taking software but, at the end of the day, it’s the analogue tools that tend to win out. Make the stationery shop your friend, and go nowhere, and read nothing, without a collection of sticky notes, index cards and highlighter pens to hand.
Writing notes is a crucial skill – not just at university but beyond. It’s a way of remembering something, engaging with what you’re reading, being able to quickly remind yourself of things later, even years later. (Mind Maps are a good way of taking notes visually).
Never read something without making a note somewhere, whether it’s in the book or article (make sure you own it first!) or in a notebook (time to revive the tradition of carrying a notebook with you everywhere, perhaps – there’s a reason why artists and designers swear by Moleskines beyond the “cool” factor).
I write notes on my iPhone or iPad, and I use programs like Evernote, which has a great web clipping service so you can make notes on web sites you find. (It also comes in free versions for your computer, phone or iPad)
This advice, from Times Higher Education applies as much to reading design briefs and researching them as much as it does to essays, reports and dissertations. I’m not sure why people still think the two areas are different – the skills you learn writing essays are entirely transferable to design practice.
I’d question item 2 in this list: “refrain from highlighting text”. I’m guessing the author of these tips believes that highlighting text is a lazy way of making notes, and that actually writing notes is better – and I’d certainly agree with that. But highlighting also helps you quickly see important bits that link up with your notes. So I’d say “refrain from highlighting text unless you also write a note that says why you highlighted it. If you can’t explain why, don’t highlight it!”
How to take notes:
- Keep notes separate from the source material. Do not write comments on the pages of books and articles
- Refrain from highlighting text [see my comment above]
- Ensure that every module has a separate file. Keep notes from module readings separate from lecture and seminar notes
- Ensure that all references are accurate. This will save time later
- Either type or write your notes, but ensure they are legible for future use
- Write the key argument of the writer/s in one sentence
- Look at the bibliography/reference list used by the writer, noting the quality and dates of the cited scholarship
- Copy important quotations accurately. Carefully differentiate between your independent interpretation, paraphrasing and direct quotations
- Ensure notes are sufficiently detailed so that you do not need to return to the original text when writing assignments
- Ensure your notes are sufficiently brief and you have not paraphrased the entire article.
via Times Higher Education – Tara Brabazon: Take note as another learning discipline slides away.
A good, brief video from the University of Leicester on what we mean when we ask you to be “critical”
A report exploring the future of business working over the next 25 years found that people who can be lateral, collaborative, flexible and creative will be the most sought-after employees … Jemma Harris, of Microsoft, which commissioned the research, said these soft skills will ‘reign supreme in the UK workplace’ over the next quarter of a century.
Note that’s not just design employers – a design degree is a qualification for many more industries.
MacUpdate have released their latest software bundle and it focuses on tools of use to students.
Among the titles of particular interest to anyone writing or researching essays and dissertations are DevonAgent, which is quite a useful tool for online research (I’ve found it great for finding links between different topics) and BookEnds which helps compile bibliographies.
A word processor, Mellel, offers an alternative to Word that promises to be helpful in compiling long documents with different sections.
As more bundles are sold, other programs get unlocked and MacJournal has just become available – another useful tool this time for keeping notes and ideas.
Highly recommended – all these titles would cost $600 (£300+) but are available for just $49.99 (£25+)
Click the ad below for more details or visit the MacUpdate promo page.
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How to be a student: The art of working in a team
Harriet Swain
Tuesday June 10, 2008
The Guardian
In today’s competitive student world, the ability to work harmoniously with other people is a good way of marking yourself out from everybody else. While teamwork may offer the chance to blame others for your mistakes, you can never blame them for your failings as a teammate. In any case, working out where to apportion blame is not a good way to approach membership of any new team. Instead, get to know one another, so you can build up a shared identity and combine your strengths. Find out each other’s priorities, values, weaknesses, past achievements, names.
Don’t shy away from conflicts but work out how to deal with them, preferably without resorting to anything physical. Humour can be a good glue, so have a laugh together – but not at a team member’s sticking-out ears.
Before setting down to business, it’s important to establish ground rules. First, make sure you all share the same concept of time. Will 9.30am meetings actually take place at midday? Then, work out how you are going to make and communicate decisions. These are probably best made at a formal meeting and communicated by email, rather than in a rumble of agreement at a post-meeting pub session. You must also agree on who will be responsible for making decisions. Will they need to be made unanimously or by the vocal young man who has already mentioned the project on his CV under ‘leadership skills’?
Even if you have decided that decisions don’t have to be unanimous, it is important that every team member is kept involved, including those who always disagree with the majority view, rarely say a word, or have a weird haircut.
Once you’ve got your rules of engagement, define what you want to achieve, and the deadline. Work out what you have to do before the time is up to do it.
Now comes brainstorming. The important thing here is a fully open mind. Write everyone’s ideas down without sniggering. If you tell someone their idea is stupid, you may stop them coming up with something fantastic later. Once the brainstorming is over, you can strike out the suggestions that won’t work. Remember that ideas can sometimes be good even if they’re not yours. And don’t take it personally if yours are ditched – you will still have lots to contribute.
The team must assign roles according to everyone’s individual skills. Are you a charismatic leader or a details person? Remember that every task is equally important, even if one involves making a presentation and acknowledging the applause of your peers while the other involves hours of photocopying.
Whatever your role, it is important to keep a record of what has been decided at each stage and what each member of the team has contributed. Then, when the task is over, you can review how well it went. It is popularly known as covering your back.
A new, free, Mindmapping application!
MindNode is a free Leopard-only mind mapping application from Markus Müller, based in Austria. The application is by no means feature-rich; in fact, it’s so simple as to be a bit disarming at first. But what it lacks in features, it makes up for in elegance.
The interface is incredibly clean. To create a new node, simply double-click anywhere on the window, or press the Tab key when focused on a node to create a new child node. To create a node at the same level as the one that is currently in focus, press option-Tab.
As new nodes are added at the same level, they surround the previous nodes. For example, the second new node appears below the original one. The third appears above. Below, above, below, above. While this is an easy way to keep everything grouped together, it’s not particularly useful if you’re using MindNode to create a list with any sort of ordering. Some would argue that mind maps should not worry about ordering since it should be all about capturing ideas. But given that mind maps are useful in large part because they allow for graphical organization, this behavior is a bit unfortunate.
Other than that one small beef, MindNode is a nice, small, but useful tool that will be right at home in your Applications folder for the next time you find yourself needing to do some brainstorming.
