(Day 466...or so) The craziness of the summer is almost over (does that mean I will update more often?), and the monotony of the school year has almost begun. This means that work begins, thesising must get moving, and also the applications for conferences, journals and other schools commence as well. Of all those things, the conferences are the only one of those potentials of which I am currently capable. In order to apply for conferences, you must provide an abstract for your work. Now, the abstract (short summary of the paper) is normally meant to summarize the paper, but as I am unwilling to write the paper until I have been accepted to a conference, it actually ends up being a summary of what I think/would like/hopefully will do. Professional rampant but simultaneously frowned on.
Another issue with abstracts is that they are limited to 200-300 words (sometimes as low as 150), and sometimes accompanied with a 30 word summary as well. Usually this is no problem at all, as I tend more towards brevity and succinct writing anyways. Since engaging in thesis writing, which tends to be very wordy and lengthy, it has been quite a bit of trouble reverting back. 200 words does not let you say much at all, but you can work with it. 30 words is a sentence! Just one! I am used to having to summarize my work for every passerby who knows that I am doing an MA, but to write it out into one sentence is quite the daunting task. I am not even sure I could summarize this blog in one sentence. "An oft-neglected collection of thoughts, ponderings and ruminations on the ridiculousness of academic life for one young music lover." Hmm, well that isn't half bad, if only I could use that for my summary. If only I had thought to write my thesis on the experience of writing a thesis, then I would already be done, and that would still be my summary. Hello PhD idea!
I can't believe I found a relevant song of the day: "Musically Inclined" by Abstract Tribe Unique
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2 comments:
bah - it's easy! Just take out all the conjunctions, prepositions, and articles. They're smarties, they'll figure it out. ; )
Day 466... hmmm, how you fit a year and a half between April and now is an enigma, clearly what has happened here is time travel, perhaps this would be a good topic for your phD, or at least it deserves a blog entry on how to read more books in a fixed amount of time.
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