EN370 Research Methods

How did I find myself in 1993 doing a subject on English Research I ask myself?

Having a major in English and Religion nailed down, and needing two units complete an Arts degree in only eight years (!), I recall deciding I wanted to do some postgraduate work in English, which in those days was called a Postgraduate Diploma in Arts. It was the part time equivalent of an honours year.

The prerequisites for that were this subject and a subject on Literary Theory, which I tackled in second semester.

One key idea of the course was to try to help us not make a hash of the dissertation that we would tackle in the years to come. There was also instruction on simple tools (like a perpetual calendar), proof reading and MLA style. With the best part of two degrees already, learning how to research and present essays properly was a bit late.

1993 was also when I first had a real IBM clone running Word, so I have the actual documents backed up and will need to scan and type no more for this blog. I also at great expense, (~$1000) added a CD-ROM to the computer. This was an absolute marvel in the pre-internet world and it meant some of the library techniques we were being taught were already becoming redundant. I think one library task I had to do was largely able to be done on a reference CD ROM without much effort. It also was great for the children to have fun educational CD ROMs available for their use.

It was a largely practical class taught by Dr Chris Tiffin and Dr Alan Lawson and was assessed on attendance, seven small assignments, of which four were graded and a short answer exam. It was pass/fail – I passed.

Dr Tiffin is still at UQ it appears and his profile is here. This photo of him is from some time ago, I suspect before my time there.

Dr Lawson is now Emeritus Professor Lawson and also still associated with UQ.