Break continues...

I can't believe I have another 2 weeks until classes start at Columbia. I've checked it twice to make sure. But I'm thinking about calling the English Department just to triple check. Because, wow, that's a long break.

Apparently, it's because Columbia has something called a "J-session," which runs through the month of January. It's kind of like a summer class, but in the winter, if you get my drift.

So, I get to keep working on my dissertation. Just a quick update. Chapter 3 is about wrapped up for now. I'll need to do some revisions once I've moved on to later chapters, but it's in pretty good shape at this stage in my process. I've recoded most of my student data. I have data from 7 students left that I'm going to use for reliability purposes. Jen has kindly agreed to help me with that task, which I'm happy about and a little worried about. It's easy to forget how truly complicated this stuff is when you're in the middle of it. I'm worried that I'm not going to be able to adequately explain to her what to look for and how to identify it.

The other day I was talking to someone about the work that I'm doing on my dissertation--talking about searching for metaphors for learning, knowledge, and writing--and the person I was talking to asked, "Now, metaphors are the ones that don't use 'like' or 'as,' right?" It was then that I realized how truly complex these ideas are that I'm working with. Because the way that I think about metaphor now after all my reading and study doesn't differentiate between metaphors and similes. It's a completely different paradigm of thought: cognitive traits vs. surface features of language. It's so different, and I've thought about these ideas in this way for so long, that it's shocking when I remember there is this whole other way out there to think about metaphor. In fact, I really shouldn't even be using the word metaphor because I'm really looking for all different kinds of analogical discourse. (I should revise that in Chapt. 3, now that I think of it.) For example, I'm also searching for synecdoche, and I really don't differentiate between metaphor and simile because, for my purposes, there's really no reason to.

So this week's tasks will be to start in on "teacher" data--looking at syllabi and course descriptions and objectives that I can use to search for "analogical discourse." :)

So, have fun teaching, folks. I'll be joining you soon enough. I'm just happy I don't have to walk to work in the bitter cold that's coming up later this week.