This week, we worked on writing up the report and making the poster. We had a poster-making session on Monday, wherein we were told what a research poster has to show and how it has to be formatted. I found some of the designs very creative - one past group had designed theirs as a house! Our poster design wasn't particularly creative, but I think we'll polish it a little next week.
I find the process of writing the report quite useful from a research perspective, since as I write I find the gaps in my research. It's quite helpful to figure out what I need to read next or re-read in more depth, and it means that I have a clearer image of what I need to work on next week. It is, to some extent, a little more boring than actually reading papers and learning new things, but it's still nice - I'm realising how I've become used to quickly writing essays over the course of my degree! I'm also quite happy with the plan for my section I wrote last week, it made it very simple to write the report this week.
My work this week was annoyingly limited by the fact that I was ill on Thursday and Friday, which annoyingly made me miss the session on Justice. I find the lab sessions quite interesting, especially since I don't always agree with the prevailing opinion, and we're only required to be in the lab two days a week, so I'm annoyed that I was sick on the day I had to come in. Regardless, I'm planning to catch up on the work I missed this week over the weekend, which should put me in a good position, workload-wise, for the final stretch next week. It's quite disconcerting realising that the research summer is ending next week. It feels as if first year hasn't actually ended yet since I had to stay in Oxford for Laidlaw so the end of the research summer is surprisingly meaningful - I have more of a feeling that my first year of university is over now than I did after my prelims. Of course, it's always nice to end on a non-exam note!