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how i used obsidian to write my first-class dissertation ⭐ — Transcript

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0:00Welcome or welcome back to my YouTube
0:01channel. Today I'm going to talk you
0:03through my dissertation homepage that
0:05achieved me a first class grade in my
0:07dissertation overall. Without Obsidian,
0:10there is no way I would be able to
0:12achieve such a high grade on such a big
0:14research project as a dissertation. So,
0:16I'm going to walk through my entire
0:17research process and hopefully you can
0:19copy this if you're writing a
0:20dissertation next year or the year
0:22after.
0:24Welcome to my dissertation homepage.
0:26Here is all of the information in one
0:28place. Now, that's going to be just my
0:30biggest tip overall going into this
0:32video. So, first of all, we can see I've
0:34got deadlines at the top. These are the
0:36actual deadlines I had this year in
0:38terms of things that my university set
0:40for me to complete. Um, I have my
0:42preparation section. This includes sort
0:44of the teaching we had, my proposal, and
0:47the initial planning at the start of my
0:49dissertation. We move on and we've got
0:51research. Here we've got where I did the
0:53bulk of my work. really. You have to
0:55read a lot of sources for an 8,000word
0:58essay. Um, and all my chapter research.
1:00And finally, we've got a little bit on
1:02writing. And then we've got some
1:03sources. So, I'm going to go through
1:05each of these sections in detail. So,
1:08hopefully you can copy this if you want
1:09a similar setup or just get some
1:11inspiration because trying to organize
1:13for a dissertation can be really super
1:14overwhelming. Firstly, let's discuss how
1:17the idea of my dissertation came into
1:20reality. So firstly we had to submit a
1:22proposal at the end of second year
1:24before we had even really started the
1:26project and this was to help us get
1:27matched to a supervisor. So you can see
1:30this here in my dissertation proposal
1:32requirements. Um here I was given a a
1:36variety of questions um from the history
1:38department at my university in terms of
1:40what I thought about the project, what I
1:42wanted to do and how it was a viable
1:44project um to even consider.
1:47So here I have some submission guidance
1:49um what type of history um how I was
1:52going to write a 500word research
1:53proposal etc. So in terms of
1:56brainstorming I wanted to do a lot of
1:58this on paper. So I did have a
2:00dissitation notebook that I used
2:01throughout. However I did also utilize
2:03um Obsidian for this. So you can see um
2:06dissitation brainstorm. Um I met with a
2:10um academic and I chatted through some
2:12like broad themes what I'd want to do.
2:14At this point, I had quite a good idea
2:16that I want to do something around
2:17empire, but I really wasn't sure where I
2:20wanted to focus, like imperialism,
2:22colonialism, decolonization. I just kind
2:24of had no idea. And then scrolling down,
2:26you can see he sort of talked about some
2:28next steps to do. Um, so from this
2:30brainstorm, I did a general brainstorm
2:33about maps. Um, I really noticed early
2:36on that I really enjoyed working with
2:38the maps as a primary source. One of the
2:40big things in terms of thinking about a
2:41dissertation project is how are you
2:43going to utilize primary sources? Some
2:46topics can be super difficult to um
2:49focus in upon if you don't have that
2:50primary source material available. Um I
2:53was really lucky that the Sudan archive
2:55for my um final project was actually in
2:58Durham, so it was really close to York.
2:59That was super convenient. Um but in
3:01terms of maps, the British Empire kept a
3:03lot of these maps and they are quite
3:04wellkept. Um whereas if you were going
3:07to do a project that was more based on
3:09sort of minority um and ethnic um
3:12communities and groups often those
3:14sources are a lot more difficult to find
3:16and that is a massive shame. Um but that
3:18is something that then you can approach
3:19in sort of a master's or a sort of PhD
3:22uh stage project. But for your
3:24undergraduate you want primary sources
3:26that are quite readily accessible. So
3:28that's definitely something to think
3:29about. Here I sort of thought through
3:32some primary sources um and looked at
3:34places I could potentially find these
3:35primary sources. This was actually super
3:37helpful when it came to writing the
3:38dissertation. Um I thought about
3:40colonial documents, travel writings and
3:43also some historioggraphy around maps.
3:45This is where I really started sort of
3:47settle in onto my idea was that I wanted
3:49to do something in terms of maps in the
3:52Middle East region. Um especially
3:54because I had just finished a module at
3:56the end of second year all about the
3:57Middle East that I really really
3:58enjoyed. Scrolling down, we can see that
4:00I had a meeting with Escandar, one of my
4:02favorite academics at the time, and he
4:04gave me some recommended readings, which
4:05I found really, really helpful. So, this
4:07whole document here really shows kind of
4:09the progression of a like initial
4:13brainstorm in terms of maps and then I
4:15really made that more concrete by sort
4:17of finding out his like um academic
4:20writings around that topic and also
4:22actual places where I could find the
4:24primary source material. Um, let's go
4:27back to the homepage.
4:29So, in terms of my actual dissitation
4:31proposal, it was quite beefy. This
4:33proposal is quite interesting because I
4:34didn't end up exploring all of these
4:36topics, but that's half the point of it.
4:38Um, in terms of the history department
4:40is that they want you to consider all
4:42angles and then you can sort of pick and
4:43choose and make your dissertation more
4:45specific. Um, you can see that I've
4:47already started talking about some
4:49secondary sources. uh Jennifer Dur, a
4:51lot of her scholarship was really great
4:53for my uh final dissertation as well as
4:55Tigner, Ben Draw, um Shakri, yeah, like
4:59all of that ended up being super super
5:01helpful. So, this sort of first proposal
5:04section shows how I utilized Obsidian in
5:08the way that you can link lots of notes
5:11to different notes, if that makes sense.
5:13Um, and how that helped in
5:15brainstorming. So, for example, in the
5:17proposal, I have all of these just
5:19linked. So, I can see all of my notes
5:21that I have on these readings just
5:22straight away, and that's super helpful
5:25um in terms of sort of putting lots of
5:27ideas into one place. So, another thing
5:30I had to submit um in terms of to my
5:32actual department at uni was a disc
5:34summary and outline. This was due in
5:36about November, so two months before we
5:38needed a full chapter draft for one of
5:40our chapters. So, this was my disc
5:42summary and outline. This was sort of
5:44taken from the proposal, but it's more
5:46of an extra step. So, this was where I
5:48first started to think about my chapters
5:50and the argument, focus, and evidence of
5:52my chapters. So, I would highly, highly
5:54recommend starting this earlier than you
5:57think. It's really tempting to want to
5:59just read as much scholarship as you can
6:02on your dissertation, but in most cases,
6:04that is just going to overwhelm you. The
6:06dissertation, whilst it is long, it's
6:08probably the longest thing you've
6:09written, it still needs to have a very
6:10specific focus. That can be quite
6:12overwhelming because you feel like I
6:14don't know enough in this in this topic.
6:16But actually creating an outline where
6:18you're having key focuses on your
6:19chapters, that will massively help you
6:21reduce the amount of work you need to do
6:22because you are aware of what argument
6:24and what um focus you're going for. That
6:27is to say, you don't want to cherry
6:28pick. You don't want to just focus on
6:30one perspective and not even consider
6:32outside perspectives. But it just helps
6:34you to critically analyze the readings
6:36for your chapters whilst you are doing
6:38them. And that is going to be super
6:39helpful for your literature review. That
6:41is kind of my whole process of how I
6:42shifted the ideas for my dissertation
6:44into a solid proposal, plan, summary,
6:47and outline that was really crucial and
6:49helpful in reading, researching, finding
6:52primary sources, and eventually writing
6:54the dissertation. Let's move on to the
6:57second step of writing a dissertation,
6:59your research. Now, this can feel super
7:01overwhelming, but I absolutely love
7:03Obsidian for how Obsidian was able to
7:06consolidate all this information into
7:07one place and make it really accessible
7:09for me. So let's start with my source
7:12index. Firstly, I have my research log
7:14for my primary and secondary sources.
7:16Let's look at the primary one first. On
7:19here, we can see that I have just got
7:21huge amounts of links and uh certain
7:24brainstorming ideas for where I can find
7:26these primary sources. My main primary
7:28sources were maps. Um and so a lot of
7:31these have been digitized, but some of
7:33them haven't. So going through we can
7:36see that I've just found so many
7:37different useful archives and documents
7:39where I can find them. We've got the
7:41National Army Museum, British online
7:43archives, Darham University, etc., etc.
7:46So this is just really helpful for
7:48keeping all this information in one
7:49place and actually linked to this
7:51document. I've got my secondary sources.
7:53So I actually made a source index for my
7:56dissertation. So I'll just open it up
7:58for you now. So this is my source index.
8:00If you want a detailed video on this, I
8:01have made one. I can switch the views
8:04from reading book library to my disc. So
8:07in terms of my primary sources, I
8:09approached making this source index in a
8:11very visual way because maps were the
8:13thing that I was going to be focusing
8:14on. So some of these images haven't
8:16loaded properly, but as I scroll down,
8:18you can see that I am choosing to show
8:21the year, the author, the type, mostly
8:23maps, anything that's related, and the
8:26region. So here I can get a great
8:27overview of all my primary sources. It
8:30is also organized by the year in which
8:32they were created. So the oldest map I
8:33have is 1831. And then we can scroll
8:36down and you can see that I've got some
8:37different types of documents like a
8:39painting which potentially could be
8:40useful. Here I was just trying to
8:42collect as many things as I can. I
8:45wasn't reading any of this or
8:46researching any of this at the time as
8:48in like I wasn't going through the
8:49reports and making detailed notes. It
8:51was more just collecting a huge array of
8:54evidence and then that potentially could
8:57be useful in my chapters later on. It
8:59meant I didn't have to go out and search
9:00for anything else. I could just use this
9:02database um with all the information it
9:04had already and then I could choose any
9:07sources if I needed extra evidence from
9:09that. Scrolling down, we've got lots of
9:10different types of evidence actually.
9:12We've got a pamphlet, we've got a map, a
9:14book, um a newspaper.
9:18Um all of this is super helpful. Um I
9:20ended up using modern Egypt in my
9:22dissertation quite a lot because it's a
9:23great primary source that talks about
9:24the imperialism that was used in Egypt
9:26during the time. Um, and yeah, all of
9:28this was just super super helpful. Um,
9:30even just as reference. I mean, I didn't
9:32really use a map from 1984, but it was
9:34just helpful to have that all there if I
9:36ever needed to refer back to it. I had a
9:39similar thing for secondary sources. Um,
9:41obviously not as visual, which is a
9:43shame. Um, but I just had a general sort
9:45of checklist system if I'd read them,
9:48the file name, region, related. Um, I
9:51think that's all I have on show. Um, but
9:53this was just helpful to sort of see it
9:54all in one place. Um, and this is just
9:57why I love the source index and the base
9:59feature on Obsidian. It's really
10:00something that should be utilized,
10:02especially for these sort of research
10:03projects. Going back, we've just talked
10:05through the research logs. The other
10:07research log I had was key figures. Um,
10:10this ended up being super helpful
10:11because so many of these British
10:13colonial officials have such similar
10:15names. Um, people such as Winggate, he
10:18was one that I really utilized his
10:20primary sources for. A lot of his
10:21unpublished materials was in the Sudan
10:24archive at Durham University. that was
10:25super helpful in terms of my research
10:27for this project. Um, other people such
10:30as William Wilcox, he was one of the
10:32irrigation engineers in the Aswan Dam.
10:34Um, because my whole third chapter was
10:36on the Nile, it was super useful just
10:38having William Wilcox's um, profile here
10:41because I could scroll down and I can
10:43see his linked mentions. Um, this isn't
10:46a plug-in. You can turn this on on the
10:47Obsidian settings. This comes with the
10:49app but this is super helpful in seeing
10:52uh which readings is he mentioned in
10:54where have I mentioned him in my certain
10:56structures. Um so that's another uh
10:59really great way of actually organizing
11:01information is even if this note on
11:03willox doesn't have that much
11:05information. uh I can see where I have
11:07mentioned it in other things and it's
11:08making those connections that's going to
11:10be absolutely vital for achieving a
11:12first class grade because you are trying
11:14to make new connections really um from
11:17primary source material and from
11:19secondary research. Okay, so let's go
11:22back to my homepage. Um the final thing
11:25I have is a timeline. I actually didn't
11:27complete this. It would have been
11:28awesome if I did, but I kind of realized
11:30I had a bit too much to do. Um, but
11:33again, another awesome thing that you
11:35could do, uh, you could make these sort
11:37of into actual notes and make those, uh,
11:40that are things that are linkable.
11:41Again, that could give you those
11:43connections. It's all about utilizing
11:45Obsidian's way of, uh, thinking like a
11:47second brain for your research project.
11:49That's going to be super helpful for
11:50achieving those first class grades. Uh,
11:52let's discuss bibliography.
11:54I don't think I would have done this if
11:56it wasn't a requirement by my
11:58university. But we had to submit a
12:00prelim preliminary bibliography in the
12:02October. So before our outline, it was
12:04the first thing we had when we came back
12:06to uni in third year. Um I would say it
12:09was kind of helpful. A lot of those
12:11primary sources I found that were on the
12:12source index, I kind of put into here. I
12:14didn't end up using many of these to be
12:16honest, but it was helpful in the fact
12:18that I could um I could realize how my
12:22my secondary scholarship fit into
12:24different themes. And this was very
12:26helpful in actually choosing a chapter
12:28structure. So you can see in my
12:29secondary sources I've gathered it into
12:31Egypt, Sudan, maps and knowledge
12:33production and the environment and
12:34colonial control. And essentially Egypt
12:37was my first chapter, Sudan was my
12:39second, the environment was my third and
12:41then n maps and knowledge was kind of
12:43weaved in throughout because the whole
12:44dissertation was on maps. So I had to
12:46have some sort of theoretical
12:48understanding of how maps impact
12:50knowledge especially in the sort of
12:52imperial imagination. Um I'm not
12:55entirely sure if I would do this if it
12:58wasn't a requirement. However, it was
13:00super helpful in terms of um creating
13:02the chapter structure, which I reckon is
13:04why they make us do this. Um and my
13:07supervisor actually wanted me to sort of
13:09submit a question log. So, basically
13:12from the abstract of each scholarship,
13:14each article, uh she made me sort of
13:16write down some questions that this
13:18article invoked that this article tried
13:19to address. And through this, actually,
13:22it was quite a tedious uh task, but it
13:25was really helpful again in just getting
13:27more specific. Um, I think that's the
13:29thing that most supervisors say when you
13:31come to them with your proposal is like,
13:32"This is great, but this is like a
13:34master's level research project. You
13:36can't do this in the time you have and
13:38the resources you have as an
13:39undergraduate." So, this was super
13:42helpful. Again, I don't know if I would
13:43have done this, but in the end, it was
13:45super helpful. So, I'm not going to I'm
13:46not going to complain. That's sort of
13:48all my overarching research. Uh we're
13:51now going to talk about my chapter
13:53research, which I think is honestly the
13:55crux of my dissertation uh homepage on
13:58Obsidian. My dissertation supervisor
14:00told me to think of my chapters as many
14:02essays within my dissertation. What she
14:05meant by this is that each chapter
14:06needed to have an argument that
14:08contributed to my overall research
14:10inquiry. So there were they were each
14:13around about 2,000 words, which was what
14:15I was used to in terms of writing an
14:17undergraduate essay. And so to break
14:20down basically the dissertation, I
14:23thought of it as three mini essays each
14:25which explored a slightly different
14:27topic on their own which then
14:28contributed to my wider inquiry. Um so
14:31this helps sort of on the mark scheme
14:33show that you have that broad range of
14:35knowledge and that you are um
14:36successfully deploying argumentative and
14:38persuasive techniques within your
14:40writing. So let's talk about chapter two
14:43uh in terms of my workflow. So my
14:45workflow for each chapter was the same
14:46process. a research log structure and
14:49then I wrote my first draft. So let's
14:52look at chapter two. This is my research
14:54log for chapter two. You can see that my
14:56overview is copied from the disc summary
14:59and outline that I had to submit in
15:00November. So this was super helpful. Um
15:02firstly I have a chronology of Sudan. Uh
15:05this was really helpful in terms of
15:06contextualizing the maps I was using and
15:09considering them in the broader
15:10historical context of the time. Um, so
15:13in terms of a brainstorm, this is where
15:15I'm sort of brainstorming what my
15:17thesis, my argument is going to be and
15:19thinking about my aims of mapping within
15:21Sudan and how I was going to explore
15:23that. Um, so essentially my dissertation
15:26was on ctography as an imperial tool in
15:29Egypt and Sudan. So obviously the
15:31phrasing of that imperial tool is quite
15:33vague. So each of my um each of my
15:36chapters sort of presented a different
15:38perspective to how mapping was used as
15:40an imperial tool in each of the
15:42different circumstances in Egypt in
15:44Sudan and within the Nile and the
15:46broader environment. Um so my thesis was
15:50that ctography in Anglo Egyptian Sudan
15:53constructed a framework that negotiated
15:55more British influence in the territory
15:57than the eur the Egyptians not the
15:59Europeans. Um, so this was more of sort
16:01of a political approach if you could say
16:03that Egypt was economic and the Nile was
16:07environmental um, environmental
16:09orientalism and imperialism. Um, this
16:12was more political that more political
16:14approach the terms of borders in terms
16:16of sort of negotiating the hierarchy in
16:19terms of um, British uh, Egyptian and
16:23Sudin um, and also in terms of
16:25communication and potentially
16:27nationalism. So that's an overview of my
16:29thesis. You probably didn't need to know
16:31all of that, but I find it very
16:32interesting obviously. So let's continue
16:34and see how I structured this research
16:36log. So in terms of my primary sources,
16:39I had a lot that were online. Uh these
16:41were the ones that I initially gathered
16:43for my index. Those were helpful. And
16:45then I have stuff from the Sudan
16:46archive. Um so I actually have a whole
16:49note on the Sudan archive.
16:52Um, so actually I went and visited the
16:55archive and I found this was really
16:57helpful in terms of just having all this
16:59information in one place. I ended up
17:01making a big uh Google sheet document
17:04which showed all of the primary sources
17:06um that I was going to look at. I might
17:08insert a clip of that here.
17:12And then after doing primary sources, I
17:15focused on secondary sources. I had a
17:17list of things like to read online and I
17:20had certain things that were read. Um
17:22something that I found super helpful and
17:24that I wish I'd honestly done earlier
17:26was using uh PDF++. So this means I
17:30could have
17:32um the reading on one side and stuff
17:35highlighted and then it could go
17:36straight in my notes. I started using
17:39this probably halfway through my
17:40dissertation and honestly I wish I was
17:41using it from the start. I wish I was
17:43using it at the start of my degree.
17:44Someone commented uh that I should use
17:46this plugin on a YouTube video. And wow,
17:48has my life been changed. Um so yeah, I
17:50definitely recommend this plugin if you
17:52are going to be doing lots and lots of
17:53readings. It's also really useful to
17:55just have the PDFs all within your
17:57Obsidian as well. Uh just in case you
17:59want to reread something, you don't have
18:00to go through logging in and finding it
18:03again. Um so yes, back to this research
18:07log. Um, so yeah, this is basically just
18:09a huge collection of um, all the sources
18:13I could potentially use. Again, that's
18:14really helpful in terms of connections
18:16and obsidian. Um, and then you can see
18:18this utilized in the structure. So, if I
18:22use this sidebar on the side, uh, this
18:24is my links, you can see the outline.
18:27Um, so here I've got the three main
18:29paragraphs I was going to use uh, in
18:31this chapter and the primary and
18:34secondary sources that I was going to
18:35utilize in each. So in my introduction
18:38you can see my thesis and then my first
18:40paragraph is about constructing Sudan.
18:42First first of all we've got the maps I
18:45want to use. Um so you can see here that
18:47see that I've linked the map here. Um
18:49and this will sort of show where it's
18:51from. And then I've got sort of a range
18:54of bullet points about what I can see. I
18:56can see there's political limited
18:57unlimited administrative borders. I can
19:00talk about this treaty. I can talk about
19:01the changing borders. Anything that's
19:03helpful that I might discuss in the
19:05essay, I put underneath the map because
19:07then I know that I'm engaging with a
19:09primary source, which is a key thing in
19:10the mark scheme to achieve these first
19:12class grades. Um, continuing on, we've
19:14got a similar map, but this is sort of
19:16maybe a comparison because it was made
19:18later on. Um, we've got the
19:19international boundaries um and we've
19:22got still sort of transformation key
19:24regions. Um, this was a map that I saw
19:27in the Sudan archives. This is a photo
19:29that I took. Um again I wanted to talk
19:32more about the maps that I had seen that
19:34were unpublished. Um because one of the
19:36key um categories of getting a first
19:39class grade is original work. And
19:41usually what original work can mean is
19:43using unpublished primary source
19:45material. Obviously this won't be
19:46applicable to everyone. Uh depending on
19:49your topic and what you're doing also if
19:51you're doing a different subject this
19:52might be different. Um, but for me,
19:54focusing on these maps that I had seen
19:56and I'd taken photos of that aren't
19:58available, like, you know, readily
19:59accessible on the internet, that's a
20:01really good way of showing originality
20:02and showing really key interest in this
20:05subject. Um, so you can see that I've
20:07like done some extra research. I've also
20:09just sort of done bullet points. And
20:12then we can see my secondary sources.
20:14The way I organize my secondary sources
20:15is I link the document here. So you can
20:17see Sharky. If I click on it, I've got
20:19all my notes. So let's go back. And then
20:22I'm just sort of adding in quotations
20:24from these secondary sources. I don't
20:26usually quote these verbatim in the
20:29dissertation. I don't think I did that
20:30at all unless it was a significantly key
20:34uh phrasing I wanted to use and it was
20:35very short. But this gives me sort of uh
20:38key snippets of uh these historians
20:41arguments uh their use of evidence,
20:43their explanations for certain
20:45phenomenons that are going on at this
20:46time. So these are really helpful and
20:48then I can very quickly footnote these
20:50because I know the publication date, the
20:53name of the article, the author and the
20:55page number. So again, this is just
20:57helping me, this structure on Obsidian
20:59is helping me write the first draft in a
21:01very efficient way because I'm not going
21:02to have to go back and look for things
21:04to reference, look for footnote, page
21:05numbers. It is all right here and that
21:07is super helpful. So you can see that
21:09I've done one, two, three different
21:12secondary sources here. Okay. Okay. And
21:14then let's move on to the next um
21:17paragraph. This is is Ministry of
21:19Control and British Influence. Now, my
21:22favorite uh map in the whole
21:23dissertation is this map of cartoon. Um
21:25one of the key reasons I really enjoyed
21:28analyzing this map was that there was a
21:29lot of scholarship within um certain
21:32historians about Gordon College because
21:34it was this sort of big phenomenon in
21:36terms of um establishing a British
21:37hierarchy in Sudan. Um so you can see
21:40that I've done these two readings that
21:42I've just sort of linked. um when I was
21:44actually writing the dissertation, I was
21:46just honestly going through these
21:47readings because there's not a huge
21:49amount here. Um and it's all very um
21:52pertinent and relevant to what I was
21:54writing about. Um so yeah, I just I
21:56really enjoyed um analyzing this map.
21:59It's a great map. I love maps if you
22:01can't tell. Uh you've got sort of the
22:03diagonal streets. Uh you've got sort of
22:06segregation. all the um British colonial
22:10officials are on the embankment whereas
22:12then you've got the Egyptian sort of
22:13quarter here and then the Sudin here. I
22:16mean it's just it's a textbook example
22:19of British hierarchy in terms of a map.
22:21So this was an excellent source for me
22:23to use. Um and then again scrolling down
22:26we've got some more secondary sources.
22:28And then again we've got the third
22:30paragraph. Similar thing we've got a
22:31map. We've got um we've got some sort of
22:35bullet points I've come up with. And
22:36then here I've taken some uh quotations
22:40from a letter between Wingate and Stack
22:43about the growth of nationalism in the
22:44Sudan. So this was another primary
22:46source again one that I found through
22:47the Sudan archive in Darham. So it was
22:49unpublished material. Um but because
22:51it's a document this helps to cons sort
22:53of consolidate and reinforce my argument
22:55because it shows I'm not just relying on
22:57maps as a primary source. I'm also using
22:59other sort of primary sources and I'm
23:01seeing a similar trend and actually
23:03identifying these trends can be super
23:05helpful in terms of achieving that first
23:06class grade. Um, so we can just quickly
23:09go through chapter 1 and chapter 3.
23:11Honestly, my chapter 1 isn't as good. My
23:15the research log and the structure for
23:17the other chapters isn't as good as
23:19chapter 2 only because chapter 2
23:21encompassed so much that I had to be
23:23very careful with how much I was putting
23:24in and putting out. But I think that
23:25that reflects in the planning. But all
23:27the chapters were great when they
23:28actually came to be drafts. You know,
23:30that's not an issue. Uh here's my
23:31chapter one structure. Similarly, we've
23:33got primary sources. This was actually
23:35just a paragraph I had written about the
23:37source. So, I could pretty much paste
23:39that straight into my draft. Um yeah,
23:42we've got some more maps here. Um
23:44chapter one was all about the cadastral
23:47survey. So, that was more of a different
23:48type of research because I'll show you
23:51actually my notes on the cadastral
23:52survey. That's probably a good thing. So
23:54this is very very long. Um but the
23:57cadastral survey was this uh massive uh
24:01land surveying project initiated by the
24:03British in Egyp in Egypt um once they
24:06had occupied the state. And so this has
24:09a huge amount of uh maps, primary source
24:12material like that and also a lot of
24:14sort of documentation um and sort of
24:16justifications and scientific
24:18measurement and all that sort of
24:19authority. So I took very very detailed
24:21notes on this um survey. Again I did use
24:26PDF++. So if I click on this button
24:28here, it will open up where I have
24:31highlighted this section in the text.
24:34Again, super helpful in terms of going
24:36back. If I see something, if I say like,
24:38oh, this um this quote is really useful.
24:40Let me see what they were talking around
24:41that. It's super helpful that I can just
24:43literally click on that button and see
24:45it in the PDF on the side. Again, I
24:48don't know how I lived without this
24:49plugin before I had it. Um, so yeah,
24:52that was sort of chapter one. And then
24:55chapter three, we've got the research
24:57log. It's very similar. Chapter
24:58overview, brainstorm, primary sources,
25:00documents, secondary sources, and then
25:03the structure.
25:06I don't know if I actually have the maps
25:08on here, but
25:10yeah, I mean, it's it's kind of similar.
25:13Um, I've got the Will Cox report on the
25:15Nile in terms of a primary source. I've
25:17got a report as a primary source. Um, I
25:20think that's probably a link to my maps.
25:22Um, but yeah, that is sort of Oh, here
25:26we go. Here's a map. I really enjoyed
25:27that map. Again, that map was from uh
25:30the Sudan archive, so that was an
25:31unpublished primary source material,
25:33which is always good. Um, so yeah, that
25:36is really sort of the meat the meat on
25:39the bones of how I organized that
25:40dissitation. Those chapter structures
25:43and research logs were just crucial. I
25:46think the main thing that made those
25:48chapter research logs so key to my
25:50writing was that I never started with an
25:53empty document. That can just be so
25:55intimidating. You're looking at an empty
25:56page, you're thinking, I have to write
25:572,000 words. My dissertation is due in 3
26:00months. You start to get really
26:01stressed. that actually I could copy and
26:03paste the bullet points of the chapter
26:05one structure straight onto that
26:06document and there I had sort of a road
26:09map of how I was going to write the um
26:11the essay, the mini essay, the chapter
26:13and then also my primary sources. I
26:16wasn't just trying to integrate them out
26:17of nowhere. I had bullet points
26:18explaining them. I had secondary sources
26:20that connected to them. I had an
26:22overarching argument which connected
26:23everything together. So actually doing
26:26this hard work honestly makes writing so
26:29much easier. uh especially because doing
26:32a dissertation it's the last thing you
26:33do. You will you will have had a lot of
26:35experience in writing essays before you
26:37start this dissertation. That's the
26:39whole point of a lot of your undergrad
26:40um essays is to sort of prepare you for
26:42that. Um and so yeah, just doing that
26:45research and especially on something
26:46like Obsidian, which can be so helpful
26:48in terms of searching, finding
26:50connections, um connecting the dots on
26:53certain things. Honestly, that is just
26:55going to be incredible for your
26:57dissertation writing. Finally, I wanted
26:59to talk a little bit about my writing
27:01process. I don't actually write my
27:03dissertation. I didn't write it on
27:04Obsidian. I used Google Docs. Um, but I
27:06just wanted to talk you through the
27:08planning I did for my literature review,
27:10for the introduction, and the
27:11conclusion. So, firstly, I want to talk
27:13about my disc lit review. Um, so I tried
27:17to do as much of the lit review as I
27:19went because the lit review you it's so
27:23hard. You have to sort of um analyze and
27:26sort of synthesize. so much information
27:29quite quickly in in the introduction to
27:31show that you have a broad range of the
27:33scholarship around your dissertation.
27:35Often that scholarship you're not going
27:37to be using all of it, but you just need
27:39to be you need to be aware of what uh
27:41scholarship and academic work is within
27:43the field that you're working on. So you
27:46can see that in terms of my lit review,
27:49I've got a lot of the notes sort of
27:53questions I used in the question log for
27:55the preliminary bibliography. Um, so for
27:57example, Burns, you've got these
27:58questions. Um, certain things I've got
28:01unread, half read. Um, and I've sort of
28:03split them into sub themes. So on the
28:06side you can see I've got Egypt, maps
28:08and economic control, Egypt and Sudan,
28:11Sudan nationalism and culture, ctography
28:14and knowledge and environmental control.
28:17Um, but whilst this was sort of super
28:19helpful, it was definitely not the be
28:21all end all. Actually, one of the key
28:24key sources for my lit review I didn't
28:27find until quite late on. I think I was
28:28about to write like sort of I think I
28:30maybe halfway through writing. Um so if
28:33we go to my disc lit review structure,
28:35you can see that I'd read Harley which
28:37was sort of one of the the main um
28:40authorities on ctography and in terms of
28:43maps and how they're really useful for
28:45historical inquiries. So again, this
28:47just shows you that like there's so much
28:48research out there and actually being
28:51quite specific was good, but it could
28:52have meant that I missed out on certain
28:53things like this. So, you know, you
28:55always want to have be slightly open and
28:57make sure that you're writing down sort
28:59of what other people are referencing in
29:01their sources. That's a great way to
29:02find new information. And so here you
29:05can see how I have structured my lit
29:07review. So I sort of went thematically.
29:10So we've got ctography and the
29:11production of knowledge. This is
29:13obviously the backbone of my
29:14dissertation. Um, and with within this I
29:18can link to imperial power. Um, so I've
29:21got Harley, I've got Edney who draws Zon
29:23Fuko, obviously a very important
29:25scholar. He crops up in everything. Uh,
29:28we've got seeing like a state. That was
29:29really helpful in terms of um how states
29:33sort of consolidate their economic
29:34control by mapping certain regions. Um,
29:38we've also got different um
29:41different geographical perspectives if
29:43that makes sense. So we've got this one
29:45on Israel and Palestine and this one on
29:47Egypt and Libya. This shows that there
29:48is general scholarship in the region
29:51about other places. But the way I'm
29:53showing that my inquiry is important is
29:55by saying there's not that much research
29:57done on Egypt and Sudan. So I am
30:01essentially filling that gap with my
30:02inquiry. I'm not doing something that's
30:04been repeated lots of times and I'm
30:06doing something that can maybe open up
30:08for further research. That's one of the
30:10main things that the mark scheme
30:11mentions is talking about um the
30:13justification for your research inquiry.
30:16Continuing on on the themes, we've got
30:18colonial Egypt and economic imperialism,
30:21the colonized/colonizer
30:23relationship and environmental
30:25imperialism and the Nile. Um I'm very
30:28happy to do a full uh in-depth video on
30:30my literature review if anyone would
30:31find that sort of helpful. Um, but yeah,
30:33like obviously Obsidian is just
30:35incredible for this because I can just
30:37quickly click on Powell and I've got all
30:39my reading notes for that reading. Um,
30:42so yeah, that was my lit review. And
30:44then finally, I've got my introduction
30:46and conclusion. Um, I was really
30:49struggling for a long time as as to how
30:51I was going to start my introduction. In
30:53the end, I sort of went for a historical
30:54context hook. Sort of like grabbed you
30:56in, took you into uh where we were
30:59geographically and in that time period.
31:02Um, and I found a lot of extra sources
31:03just in terms of being able to reference
31:06um, dates because I realized I just was
31:08like taking a date for granted and I had
31:10to reference that information. Um, and
31:12then I had a brief thing with my lit
31:13review. Um, in terms of my conclusion, I
31:16ended up writing my conclusion I think a
31:18day before my disc was due. Um, and so I
31:21didn't really plan it in depth on my
31:23Obsidian because by that point I'd been
31:25so engrossed in so much research and
31:27writing that it was it quite quickly
31:29came out of me. I think I like might
31:31have just bullet pointed it on the page
31:32and then started writing it. Um but
31:35yeah, um so hopefully that is helpful in
31:37terms of how I started writing the
31:39dissertation. Um in terms of any
31:41reflections, I mean I just think this
31:44dissertation homepage was incredible. Um
31:46I sort of used three different mediums.
31:48I had a dissertation notebook, I had a
31:51um this page obviously, and then I had
31:53my Google Docs where I used to like
31:56draft all of my chapters. and I was
31:57doing those individually before I
31:59combined them into a massive document.
32:00Um, my main reflection would be to use
32:02PDF++ sooner. That plugin is awesome.
32:06Um, and yeah, I think maybe I could have
32:08been a little bit more organized, but at
32:10the end of the day, like I achieved a
32:12first class grade. I'm super happy with
32:14that. And I wanted to be able to impart
32:16some of my knowledge and um, this sort
32:19of structure of a homepage onto you if
32:21you are writing a dissertation and some
32:23of my tips. Um, but yeah, if you'd like
32:25an in-depth video on anything I have
32:26described here on like the literature
32:28review or how to write a first class
32:30essay, I'd be very happy to. Um, it's
32:32crazy to see all of this in its finished
32:35form. Um, but yeah, so thank you so much
32:37for watching. I hope you enjoyed. Um,
32:39and feel free to check out my profile
32:40for any other Obsidian tutorials and
32:43walkthrough videos. Thank you so much
32:45for watching.

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