Tarabrabazon's Podcast

The relief is real when the first draft of a research project is completed.  However the marks - and the high grades - are given to the best edited and drafted documents.  Polish creates excellence.  Tara explores this difficult, time consuming and stressful stage of a research project, showing what examiners are looking for and how - and where - the marks are carried on a dissertatation.

Too often the phrase 'writing up' is used as a self evident and self explanatory phrase in research projects.  Yet writing, researching and thinking are tethered in complex and intricate ways.  Tara explores the writing 'stage' in research and shows that it is not a 'stage' at all, but a continual cycle of reflection through scholarship.

The online environment has opened incredible opportunities to research students. Yet how is this plurality of information and platform managed in current research projects?  Tara explains - from the perspective of a supervisor and examiner - what is expected from a research bibliography in the 2010s.

Practice-led and creative-led theses and research projects have grown in popularity over the last twenty years.  Often formed from an artefact and exegesis, they are not without controversy or challenge, particularly when passing through a process of examination.  Tara evaluates the risk and potential of this special mode of research.

Along with research methods, the literature review is a constant - if dull - attendant to any programme of research.  Yet literature reviews are not only done poorly, but are often pointless and obliquely connected to the research question or thesis statement.  Tara ensures that the focus of the literature review is clear and frames the research effectively and carefully.

Teaching (and learning about) research methods is often the dullest of topics and courses. Yet methods are important, but perhaps not in the way in which they are conventionally taught. Tara talks about why methods matter, but why they must be at the service of theory.

The phrase "doing research" does not capture the complex stages and milestones between finding an idea and submitting a thesis or major assignment.  Tara talks through the stages of a research project, understanding how and why examiners give high marks to some students and remove marks from others.

While the intensity of a research project is often focused on the days before submission, the success of a thesis or dissertation is often determined by the first few days of planning.  Tara shows how to make that plan, and the tricks and tips that will create a successful research trajectory.

Tara introduces the fourth year research course in Communication at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology: Capstone

Tara talks with Steve Redhead and discusses the characteristics of research projects that fail, or are marginally successful. How can students avoid the pitfalls and errors in their research?

Research training is a major area of the contemporary academy. A key - yet underasked question - is the difference between theory and method. Steve Redhead and Tara explore 'the turn to methods' and the impact of this 'turn' on the scale, scope and quality of research.

Nicola and Tara talk about the capacity of podcasting for assessment in professional communication programmes.

Claire and Tara explore how podcasting can be used in assessment for professional communication programmes. Claire shows how complex ideas can be presented in new ways.

Tara discusses the availability and use of social science and humanities resources for students at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. Tara and Steph explore the nature of 'new librarianship,' where ebooks outnumber paper-based resources.

Tara talks about non-violent communication with Sharon Lauricella.

How does where we are configure who we are?  Tara explores the role of context in framing our mode of communication.

Tara talks with students about their experiences of Turnitin, the software that 'finds' plagiarism. 

Tara and Steve Redhead discuss how to construct an annotated bibliography and research proposal for his course Cultural Studies of Law. The opportunities and challenges for students are discussed, along with potential sources.

Matt Homer talks with Tara about how podcasting can offer new and imaginative opportunities to think about news, current affairs, entertainment and information.  Further, innovative new relationships are being created between the production and consumption of sound.

How can we use our voices to create connections between communities? Tara talks with Maggie Wouapi to explore the potential of podcasting in building social relationships and social change.