So, we lost the Seniors v. Teachers (more like the Seniors/Juniors v. Teachers + Mr. Haag) basketball game. But at least it was fun…I guess…. Never fear, there’s always next year…oh wait.
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| Can we make it best to three? |
On the bright side, I finished my results section, but it was just toooooooo loooooooong. 1425 words?!?!?! My entire paper is already at 4800 words. Please kill me. Good news is that I know some places in my methods and literature review where I can cut down my word count by around 400-500 words. I’ll probably find some way to cut down my results too. Bad news? I have no idea how long my discussion section is going to be. But it will all work out at the end, right? (I’m really sorry if you like your bad news before your good news).
Anyways, let's start with my (VERY) basic overview of my discussion section. I will be referencing the following three sources:
- Donald, Ralph R. “Antiwar Themes In Narrative War Films: Soldiers' Experiences As Social Comment.” Studies in Popular Culture, vol. 13, no. 2, 1991, pp. 77–92.
- Weakland, John H. “Themes in Chinese Communist Films.” American Anthropologist, vol. 68, no. 2, 1966, pp. 477–484. New Series
- Bongjin Cho et al. “Cultural Values Reflected in Theme and Execution: A Comparative Study of U.S. and Korean Television Commercials.” Journal of Advertising, vol. 28, no. 4, 1999, pp. 59–73.
The first two sources, I will use to discuss the basic layout and guidelines of a typical discussion section of a thematic analysis paper. The third source will be used for my conclusions.
In his paper, Ralph Donald’s conclusion is simple, but lacks lots of connections. Donald found 4 different antiwar themes through his thematic analysis. But in his discussion he only explains why these antiwar themes exist but not how they correlate with each other. John Weakland, on the other hand, does not give the same broad conclusion that Donald had. However, Weakland does give a very detailed explanation of the contradictions and the connections between all of his themes. Obviously, I want to synthesize the structure of the two sources in my discussion section. So the following is the outline of the overall flow and content of my discussion section:
- I will first discuss any interesting connections that I find within my themes
- I will provide a visual aid in the form of a thematic map
- My conclusion based on my results
- First I will compare my results to Cho Bongjin et al. to show that the thematic changes follow common cultural differences between America and Japan
- However there is no loss in complexity, these changes are too insignificant, minute, or small to significantly impact the overall thematic structure/content of the anime
- Then I will compare my results to previous studies that hypothesized that anime lost its complexity and thematic properties during the dubbing process
- Significance
- These themes re-emphasize and shed new light on the cultural differences between American and Japanese values
- Individualism v. Collectivism
- Also, these themes show the inherent/basic values in collectivist and individualistic societies
- Perhaps the most important is that these themes can be used with future research studies to give more specific examples of the thematic differences between a dubbed and original/subtitled anime.
- Limitations
- Even if the themes listed here were changed, it does not mean that every aspect of these themes themselves were changed during the dubbing process
- The thematic analysis was subjective, so the thematic differences can be subject to change
- The three anime used, although culturally important in America, don’t necessarily represent all of the anime that has been brought to America
- Future Research
- My literature review was organized in a way where I posed a broader question: Why do American audiences find anime to be appealing because of its themes, even after there are thematic changes during the dubbing process?
- My research was posed as the first step of answering the overall question, so the next step would be to find what themes are kept when anime is brought to the United States
- Another possible research opportunity is using another sample size to find the thematic changes
So that is my basic outline of my discussion section. There are still a few holes that I might need to fill here and there. Also it does not have much detail, but hopefully it will be as complex as my literature review.
Word Count: 724
Gursajan,
ReplyDeleteDon't even get me started on the Senior v. Teacher game. Aayush missed so many blatant fouls that the loss was pretty much nulled by refereeing. Anyways... In terms of word count, I understand your struggle in trying to cut down words but keep all the important ideas. I think you have a great structure for your discussion, so you are in a good place for that. Just make sure that you use sources to understand your results throughout and that you draw the implications from the unanswered questions of your research. I'm excited to see what your research paper turns out to be in its final state. I believe in you.
Don't be a hater -- we won!
DeleteHey Gursajan!
ReplyDeleteSorry you guys lost, maybe it's because I wasn't there? Throwing out some possible explanations.
I think the way you have outlined your discussion section is pretty solid: including all the pertinent and important components that should be in a discussion section. I think it's important you make sure to keep connecting each part back to your purpose and making transitions between the sections. I like how you connected the future research back to the literature review, making everything kind of loop back in a circle, which makes your research seem very purposeful. Make sure that when you go through your limitations you are justifying the scope of your research and what you could do to try to mitigate these limitations/ why your research is still valuable despite these limitations. Other than that, I think you are doing a great job!
Sunskruthi
GURSAJANNNNN,
ReplyDeleteAlthough I've been known to be gracious in defeat, I am still salty about that game... we weren't getting any calls (lol... this sentence is false on all accounts).
Anyways, I like the way you sketched out a basic outline for your discussion. I really really liked the part when you talked about linking the thematic changes you observed to the cultural differences between Japan and the US. You should emphasize this aspect like crazy, as it would make your research very significant for a general audience (even those who don't watch anime).
One thing I would phrase slightly differently is the part about the subjectivity of thematic analysis. I do understand that it is slightly subjective, but the power of your research is in its reproducibility up to a point. I think that you should acknowledge that they are slightly subjective, but also that you put in great care to develop these themes. The greater limitations may be associated with your sample size and the partial changing of themes in the dubbing process.
My question to you is: should you frame your question the same way you have it written or emphasize the change in anime from Japan to the US in your research question?
Keep up the fire snaps, incisive comments, and beast research!
Yash
(218)
One, my husband played in my honor, so back off. Two, I feel like your approach that you outlined here is a lot more robust than the approach that you ended up going with. Where did you talk about the connections between themes? It seems like you only connected your findings to that one new source and didn't connect your findings back to the literature review at all. From our meeting today, I think the second half of the paper needs some major work, so hopefully you'll get some key feedback this week.
ReplyDelete