Finally! A bit of time to blog. For the past month, I’ve been splitting my time between work and thesis writing. And boy that wasn’t a pleasant experience at all on so many levels. I remember the pressures of writing my undergraduate thesis (gaining 20 lbs in the process) and I now realize how easy that was compare to this one. How I loath not having the resources to be a full time student.

My topic’s not really that alien to me since it’s basically a continuation of my analysis of representations of identities in discourse. Back in 2005, for my BA thesis, I examined representations of Fernando Poe Jr. in the editorials of the PDI. For my MA thesis, I examined the representations of GMA in the 2001-2009 SONAs.

I enjoyed writing my BA thesis. I enjoyed going over PDI editorials and examining the representations of FPJ. And even though I personally agree with PDI’s ideologies, it wasn’t too tough to keep the discussion objective.

I wasn’t really expecting that MA thesis to be that different. Besides, I was applying the fundamental theoretical assumptions that I already used in my previous study. But I was wrong.

To quantitatively and qualitatively account for the grammatical features that show GMA’s representations (which Gene Hunt would refer to as “cleaner than a virgin’s pudendum”) was a much worse experience than the collective hours I spent suffering from toothache.

Anyway, I’ve finished writing my draft so at least the tedious part’s done and over with. I just hope what I’ve managed to come up with will be enough to move to the next phase.

I’ll probably share some of the key insights I’ve gotten from the study once it’s been weighed and judge by a competent panel.