Reflection of annotated bibliography and first outline draft--week 4

Taxonomy of Reflection: Week 4

Remembering: What did I do?

I added the final twenty articles to my annotated bibliography.  I put together a very rough first draft of my outline for the literature review.  I shared the latter with the Google+ community.

Understanding: What was important about it?

Having the annotated bibliography finished is nice. This is important because it suddenly becomes a useful resource, rather than an albatross.  Nothing has changed except for its requisite nature, of course, yet I could not help thinking of it primarily as a burden when I had deadlines to meet.  I expect to see it as a useful and helpful resource as I begin in earnest the writing of the literature review.
The outline is important as an organizer of my thoughts and content. I'm already starting to classify my sources (mentally, at this point) around the outline topics.

Application: When did I do this before? Where could I use it again?

I have completed similar annotated bibliography assignments twice already this semester, and I'm sure to perform similar functions as I continue in my research career.
Outlining is one of those ubiquitous steps.  I've created a basic modular outline such as this one for every major paper I've written in the last decade, and will likely continue to do so as time goes on.

Analysis: Do I see any patterns or relationships in what I did?

I'm coming across many of the same articles in database and literature searches. It's a good feeling to know that, in some areas, I am coming close to the point of literature exhaustion. The production of an outline can be thought of as a formal representation of the patterns and relationships I have identified as I created the annotated bibliography these last three weeks (particularly the subheadings).
On a less positive level, once again I procrastinated rather badly. I found myself passing by the library after a hard day's work, putting the bulk of the work off till the weekend.  Even then, I did almost no work on Saturday, because of my desire to balance family time (and, honestly, good NCAA football). That left Sunday afternoon and evening for the production of most of my output. This pattern is a bad one. With my trip to the American Academy of Optometry meeting coming up Tuesday through Sunday of this upcoming week, I will have to do as much work as possible Monday, and on the airplane Tuesday evening, to prevent a terrible crunch.

Evaluation: How well did I do? What worked? What do I need to improve?

Again, I feel pretty good about the sources I found for the annotated bibliography, and my summaries of the articles. I need to reorganize the sources now around keywords; perhaps I can put references under each heading and subheading of my outline?
I felt constrained by my topic outline when creating my literature review outline; I would have liked to have organized the literature review differently based upon the information I found during my annotated bibliography, but I wanted to at least have one outline that was reasonably similar to the topic proposal. I'm sure that this will change before the week is up.

Creation: What should I do next? What's my plan/design?

I will review the new online course material as soon as it is released Monday morning.  I'll organize and plan my work Monday night, and enter the specific steps into my smartphone task app, HabitRPG.  This will keep my on task this week, hopefully.

Personal Reflections

I'm very happy to be done with the formal annotated bibliography, and to get on with the actual writing. I hope this bibliography will in fact lead to a reduction of the work load when I am writing. I believe I made a quality document, but I left much detail out for the sake of space and readability. Hopefully, I won't have to review the articles too deeply during the writing process.

I'm exhausted. There are so many pulls on me now. There's the doctoral work, of course, and the three courses I'm teaching (two as instructor of record).  I have to prepare for the poster session that's coming up this week. I have an obvious and good desire to spend time with my wife (now 19 weeks pregnant!), which pulls me in another direction. On top of this, I am feeling as though I am neglecting the other members in my church, who count on me as I count on them (a word on this point: there is no spiritual dryness or fear of sinning here. Grace is a wonderful gift, and God does not begrudge me being busy. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, and, in lieu of a true Sabbath day, I have learned to rest in him). Last, and certainly least, but still important, is my wish for some straight-up leisure time. I want to take some time at the Academy meeting to simply spend time with friends and see the sights in and around Denver. Hopefully I will be able to schedule this and stick to it.