Sophie Ashdown

On 9 Oct 2025 I had my third tutorial with my research tutor, Gia. The intention was to review my second draft submitted in September, and discuss my progress so far. Admittedly we spent half of the session talking about loads of other things (mostly art related!) which was great and certainly not time wasted. I think most people would say that spending time with Gia is time well spent.

Gia was happy with my second draft and confident that I would produce a good final paper in November. She just gave me some tips on doing the references and citations which was helpful. I’m find that part quite tricky, and realised that I hadn’t referenced the images properly.

I told her how much I was enjoying the research and we talked about how that shows the difference between someone who is doing the research paper for the right reasons, and not just as a means to get the MAFA qualification. This was interesting because it was not something I had considered before.

We also talked about how I wished that the word count for the paper was higher as there is a lot more that I would like to be able to include. Gia said that I could consider writing a book. This is not something that I had thought about at all, but since then I have ruminated about it in my mind. Although it isn’t something I intend to do in the short term, I will think longer on what it would mean.

Overall the session was very enjoyable and gave me confidence that I’m on the right track with my research paper. Thanks Gia!