Next On the List

Hello All,

It's hard to believe that it is already week five, it's going by super fast! I've started actively working on the digital part of my project and hope to have it done by the end of the month. It's a little slow going. I've written quite a bit of the narrative, and I also have chosen most of my photographs but I am still having trouble with the layout and what I want it to look like - also the color choices are really limited and although this is a trivial thing it's a bit bothersome. I'm also continuing with my writing and trying to expand on what I already have, finding the correct layout of the paper is also proving difficult (I guess layouts in both digital and physical form are my nemesis for the week), but I have been switching paragraphs around and I think I am on the right path. I also want to go back in the next week or so and take another look at my lit review. There are some parts that I think I need to scrap and other areas that I can expand on.

Next On the List

Hello All,

I hope everyone had a nice and relaxing break! I spent most of my time working on my graduate applications and visiting family.

I have been making some progress with my thesis project. I have created my account and started working with ARCGIS. Everyone warned me that it was not the easiest software to work with and I have to agree! I'm spending a lot of time reading articles and manuals on the software to try and understand how everything goes together. I was a little discouraged coming back from break, but after meeting with individuals and scheduling other meetings I hopefully will be able to start making major headway soon.

I will also have my thesis board meeting this week, and I'm excited to sit down and chat about my paper and hear any new ideas that they might have. I always find it helpful to discuss my project out loud and go over it with a group instead of trying to run through it in my head, if that makes sense.

I'm also starting to work on my eight pages for this Thursday which is really exciting and also mildly terrifying. I have this great fear that I'm going to run out of things to say (which I know is super unlikely). It's kind of fun to just start your paper in the place you're the most confident in and just roll with it. It's bringing back happy memories from my time at camp and I'm really enjoying it.

My Idea for the Future

For the first couple of months I held pretty true to my original idea. Although as I continue to gather research and narrow down my topic, it seems that I keep tweaking various parts of my thesis and concept. My topic is no longer focused primarily on the digital space and the role interactivity plays. It seems to have shifted. I'm now examining how a digital space portrays a narrative/storyline and what role can users play in the content generated for the site. With this change I need to re-conceptualize my original thesis statement and continue to narrow down what topics are important to my paper. I'm happy with this new direction!

I believe that my ideas about my thesis will continue to evolve and change. But because I am happy with these new ideas, I feel like I can move forward with the project part of my thesis, and start the visual process. I have also officially decided to work with ArcGIS because of its story mapping capabilities. I think this platform will help me form an engaging narrative and think more in depth about what content users would like to see on this type of platform.