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I'm way behind on this, aren't I?
Unit 7 done, TMA02 done.

Interruptions from WEA courses to be given and written, medical bits, new car....

But now, phew! Done!

Not much that was new to me. Book recommendations from chat.

I downloaded the slides and will make notes from those later. Look for "sematic" memory.

I now know much more about Sonnets, and think I should probably read a few to make sure the "beat" is in my head.

I have also discovered that I have another Transferable Skill. I spent a few years going to choir, and fitting words to music. That means I know how to divide a sentence into syllables, and work out where the stress comes.

The book, he say: "

Wilfred Owen’s ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’ consists of 14 lines, generally follows iambic pentameter and has a recognisable rhyme scheme (though not one of the main ones associated with the sonnet as described above). Did you spot that? If so, you’re really building towards those learning goals with regard to poetry!

I certainly did - my notes included the rhyming scheme, and some discussion of whether it was Petrarchan or Shakesperean.

Next tutorial will be mainly about TMA02. So I'd better look at the questions.

Not a bad mark. 

Points to note, copied from his "red pen" (it was blue)

Did you consider using examples of the two approaches from the Course materials?

No, I didn't. I didn't see any particular reason to to use those examples when life is so full of them! Apparently nor did anyone else!

Two small points here:

-        Please put the questions in bold type so that they stand out from your answers

-        Please use only the Course materials as references

A little over word-count on part of it, but close.

Two references in there, mainly for the sake of seeing if I can do it. And yes, I  learnt a few things in the process.

OU library is wonderful. If I want a text, I should be looking there, not Google. Then I can just hit the "cite" button at the top, job done.

If I need help, OU library again. Email them, they'll have an answer, and point me to a page explaining it.

I've been trying to use Mendeley to create/organise references, but there's too much missing. If I have a PDF to upload, great. If I don't, it isn't really doing much. There's supposed to be an add-in to Chrome that will reference web pages, but it doesn't work.

Nothing really new there, but it was fun.

Planning for unit 4 done... then I realised next week is supposed to be devoted to TMA01.

Looking at regional variations, today. I now have a "linguistic biography", and am up to activity 3.11

Comfirmed, I work best in 2-hour lumps.

The next part is listening to the Hairy Bikers, so I'll aim it for while Dave's out tomorrow.

Really, this time. Started the day with sorting out dates and times for those WEA talks, then hit the module.

As expected, I'm enjoying formal grammar (though this is pretty low-level). A disagreement with the course material about the use of singular "they" (but the OED is on my side, and I can prove it). I'm up to 3.4, and feeling rather unsure about that "ungrammatical love song". So that was 2.5 hours work in... yes, about 2.5 hours.

3.5 says it will take 1 hour 45 minutes

I have a tutorial in 15 minutes. Supposed to be about the TMA, but I'll ask about the "love song".

TMA, I could do the grammar section now, and might do so while it's still fresh in my mind. The reflection would be better left for later, and the selection of which bits I've learnt most from will have to be after I've done them.

So that was Thursday afternoon. And yes, yet more diving down interesting rabbit holes as well as the assigned work.

One of the closing exercises was "Make an entry in your learning notebook reflecting on how you managed your time this week."

"Flexibly" covers it. I knew I had plenty of possible slots. I deliberately picked times when Dave was out for the listening exercises, and despite a couple of "too ill to concentrate" days, had plenty of options, and got it done early.

Onward to plan next week along the same lines!

After the planning stage, we move on to listening to a passage in a thick 1950s Derbyshire accent and trying to work out what it's saying. So I saved it for Saturday morning when Dave's out.

A question, and my reply:

“Did that take you further out of your comfort zone as a Y031 student, or did you enjoy the opportunity to listen closely instead of reading?”

My comfort zone is a distant memory. Even if the accent is clear, I usually deal with the spoken word by reading the transcription.

It’s a new challenge, and that’s why I’m on this course.

In both cases, the big "thing" for the day has been medical appointments. Still, did sections 1.4 and 1.5 on Monday. Tuesday, got left to sit and wait rather a lot, so read Jane Eyre (promised from the end of the Intro unit) and finished it once I got home. Added a new word to my "glossary" as a result.

Meanwhile, noted a Facebook rant from a friend about descriptive v. prescriptive grammar, and noted it for future use. I remember it's mentioned in TMA01.

Onward to 1.6, a writing exercise (and 1.7 and 1.8)

My learning diary should, I'm told, contain:

• 1.     Your thoughts and feelings about the different aspects of your studies (subject and skills)
• 2.     Areas in which you feel you have progressed.
• 3.     Areas in which you would like to develop your skills.

I'm feeling good. Enjoying it, and having no real problems. It looks as if my learning skills so far are up to the job, and my ability to concentrate is fine. The indication of how long each section will take is very useful, helps me plan.

Progression: really,  this is assurance that I'm already pretty good at what I'm being tested on.

Areas to develop: referencing! I keep putting that off. Also, not letting notifications from email etc disgtract me.

Well, there goes the plan

Friday, unexpected day out. Saturday, recovering from Friday. So here we are on Sunday, watching the video and thinking that a lot of it is very familiar from the "reading" I'd done last week.

Opening up a new Word doc to take notes...

And done that first section. Meant to take 2 hours, took me 1 hour.

Did the next "meet the authors" bit. I do not expect to have problems with being too trustinng of authors, not after working with Arthurian history! That gets me back up with the Plan.

An hour until my first tutorial.

Next section is about online tools for study, supposed to take an hour and a half. Will either be far less because I know it, or far more as I find new toys to play with.

Since it seems I'm spending tomorrow on a Day Out..

Notes in Word doc, but the takeaway is that this is going to be a lot of self-analysis, which is fine by me. And that planning each week in advance would be good. Not with the detailed chart they suggest, but a copy of the list of the parts of each section as I get to it, estimated time, and tie that to the days I have "free".

Further reading might be Jane Eyre. I think I'll make sure I have it on Kindle to read on the phone in the car. Tried to get it from the OU library, but it's a format that needs some fancy Adobe software, and authorization codes, and is only a loan, and...  Kindle, 75p