Tara Brabazon podcast

Assumptions about research supervision are damaging. At the start of any research project, it is important to ask, note and understand student expectations for teaching, learning, research and supervision. Tara talks to her 4th year undergraduate students and probes their requirements of a research supervisor.

Once the research is completed, students may feel that the difficult slog is finally over and they can quickly and accurately write up their project and submit it with ease. Yet such an assumption is mistaken. Tara talks with Mick Winter about the writing phase of research projects. What are the distinctions between journalistic and academic writing? What is the best mode of expression? Can we ever edit too much? Mick answers these questions from his experiences in both graduate education and journalism.

Tara introduces her students from Capstone, the 4th year research project at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. Students ask Tara the key questions to commence their research project.

Laura and Tara discuss how to organize time in a research project. How do you know when to stop reading? How valuable is that editing and drafting time? Laura and Tara explore the value of 'seeing' time' to structure time.

Research is difficult. It can be a pleasure, but the point of research is to challenge ourselves and challenge the limits of knowledge to discover something new. Tara concludes her 10 microlectures by discussing how to succeed in research and value the experience.

A rather depressing title to this podcast, but it is important to acknowledge the characteristics of poor research projects that may fail. Tara discusses the signs of research flaws, problems and issues and how students can correct these before submission.

When the research, writing and editing cycles are complete, students - quite rightly - feel that it is time to relax. However the key moment is still in front of them. Preparing the document for submission is crucial to a successful examination. Tara provides a checklist for students to deploy, to ensure that the examiner receives a high quality submission, rather than a document that does not present a student's work at its best.

The relief is real when the first draft of a research project is completed. However the marks - and the high grades - are given to the best edited and drafted documents. Polish creates excellence. Tara explores this difficult, time consuming and stressful stage of a research project, showing what examiners are looking for and how - and where - the marks are carried on a dissertatation.

Too often the phrase 'writing up' is used as a self evident and self explanatory phrase in research projects. Yet writing, researching and thinking are tethered in complex and intricate ways. Tara explores the writing 'stage' in research and shows that it is not a 'stage' at all, but a continual cycle of reflection through scholarship.

The online environment has opened incredible opportunities to research students. Yet how is this plurality of information and platform managed in current research projects? Tara explains - from the perspective of a supervisor and examiner - what is expected from a research bibliography in the 2010s.