Final blog entry

This is my final blog entry for my Extended Project Qualification. I have really enjoyed this process, especially the independent studying and organisation parts of project. This blog has been very helpful to me in terms of my organisation and it has been very useful for me to keep myself up to date with everything and to look back at entries. For example, my source table entry was extremely useful to look at when it came to writing my essay.

Candidate name: Naomi Kendall

Candidate number: 1759

Centre number: 64986

Update - 18/03/2015

Today I went to see Linda to get her feedback on the changes I made to the male section and to check that the changes I made to the female section were correct. She said everything was fine and we went through what I need to do over the next 2 days as we come up to the deadline. What I need to do is:

• Finish the production log - end of project review, product summary, presentation record part A and my reflection
• Print off presentation slides
• Make final blog entries
• Print off blog
• Print everything and put in folder

In terms of finishing the production log, we had verbally discussed all the sections which need completing but never actually filled it in. So that is why there is quite a lot of items on there.

Update

I have now completed my parts of the production log and I will take the unfinished sections to the relevant supervisors tomorrow so that they can be completed. I have printed off all of my presentation slides. I am in the process of making my final blog entries so that my blog can be printed off and put in my extended project final folder.

Pay gap between men and women graph

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2013/09/17/male-female-pay-gap-hasnt-moved-much-in-years/

Update - 14/03/2015

On Wednesday, I went to see Linda to give her my new draft with the changes that I've made to the male characters' section. She also gave me my first draft of the female characters back with her comments on it and we discussed what my next step should be with this. As the deadline is on Friday the 20th of March, we discussed what needs to be done between now and then. Between now and out next meeting (on Wednesday), I will make changes to the second half of my essay. During the meeting next Wednesday, we will make final changes to essay and to the end of project review. Between the Wednesday and the deadline on Friday, I will make any last changes if needed and hand the project in on Friday, if not earlier.

Update - 7/03/2015

On Thursday, I did my presentation. I feel it went quite well as I had spent a lot of time preparing for it. I think it also went so well because my note cards were well planned out - with just enough information to remind me of my point for each slide, but not too much so that I wasn't just reading off of the card.

My Prezi and script are below:

Prezi


https://prezi.com/kaend51q4rcb/how-far-did-the-gender-stereotypes-created-in-friends-cha/#

Initial rough script



https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3poDpWGHM-_QjlSaVV1QzJpZ2s/view?usp=sharing

I then also made flashcards for the actual presentation so that it was more professional. An example image of one my cards is below:

Update - 4/03/2015

Since my last post, I have been practicing my presentation alone and with an audience. I have found it useful to practice in front of people so that I can get feedback from them on how to improve.

Today I had a meeting with Linda to do a run-through of my presentation and see if there is anything she thought I should change/add. Throughout the run-through I was creating a list of what I needed to change and this is shown below:

The main things I am going to change are:

• Change the sentence in "initial ideas" to "...the sub-culture which resulted from Friends."
• In "initial ideas" add some about my other ideas I had in the initial stages of my EPQ
• Add more to what I would do differently next time - "start essay earlier"
• More about what I've learnt from the project in terms of the actual topic
• About if I've enjoyed it - "solidified my reasoning for going to uni"
• Were my conclusions/outcomes disappointing? - i.e. Rachel going back to a man

My presentation is scheduled for lunchtime tomorrow (5th March) and I am currently inviting people to be in the audience.

Update - 28/02/2015

On Wednesday, I went to see Linda to get feedback on my first draft of my essay. We discussed it and came to the conclusion (so far only on the male section) that I need to refer back more to how each representation is stereotypical in American society. I am now making these changes.

I also found out that the deadline for the presentation is March 9th so I have now created the prezi for the presentation and the script. I am currently creating the flashcards and I will practice it over the next few days and we have planned a run through for next Wednesday, so that I can do the real thing later in the week.

Update - 21/02/2015

In one of my updates, I spoke about the research I have found about the place of women in 1990s American society and I forgot to add the link so here it is:

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JZAsHQvlWX8C&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=More+recently,+in+the+1980s+and+1990s,+it+has+become+common+for+many+families+to+have+two+wage+earners+to+afford+a+house,+to+pay+for+their+children’s+education,+or+simply+to+maintain+a+comfortable+life+style.&source=bl&ots=-umBGU3TjY&sig=jxA4WFIqub96gMAiW_Ob689g1Qc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=2J3oVL_SMuKU7AbJ8IGgDQ&ved=0CCMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

I have now completed the first draft of my essay by finishing my Rachel and Phoebe analyses, the female character comparison and my conclusion. I will show this to Linda in our meeting on Wednesday. One problem I am having with it so far is that I am roughly 1500 words over the limit, but hopefully Linda will be able to help me with this.

Update - 21/02/2015

Useful archive of scripts to get quotes from.

http://www.livesinabox.com/friends/scripts.shtml

Update - 20/02/2015

I have now completed my analysis of Monica. In terms of my essay's draft, I still have to complete Rachel analysis, Phoebe analysis, female comparison and overall conclusions/comparisons.

I have also started creating my presentation for my EPQ as I am close to finishing the essay draft and therefore should start thinking about the final task.

Update - 19/02/2015

I am how about half way through my initial draft of my essay because I have completed the 3 male character's analyses and their comparison. I now just need to do the same for the female characters and then do an overall comparison and summary. After this, I will start to make and prepare for my presentation.

This is a link I need to add to my bibliography which I used in the male character comparison to relate my conclusions to American society.

http://bishopfamily.com/essays/family_structure_changes.htm

Update - "Narrative arc" 13/02/2015

During writing my final paragraph for Ross, I found that I needed to do some more research into something Paul Marchbank mentioned called "narrative arc".

The information/website I used for my explanation is below. I also included the image below as a figure reference for the readers to look at and get a better understanding of what I mean.

http://research.northumbria.ac.uk/support/2012/10/23/telling-a-good-story-impact-case-studies-as-narrative-arc/

Update 4/1/2015 Women & Humour

During my meeting with Linda, it was suggested to me that one of the points I've made in my first paragraph about Chandler could be better backed up/supported by Robin Lakoff's theory. So since my meeting, I have done some research into why humour/comedy is a particularly masculine trait.

I have found some quotes that I will use in my essay:

"... women can't tell jokes - they are bound to ruin the punchline, they mix up the order of things and so on. Moreover, they don't 'get' jokes. In short, women have no sense of humor." (Lakoff, 1975)

"Females have traditionally been charactorised as unable to produce, or even appreciate, humor." (Sivric, 2012)

http://eprints.ibu.edu.ba/908/

Hypothesis

My hypothesis/my prediction for this essay is that:

• I will find gender stereotypes throughout Friends
• The gender stereotypes presented will be relatively equal between the male and female characters at the start of the show
• As the show progresses, the female characters' gender stereotypes will change more than the males' will
• American society will have influenced the initial stereotypes presented, but may not be the cause of the changes.

Update RE: Structure - 30/1/2015

Today I rewrote my structure plan incorporating some of the ideas from my supervisor.

My aims for this weekend are to write a rough draft of points 1 and 2 and also finally choose the episodes that I will be referencing in these paragraphs.

Update RE: Structure - 28/1/2015

Since speaking to my supervisor, we have decided that although my current structure plan is good, it may be a little repetitive with paragraphs where there is not a lot to write about because of the way I have given a paragraph to each character. Because of this, I am going to rethink my structure.

Introduction paragraph

This is my initial draft for the opening paragraph of my essay. I still need to add a few things to it but I am going to get feedback on it in the coming days.

Structure plan

Recently, I have been thinking about the structure of my essay so I have a better idea of where my research is headed. My first structure is below:

I am going to have a meeting with my EPQ supervisor to discuss whether this structure is good and where I need to go next with the project.