EE

I realised the complexities of my topic and the possible alternative means to explore it through the Viva Voce. Having synthesised my RQ, I restricted the level of detail and approaches to answering it, due to the extensive perspectives/theories that explicate issues in Global Politics. Thus, if I expanded upon my EE, I would further explore women’s rights (for instance). Nonetheless, overall, my specific RQ enabled a thorough investigation of rape as a weapon of war, that reflecting back upon, I am incredibly proud of. One aspect of the process that I would replicate, if I were to repeat the EE process, is choosing an issue I am immensely passionate about. Towards the end of the process, I was still invigorated by my topic, which is important for any EE, because in retrospect, it is a memorable piece of my work, since it is the first work that I had worked on for such an ‘extended’ period of time.

Word Count: 159

Having completed the first draft of my EE, I can affirm that my understanding of my topic has significantly developed because to reach this stage, I had to delve into copious amounts of research around my topic. I think that this extensive process was incredibly important because previously, I was unable to answer my research question, whereas now, I have formulated a cohesive argument that does just that. Furthermore, this stage was extremely valuable in terms of augmenting my research and evaluative skills. This is because although I can now investigate and expand my understanding of my topic from various sources, I soon understood the importance of critically assessing the bias behind the sources. The research stage allowed me to discern that different theorists and authors base their finding on certain assumptions, that I had to be careful of and evaluate within my EE, to show my skills as a researcher – one of the requirements of the EE.

Word Count: 158

Even after completing 1000 words of my EE, the topic still feels incredibly vast to effectively conquer within its word limit. This has come to be one of the major challenges of my research because there are many ways that I can continue with my topic, so having to trim down paths of analysis makes me feel nervous and doubtful about how my work will turn out after a complete first draft is finished. Additionally, it has come to my attention that even at this point, I am unable to provide an answer to my research question. This is quite a concern for me because I realise that I have spent roughly 4 months on this topic. After some reflection, I realised that this can be attributable to the magnitude of factors that contribute towards my topic, however, this leaves me even more apprehensive about the coming few months, where I have to provide a conclusion for this topic in my essay.

Word Count: 160

As EE Day comes to an end, I realise just how significant it was for my EE process since it directed me towards the starting line of my EE – incidentally, which is something I find extremely challenging to do on my own. Prior to today, I did not have a concise and specific research question, which I found quite a huge deterrent in my research process because it was very easy for me to get “bogged down”, as Ms Wilson (my supervisor) puts it, into information that isn’t required of my essay. Although my new research question (which is not yet completely decided either) came into being due to a meeting with Ms Wilson, I am most proud of this because it allows me to start my EE writing. I find this significant because so far, all my research seemed to abstract for my main issue; so many different aspects of one broad question hindered me from looking into my main issue. When this is put in conjunction with my newfound information on the Global Politics EE, specifically the requirements of the EE criteria as well as having access to exemplars to understand the structure of the EE, makes me feel confident going forward to writing my first 1,000 words. As the EE process reaches its next step, I will be focusing on assembling research (and definitely doing some more) and analysing it through a critical lens of the key concepts/theoretical foundations provided by the Global Politics course.

Thank you!

Over time, it became clear to me that I want to write a Global Politics EE, since it would enable me to maintain my curiosity with politics of rape in unstable regions over a sustained period of time. I undertook some research about ISIS, rape as a weapon, the religions involved in Iraq through online reports and articles alongside human rights books to prepare me for our first meeting. However, the foremost challenge I faced was that it’s morally difficult to read about this topic whilst maintaining the level of sensitivity it requires and not being dehumanised to this issue by treating it as a general occurrence. Additionally, having a research question that is too broad poses another challenge because it requires a further in-depth reading of material that may not be incorporated in the end whilst simultaneously creating a feeling of unease in my mind, since I had expected to have the research question finalised by this point.

Word Count: 159