PhD Proposal

A large part of the submission for my 705 unit is a written PhD proposal. After I had done some of the practical work for 705 and reached the stage before creating UVs for the house, I decided to take a few weeks and write my proposal. Writing the proposal took much longer than I first anticipated and had planned for. 

I decided to start this section of work by creating a list of questions that I should answer in my proposal. These questions were from previous presentations and questions that Michaella had asked me. I decided to add these questions to a chart and start to add points to each one which I could then build on alongside the practical work I was doing. This was a good way for me to work on both sections of the 705 unit at the same time, as well as a way to get the thoughts out of my head and on paper. 

Doing this really helped me collect all the bits of information that I had all over into one location. Before doing this I had different bits of information in lots of different documents, including my dissertation, proposals and presentations, as well as a lot of info that was only in my head. 

I spent a bit of time where I wasn't sure of what I wanted to do for the written section. The options were: A PhD proposal, a journal article, or a conference paper. While these would also include similar information the structures of them are considerably different. I spent a bit of time researching the structures of these as well of the different benefits. After this I looked at different conferences and journals where I could publish the work, I also looked at online animation magazines where I could potentially write an article about my work. I struggled to find many conferences that were suitable and this is an area that I need to further research for my future progression. 

I had looked at these different options as I was no longer sure if a PhD was the right direction for me. After lots of stress at work my desire to progress was severely impacted and my motivation to stay in the animation industry was not great, I did even spend a few weeks researching different career options in my spare time. At this stage, a PhD proposal seemed a pointless task if I was never going to use it, but I also knew that being so close to the end of the course I wasn't going to drop out and that I wanted to finish so I had to produce something. 

My tutor recommended that I write an abstract for my paper so that then If any opportunities to publish came up, I was ready to send the abstract in, instead of having to write it later, and also that I would have a section of writing done that could be used for any of the 3 options. I created a draft abstract and got some feedback which I then used to refine it further. 

After researching the different things I could submit, as well as writing the abstract. Things settled out a bit more at work. I had also completed more practical work for my project which I enjoyed a lot, I felt like I was learning more software and I liked what I was making. I started to consider a PhD again. I decided that I would rather have my PhD proposal ready to go, but that I was going to take some time to find the right place for me to do it. Even if this means taking a year out. 

After all this, I started writing the proposal. It was at this stage that I had to take a few weeks away from practical work, in order to concentrate on the written element, do the research and get a chunk of the work completed for the submission. Because of the different issues I have spoken about above, I didn't have any written element for the project and as this was a large part of the final submission, I started to panic that I was getting behind with the work. I decided to use the same structure that my previous presentations had taken, using the titles of the slides as headings for the different sections. From here I used the headings and the question chart to begin to populate a structure for the proposal. 

It took multiple drafts and feedback to get to the final draft of the proposal. As I was working on the proposal I found that there were sections I needed to further research such as methodologies. My tutor also found some guides to writing a PhD proposal from different institutions. These really helped me in the writing but also meant that I needed to adjust and edit what I had written. One of the first sections that I worked on was the context, for this I used my dissertation as well as the research I had conducted since. I picked out elements that were the most important and re-wrote areas to get a condensed contextual background for the project, however, this was over 1500 words. Once I had the guides I found out the word limit for a proposal was only 1000 words in total, I knew I was going to have condense all my work considerably. Instead of doing this straight away, I made the decision to write the other sections of the proposal using the UAL guide. I found that there were sections I could cut completely and sections that I need to adjust slightly. I completed the other sections as concisely as I could, this enabled me to see how many words I had so that then I knew how much I had to cut. I started editing the document back and making sure it was clear, didn't repeat and included all the details the guide suggested.

I was able to get feedback about the proposal from my tutor as well as from some colleagues. This helped me make sure that it made sense to other people and that I hadn't edited details out that were needed. The feedback I got was good and it was clear, there were some suggested edits which I made. I was able to complete a final draft, which I sent to my tutor for feedback ahead of the final submission. I have received her feedback and will use this to further edit my document ahead of submission. 

At the start of this, I was slightly dreading having to write this proposal as I was enjoying the practical side of the project. Due to the nature of my project, I have had to do more writing than others on the course or if I had stuck with the original plan. But I am glad that I decided to write this and do this project as I think that being able to create something unique that can contribute to the overall industry is rare and I am glad that I have the opportunity to do this.