Sleepyhead is getting dangerously close to the win here :-(

8-)

Lol yes, a productive thread. I have a gnawing feeling that the author of the book would actually be thrilled to see this discussion...damn!

======= Date Modified 19 Jul 2009 13:12:38 =======
That isn't want Bug said, as far as I grap it. Bug was saying that 'complicated' has a negative connotation:



''That set aside, I think, when you use it as a *verb* to say (A) "he is complicating the topic", and (B) "he is complexifying the topic", the difference may perhaps be negligible, unless you mean that in the case of (A) it is a largely negative connotation, i.e he is just making things look difficult and in the case of (B) he is adding layers of sophisticated arguments to explain how things are not as simple as they look.''



I cannot understand how 'complexification' is more 'complex' than 'complicated', when 'complicate' means 'to make complex'.

It also seems to me that most of the people defending the word on this thread have completely different opinions about why or how it should actually be used.

PS. I woudn't worry too much Sleepyhead, I'm sure I'll be just fine
;-)

======= Date Modified 19 Jul 2009 02:12:27 =======
Again though, the first dictionary definition of 'complication' is 'the act of complicating'. And to complicate means to make complex. So the process of complicating something (making it complex) is 'complication' not 'complexificying'. I see what you mean about the difference between an act and a process...But you could just say 'a process of complication'. Means exactly the same thing and people might understand what you're trying to say. Which surely is the whole point of writing a book. No?



Magictime summed the whole sorry business up anyway. The gold stars are going to the back of a dusty drawer, along with the stupid COMPLICATED book.

======= Date Modified 18 Jul 2009 19:45:27 =======
But, but...the dictionary definition of the word 'complicate' is 'to make COMPLEX, involved or difficult' !
And complicate has the same etymological root as 'complex'. It comes from the idea of folding, or plaiting.


I'm witholding my gold stars!

Ha ha.. you're just conflicatering matters now.

Seriously, the sooner that sort of critic disappears the better!

I have just spotted the word 'complexification' in a piece of literary criticism. Anybody who can explain why 'complication' was not good enough can have a gold star.

Hi PhDBug,

It's difficult because I don't want to press her for explanations right now but no, I don't understand either. She was always slightly guarded about things looking back- she'd never talked about the upgrade process to PhD, for example, but she always said she was doing a PhD.
She wasn't funded, by her supervisor or otherwise. She was registered as part-time, had a career development loan and worked alongside.
I think what has happened is this: at Christmas she got pneumonia and couldn't hand in her IPA (initial project approval) at the same time as the rest of us. Mine was approved back in February. The months passed by after she was well and she kept mentioning that she still had to hand it in, which I thought was strange as I would have thought it was a lot more urgent to get it sorted. I think she had only just handed it in and has not had it approved. That I find strange in itself, however- both of my supervisors looked over mine and recommended changes etc. before I handed mine in. They would have told me if it wasn't up to scratch. Surely the same thing would have happened to her?
I just texted and asked if she was waiting to upgrade and she said she was, but 'this was just the IPA'. I don't see how she could have been registered to upgrade, as you say Bug, without completing the IPA?
I'm beginning to see she might have given me a very incomplete picture.

Hey all,

I have a friend at university who was studying for an M.Phil and had been told she could probably upgrade to PhD- I'm not sure how these things work but she had always said that's what she was going to do.
Today she rang and told me she'd been kicked out, for want of a better word. Her supervisor called her to her office and did it on the same day. I'm finding it all so odd. She says she had no forewarning and she always seemed confident about her work. She's only just got back from presenting at an international conference which went really well.
On a selfish note it's scared the hell out of me. I always assumed that if it looked like I was going to fail my supervisors would give me some warning, some chance to turn things around. Is it common for this to happen? Luckily she seems ok about the whole thing and has already pretty much sorted out an MA program. ...I definitely would not be like this!

Hi Sheyana,

I assume you are presenting at a conference? Sorry if that sounds like a stupid question, I was just a bit unsure!
I don't have a huge amount of advice to give but having recently returned from my first conference I can say this: don't be afraid to explain when you are presenting that this is a work in progress and that you are hoping to get feedbck. That puts everyone at ease and it means you don't have to go on the defensive if somebody starts attacking your work- which, by the way, they won't!
I had my paper prepared quite a while in advance but I still felt completely unprepared and terrified. I would say that the experience is always worthwhile, even if you only come out of it knowing what you did wrong!
You have 2 days so just rehearse, rehearse, rehearse, if only to make yourself feel better. Go through the whole thing again and again out loud and practice with Power Point.

Good luck and I am sure you will be just fine (up)

Hi Donzy,

It's mainly about making your writing clearer and looking closely at your grammar etc. in order to do so x

Hi all,

Just thought I'd give you a quick update and let you know how it went. Well they were possibly two of the most bizarre days of my life- I'm not sure I'll ever go to a conference again where the emphasis was mainly on drinking. One well respected lecturer fell asleep on my shoulder in a nightclub!
As I expected, everybody's papers were brilliant and it scared the living bejezus out of me. Everybody was very confident and composed and the paper's were innovative and interesting and entertaining. On the other hand, almost everybody went over time and many seemed to be reading from full length papers and rushing to fit it all in in time.
On the day of my paper I was seriously considering running away ('Nobody would ever find out!') but I dragged myself up there, one step at a time. And it went really well 8-) I was nervous and shaky to begin with, and I think people could tell, but as I got into it I felt better and there were no major stumbles. Because me and the other girl on my panel stuck to time quite well I got loads and loads of questions, but I managed to answer most of them and with the ones I didn't I didn't feel too bad saying 'I hadn't thought about that,...' To be honest, most of them weren't really questions- they were people saying 'this is what I know about your subject', but it was really helpful as I got loads of suggestions for things to look at and places to go with it. Lots of people came up to me afterwards and said they really enjoyed my paper and chatted about it.
I would like to improve my confidence and presentation style somewhat, but I think I'll stick to saying, as I did there, that my paper is a work in progress and that I'd welcome comments. Nobody else did that and I do think it helped people to feel at ease with talking about my paper.
Natassia I didn't feel too left out coming from an ex-poly but there was a lot of 'so where is that exactly?' Overall though it really wasn't as much of a big deal as I thought it would be. Bonzo your suggestions made me chuckle- there were quite a few people who, while didn't mutter 'numbskull' under their breath looked as though they wanted to whilst answering questions.
But seriously, anybody reading this who has their first conference coming up- if I did it ANYONE can (up)

======= Date Modified 24 Jun 2009 17:06:56 =======
Ha ha good point Poppy! Me and my chihuahua ;-)



I like your spirit Emmanki! And you're right, we all have to start somewhere. Unfortunately there are no conferences for 'inexperienced, middle of the road, ex-poly postgrads' so I will have to play with the big boys and girls. Good point as well Bilbo; one of the guys- not that I'm stalking- seems to have presented at and put together a million conferences aswell as teaching and publishing. I'll be happy to get my thesis done and get in a couple of journals!

I'm just trying not to get too defensive about it and to make it clear that I'm there to get feedback and meet others and I'm aware my work isn't perfect and I don't know everything.

The only thing I hope is that the people are nice!

Presenting at my first conference on Friday- a so-called 'postgraduate' conference. Was feeling quite happy about my work and relatively confident until half an hour ago when started Googling the names of the others who are presenting, out of idle curiosity. Discovered the vast majority have presented at loads of conferences already/had lots of publications/won awards/are almost finished their PhD...all are at prestigious universities. I don't even have a space on my own university's website.
Feeling strangely amused by it all- I can see some 'Legally Blonde' type scenarios ahead, uneducated bimbo attempting to infiltrate the upper echelons.
Just wanted to share!

Hi,

Everybody's situation is different and it's very difficult to say when the 'right' time to do a PhD is. Personally I went straight on from UG and stayed at the same university and have had very few problems so far. However; yes PhD's are hard, both work-wise and emotionally, you will often feel frustrated, out of your depth and isolated. The feelings of inadequacy rarely go away though, so don't imagine you have to be mega-confident in yourself before you can start.
Have you met up ith your potential sup to talk these things through? That seems to me the best course of action right now.