updated schedule

I’m now in the 4th week of this blog and my thesis. Naturally, I created a schedule early on that I’ve since needed to adjust. As I near completion of my first chapter, this is what my schedule looks like:

WEEK 4 – 28 (Jesse’s wedding)
Zionism(Finish)/ZMC(5)

WEEK 5 – June 4 (Sarah’s move)
Zion Mule Corps (10)

WEEK 6 – 11
Social (10)

WEEK 7 – 18
Social (10)

WEEK 8 – 25
Social (10)

WEEK 9 – July 2
Social (10)

WEEK 10 – 9
Write conclusion (10) and intro (5)

WEEK 11 – 16 (trip to Montana)

WEEK 12 – 23
THESIS DEFENSE – July 26

My brother’s wedding was this past weekend, which I had planned for in my scheduling. But, there’s always unexpected stuff that comes along. An example would be getting home 4.5 hours later than intended due to my plane’s faulty weather radar.

On another note, I’ve had a major breakthrough in my primary source material (which I mentioned in an earlier post). I was originally going to travel to another nearby university to scritinize a newspaper on microfilm. That particular university didn’t have an index for all the years I need to research, so it wasn’t going to be easy. Plus, their library is undergoing all kinds of construction and the microfilm is therefore located off-campus. Instead of dealing with all that, I can now access the newspaper’s archive via the internet. It’s pricey, but considering this particular newspaper is the #1 source of information for my thesis, it’s totally worth it.

I’ve also focused my research a bit more. Someone I know suggested that my original thesis idea might be a bit ambitious for a Master’s thesis, so I’ve focused my topic in two ways. First, I eliminated the Recruitment section of my research. I was initially going to research the establishment of the Jewish Legion and then recruitment efforts, but why give myself so much work when the recruitment efforts aren’t nearly as interesting as the establishment, anyway? Second, I thought about what aspects of my research were really stressing me out. What areas of my thesis are based upon knowledge I already have, and in what areas am I (almost) starting from scratch? Because British politics during WWI were terribly complicated and it’s already been written about, I decided to nix that (to an extent) from my thesis. My focus now is the turmoil, discussion, views within the Jewish community in Britain as related to the Jewish Legion. Everyone had an opinion, and many of those opinions were expressed in the pages of The Jewish Chronicle. General British politics will come up only if their was an obvious affect on discussion within the Jewish community.

My thanks to the two people who helped me refine my topic. You know who you are.