Editing assignment reflection

As part of our research skills module EN6009, both MA classes Medieval to Renaissance and Modernities were tasked with editing pages of Wikipedia relevant to our research area. This was challenging as it brought to light how close we are coming to choosing a solid thesis topic. I had some ideas having given my thesis some degree of reflection over the Christmas holidays and knew it would be best to focus on an area that I have a broad knowledge of and in doing so might contribute something of worth. Recently I have simply been asking myself “What do you like? What interests you? What could you discuss at length?” Simple self reflective questions to be sure but they did in fact lead me to a possible topic of interest which I will explain in greater details in another blog post, essentially it involves the theme of time travel and the works of two of my favourite writers.

However, I found this assignment difficult as I was at a loss as to what I could add/change about entries relating to my areas of interest as all pages already seemed well written and fleshed out. Despite great support/assistance from lecturers it was simply not something I felt able to complete.

Though I appreciate the overall purpose of the assignment, which was to gain experience editing pages of information on areas we are striving to become scholars in, it was difficult to complete for me personally due to the aforementioned lack of ideas and not having my own laptop present, thus left with no other option but to attempt the assignment on my tablet.

As with all assignments successful or not this was a learning experience and has reminded me that at this level of study there will always be assignments that challenge you or put you outside of your comfort zone and the best course of action is simply to see it through and as I have mentioned before, not be afraid to ask for help.