https://proofreading-editing-services.com/proofreading-editing-blog/

Poet and biography Harry Ricketts was at Warwick University on Tuesday 27th December to talk about his new book Strange Meetings . As he talked about the process of writing the book I was struck by how much fiction and nonfiction intertwine in their techniques and challenges. Writing involves thinking about perspective, and there are many angles this could take. Framing a book with real meetings and links between a select number of war poets is an intriguing idea and the book reads very well. The highpoint for me was hearing the poem Quarantine Island. A strange choice perhaps, but the following words reminded me of this strange process called a PhD. 'There will be days of sudden calm, nights when stars burn into your head. World turns strange and yet the same.' It was fascinating to have a chat with him afterwards about the process of writing as I hope to use poetry in some form in my creative piece. Folktales often have rhymes and lines of poetry within them, and I...

I’ve been spending the last month focusing in on methodology. I’ve returned this week to the concept of emotional intelligence. This time looking more critically at the idea and the abilities I wish to focus on in respect to what can I measure in terms of emotional abilities. Empathy is a definite skill and worth further reading. I’ve also begun promoting an event at Warwick University. An hour of wintery tales from Irish storyteller Colin King. This is a free event for postgraduated students made possible with support from the Research Student Skills Programme and the department of English and Comparative Literary Studies. I’m hoping to get students to share their stories after the main event and hope that it will be a success.

I just got back from Edinburgh. Went to the Scottish Storytelling Festival for the chance to meet Joanna Geyer Kordesch, who is researching Science, Medicine and the Arts of Illness with funding from the Wellcome Trust. Sadly she is not very well and was unable to attend her workshops last week. Donald Smith, Director of the Storytelling Centre, led the discussions stating very eloquently that 'the way we experience the world is closer to imagination than to a realistic science model. In the way that we view the world is very different from that experience.'   The group discussed health and states of mind with some of the group sharing wonderful personal stories.   Kordesch believes that 'Narrative description is subjective and orientated on the individual’s attempt to understand experience'. To improve the health care system we need to work with each person's story, treating mind and body as a complete whole. Mental states of illness are about rela...

This month my task is to clarify my research questions and methods in greater detail. Today I mind mapped all the ideas I had and formed some questions as follows: Overall research question: Does traditional storytelling have an effect on adolescent emotional aptitude (that is emotional ability) This then breaks down into a set of sub-questions: 1/ How can we measure if the emotional aptitude of adolescents changes or remains the same in response to storytelling? 2/ What processes may be occurring between the storyteller and the listener that work with or against emotional aptitude? How can these be used in a creative piece? 3/ How can storytelling be compared to reading and writing? 4/ Does storytelling have an effect on social relationships at the individual, group and community level? Creative piece: As a creative experiment I will refer to the adolescents' thoughts from this research to inspire short stories with themes of emotional aptitude, blending reality and...

I’ve now officially got access to everything at Warwick. And there are some great training courses I can go on in the Comparative literature and Sociology departments. On qualitative and quantitative methods. At present I’m focused on applying to funding through Warwick and the Chancellor’s Fund, though it is highly competitive I hope I’ll be able to demonstrate all the hard work I’ve put in this year. There isn't much part time work available unfortunately. But looking for something linked to my research such as in a school or department at the university. I had a great meeting with Marcia Harvey, a regional participation manager at Youngminds on Friday. She is doing some amazing work with groups in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and the surrounding areas. I’m hoping that there may be potential to work together on some common goals in the future.

‘what we are born with is what worked best for the last 50,000 human generations’ (Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence , p5)   In Emotional Intelligence Goleman discusses what happens when ‘passions overwhelm reason.’ Our reactions to the world around us have evolved over time. These ‘automatic reactions’ are extremely important in dangerous situations. Reactions that don’t always make logical sense, such as the two parents that gave up their lives to rescue their daughter in a train crash; but it could be argued biological and emotional sense. They saved her to protect their genes, as Dawkins might say, and the way this decision was reached was through love. Goleman called emotions ‘impulses to act’, determined by biological and cultural acts: unconsciously when you feel tenderness or love towards a person the body undergoes a relaxation response ‘a general state of calm and contentment’; and how we display this emotion is also determined by our culture. In this...

Here is a link to my ebook:- Temptation and Mozarella published by Thistleinthekiss (Edinburgh).