Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Drawing a Dissertation

Readers at ITM and Old English in New York may remember that the topic of my first chapter is the Old English Orosius. You may remember, way back in November, when I revising my chapter on the Orosius, I was having a bit of trouble straightening out the terms with which I spoke of the various voices in the text.

I'm working, again, on revising that same old text. You can see a small snippet of what I've been doing with it here. However, in the past few weeks or so I've been trying to tap into my formerly quite creative side, which sometimes gets sublimated by both a lack of time and a lack of interest. I don't have time to draw anymore, for example. But in the past couple weeks, I've taken to literally sketching out some of my arguments in the chapter, to help me keep straight the number of elements, levels, or names that appear in the essay.

The fruits of today's labor? The following diagram. Please note that, should it make it to the final copy of my dissertation chapter, I'll redraw it and make it a bit cleaner:

The "legend," if you will, is the following. 

ASE = Anglo-Saxon England
Rep of HAP = Representation of the Historiarum Adversum Paganos in the Old English Orosius.
Cwæð = The "cwæð Orosius" construction in the Old English Orosius. 

Essentially, I'm trying to represent, albeit somewhat simplistically, the levels of interaction of the Latin and Old English texts.   So they intersect where Latin historical texts are present in Anglo-Saxon England.  The first level of that intersection is the Latin versions of the Historiarum present in Anglo-Saxon England at the time of the translation.   At that point, the attribution of the text can still be to Paulus Orosius, as these are texts in the original language, copies.  The next level, then, is the Old English translation.  The "voice of authority" is no longer Paulus Orosius himself -- if such a thing is possible to think of, to borrow the Derridean line, and in light of having *just* taught Death of the Author to my undergraduates  -- so I'm calling that level of narration/authority the "Translator/Narrator."  

This next level is where things get a bit messy.   For various reasons, in order to understand the way the source text (the Historiarum Adversum Paganos, by Paulus Orosius) interacts with the translation, the Old English Orosius, I find it useful to suggest a distinction between the parts of the Old English text which are specifically meant to represent the Latin text and those which can only be departures that are the results of an explicit choice on the part of the translator.   The majority of the text falls into the first category.    Certain sections of the text, like the part in the geographical preface which relates the travels of Ohthere and Wulfstand, fall into the second.  These are clear departures from the Historiarum.   To express the identification between the translator and the voice of Orosius, I've chosen Orosius-translator.  This category is distinct from the explicit, reported speech citations of Paulus Orosius that occur where the text inserts the first person or, more explicitly, the cwæð Orosius  (a phrase which occurs fifty times in the text, and means "Orosius said").   To mark the distinction, I'm using Orosius-narrator. 

That's a lot of information, particularly for folks who perhaps aren't as familiar with the Orosius.  However, the question I have for you today dear readers, is about the use of diagrams in dissertations.   Are they a good thing, where they help lay out your thought process in a way that makes your prose that much clearer?  Or are they a crutch I should dispense with, and use merely in the draft stages, to help my mind keep track of the many "facts" of the text?   Has anyone out there written a book/dissertation/article that makes extensive use of diagrams?  Or that uses diagrams at all?   How did that work? 


cross posted to ITM

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think that can only help, and also demonstrates that you think in interesting ways. It could use some work so that it doesn't need so much explanation, but on the other hand (and I've done this with a forthcoming paper) a diagram that needs to be explained is actually a good way to open up a subject sometimes. However, my experience is that almost any diagram will be questioned thoroughly by a prospective publisher come proofs time because for some reason they still cost extra money. For the examiners, though, use anything you can to make your thought easier to expound!

Meg said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Bear in mind, I'm responding to this as a lowly Bachelor of Arts (essentially, I have a very small wergeld in the academic community)--but I found the diagram to be quite helpful. Without it, I would've had to read the text at least twice to really understand what you were saying. That is in no way a shot at your writing--it's more a sad commentary on how much my brain has deteriorated outside of the ivory tower.

In very plain language, pictures are shiny.

Anonymous said...

I have been in search of such interesting Articles, I am on a holiday its good to see that everyone are trying their best to keep up the Spirit by having such great articles posted.

Cheers, Keep it up.


___________________
Andrew
We do your Marketing for best sales

Masters Dissertation said...

Whenever i see the post like your's i feel that there are still helpful people who share information for the help of others, it must be helpful for other's. thanx and good job.

Dissertation Writing Help

hiphop said...

Thank you for this nice topic

Dissertation Help said...

The good thing about your information is that it is explicit enough for students to grasp. Thanks for your efforts in spreading academic knowledge.

SEO Marketing Agency said...

It's a huge subject to draw dissertation.

chris mark said...

From this Hot Spot for dissertation i want to inform you that Now, students can also buy dissertations from Dissertation Proposal

MC Grath said...

When ever we go through some thing like that. We got a conclusion for future plans. Nice post. Thanks shredding Paper

Unknown said...

The following diagram. Please note that, should it make it to the final copy of my dissertation chapter,
topics free dissertation

Coupon Blues said...

Thanks for informative post. I am pleased sure this post has helped me save many hours of browsing other similar posts just to find what I was looking for. Just I want to say: Thank you! Macy's Coupon
JcPenney Coupons
Bluefly Coupon Codes
Target Promo Codes
Barnes & Noble Coupon Code
Groupon Promo Codes
Amazon Promo Codes
Best Buy Coupons
American Eagle Promo Code
AutoZone Coupons
Walmart Coupon Codes
Next Day Flyers Coupon Codes
Overstock Promo Codes
bebe Coupon Codes
Light In The Box Coupons
SmartBargains Coupons
Bed Bath and Beyond Coupon