More dissertation writing!

This Thursday had another meeting with Simone. She gave me feedback on my Literature Review part of the dissertation. One of the main reasons of concern was my English grammar. She said she found it hard to follow my dissertation because I had too many grammar mistakes. :( I was a bit surprised because none of my previous lecturers ever mentioned that my English was in such a terrible state. Anyway, I went back to the Student Services if they could do proof reading and at the moment is not clear if they could help me. I will look if any of my friends can have time to read it through but it is highly unlikely as I would imagine everyone is pretty busy with their university work and even if they are not that many people would fancy reading through 9+ K (82 page) word document. I did a quick research online and people charge about £10 per page or per 1000 words. I cannot pay £100 just for proof reading when I already need to print things for exhibition as well as two copies of dissertation and all of these 3-4 weeks before I will become unemployed.
What I did for the rest of the week was fixed all the mistakes in Literature Review and been re-reading every single sentence at least 4 times and trying to fix those grammar mistakes. Also Simone suggested I change the layout of the dissertation and create a section called Contextual Review. So I have done all that and nearly finished writing the entire document. I was really hoping to be done this evening, but looks like I'll have to do some more stuff tomorrow. Need to finish Conclusion and Abstract  parts as well as check again for any grammar mistakes.


Now the Table of Contents looks like this:

LIST OF TABLES......................................................iv
LIST OF FIGURES....................................................v
INTRODUCTION.....................................................1
LITERATURE REVIEW............................................3
Video games and aesthetics........................................3
Art aesthetics relation to videogame visuals................13
CONTEXTUAL REVIEW.......................................17
Composition.............................................................17
Colour.....................................................................26
Brushes and painting techniques................................30
Texture....................................................................34
Handcrafted imperfections........................................36
METHODS..............................................................38
Visual research and critical analysis............................38
Media tests...............................................................40
Critical Framework...................................................45
Case Studies.............................................................47
Braid........................................................................47
Okami......................................................................49
Personal Project.......................................................51
Game design and Pre-production..............................51
Production................................................................55
Critical Framework application.................................58
FINDINGS & EVALUATION................................60
CONCLUSION & FUTURE STUDY.....................62
APPENDICES.........................................................64
Honours Project Supervisor Meeting diary.................65
REFERENCES.........................................................66
FIGURE REFERENCES..........................................71


I really cannot afford any more time on the dissertation. I have already spent an extra week on it, which of course came from my practical work slot. :(  I still have to polish a few bits for the environment art, then do UI, character animations and create a gameplay video in adobe After Effects. I do not know how much I can complete it in 2 weeks time. I really hope I can do it all, but most likely I will end up doing more work after the actual submissions are over and probably my neck and back is going to try and kill me again. It is very unnerving and it certainly was not my plan at all. I was going to concentrate on my practical work, therefore my portfolio during this year; especially during this semester.

On Thursday the 1st of May I will have another meeting with Simone. I hope that the feedback regarding my dissertation is going to be somewhat better however... not expecting much good. I just have to live with what is there and fix things after 12th of May submissions.