Hi,

I totally agree with Bonzo. The key thing is to find a PhD that is manageable. It is not the place for creativity. That's what you do in the other aspects of your life (if you have any when you're doing a PhD!).

You should be conservative - not think that a PhD is going to enable you to be creative. It's not going to solve any problems in your life. It's about finding a current debate and contributing to that debate in a very small way.

But it depends on what you want from a PhD - if you do have a significant question - a personal question - you can address that in a PhD, but this route probably won't set you up for an academic career.

That's what I think - from personal experience, as is probably fairly clear!

L

Hi,

I think I might have been in a similar situation. I did switch supervisors and I regretted doing so! Sorry - this is conflicting advice! It might be worthwhile trying to work out why he is saying what he's saying. Is there any value in it - even if he is not saying it in a nice way? (there is no excuse for him to be rude or to bully you though).

It sounds as though you feel he isn't listening to you - maybe he feels you're not listening to him? Can you analyse it a bit more?

I hope you manage to sort this out. IF I had my chance again I wouldn't change supervisors - but of course all cases are different. Hope that helps!

Hi,

I agree with the previous posts. Can you do an initial, overview kind of analysis and work out if you have enough? Do you need to fully transcribe it all? Basically, all you need is enough for your thesis - i.e. for your argument. It can be really hard to draw a line and say you have enough now - maybe you need to be ruthless about it! - and get advice from your supervisor.

L

Hi,

I work from home. I think potential problems are finding yourself working all the time, not getting a break from it and feeling guilty when you're not working. It can help to try and develop a routine - something that signals that you're now in working mode or not e.g. working in a specific place. I always have a shower when I have finished working - more for psychological reasons rather than being made dirty by the work!

My funding is also due to finish soon - this does produce anxiety. But it's also an incentive to try and get things done now!

The idea of a 'small cottage' sounds really nice by the way!

L

I have also suffered from anxiety, been prescribed drugs and seen a counsellor due to my PhD. I did intercalate for a while and that helped. I don't know if there is an answer for this - doing a PhD is stressful.

It might be useful though to try and separate yourself from it, try not to care about it so much. See it as a job, rather than being about 'who you are' This is far easier to say than to do though.

At the end of the day, the sensible advice I suppose would be to look after your health – is doing a PhD really worth this? Take some time off, feel better and pick it up again. Perhaps getting counselling would be the best place to start.

L

"Doctorateness"? - see below:

Trafford, V. & Leshem, S. (2009) Doctorateness as a threshold concept. Innovations in Education and Teaching International. 46(3), 305-316.

“Doctorateness is a jigsaw puzzle that can only be fully appreciated when all the components are present and fitted together. Thus, the whole may be greater than the sum of its parts (von Bertalanffy, 1968). Doctorateness therefore results from specific critical research features being present in a doctoral thesis. These features should form a mutually interdependent network system of parts that have practical relationships within the thesis (Trafford & Leshem, 2008, pp. 51–52).” (Trafford & Leshem, 2009: 308)

“These individual features are not, of themselves, ‘a research mystery’ (Burnham, 1994) since they are familiar items in serious texts on research methodologies. Each is an obvious and essential component in research that starts with a gap in knowledge, or professional practice, which is worthy of investigation.” (Trafford & Leshem, 2009: 308)

“The views of examiners, supervisors and candidates offer similar perspectives into what constitutes doctoral research. They see it as a pluralist notion in which numerous complementary factors have to be present for research and a thesis to be complete as integrated processes. When these factors are present then the result is synergy that examiners, in particular, recognise as a resultant quality of doctoral research. It follows, though, that if any factor receives inappropriate attention by a candidate, or is missing, then their thesis is unlikely to achieve a pass. Thus, the notion of doctorateness represents a template that is used by examiners, supervisors and candidates to assess the scholarly merit of a thesis. Although these individuals may not use the term doctorateness to describe how they view doctoral quality, nevertheless it can explain their tacit understanding of this process.” (Trafford & Leshem, 2009: 310)

“Until candidates recognise the theoretical and practical significance of doctorateness their ability to produce the high-quality research and coherent theses that examiners expect to read will be limited. Candidates may well be familiar with each of the components in Figure 1, but they will not have developed an appreciative lens that allows them to integrate the components into a coherent whole. Instead of achieving synergy, the result for them will be dysergy. In this situation, the whole is less than the sum of its parts (von Bertalanffy, 1968, p. 68). As a result, the overall quality of a candidate’s submitted thesis will therefore be judged by examiners as being ‘poor,’ and so it will either fail or major alterations will be required.” (Trafford & Leshem, 2009: 311)

Thanks, Rubyw - I think that's true. I suppose I need to decide if I want to stay in academia, and at the moment I’m thinking not. But since jobs are so scarce, I won’t have many options to choose from I think!

Maybe things will look different once I've completed my thesis - it sounds like this was the case for you.

Lou

Hi,

Getting back to work after a break is hard. It’s a bit like tackling a load of washing up – horrible greasy pans, dishes with baked in food etc. Sometimes it can be useful to tell yourself that you’re going to just wash the plates for now. Once you get started though you find you can carry on. Does that make any sense?!

I have also got myself into a situation where I left a bad impression. I think the only way to deal with it is to try and forget about it. Lots of people get themselves into a mess at one time or another. Remember that it will probably appear worse to you than to them. In time people will forget, particularly when you have made up for it by doing better things!

Lou

Hi,

I sympathise with you.

I read somewhere that most people who actually finish their thesis obtain their degree in the end. Maybe the main challenge is sticking with it - it sounds like this is what you're doing. There are probably a lot of academically brilliant people who have ‘failed’ because they just couldn’t endure for whatever reason.

Personally I find that when I think what I’m doing isn’t any good, it can be helpful to just do it anyway! I’m talking about the writing process here really – just do it anyway and quite often it can turn into something good.

Lou

Hi,

Thanks for your replies. Yes, I think it’s right that the isolation and pressure of endless reading and writing can make you go slightly crazy. I have also experienced similar physical effects e.g. putting on weight. I work at home on my own a lot…

Networkers do gain a lot of advantages, but so do people who toe the party line. I sometimes think that my field is all about consensus, nobody daring to question the status quo, or to rock the boat. On reflection, I feel that being more conventional would have made things a lot easier for me. That would have been the strategic thing to do!

I also wonder whether things have been different for me because I am older and am researching an area that is partly based on my professional practice. I’m sure this has made me a ‘difficult’ student. I haven’t been prepared to compromise on certain issues. Someone has said to me that it’s good that I can think outside the box, but on the other hand the ‘box’ is so important. I wonder if it’s all box! Am I strong enough to fight against it? Is it worth it?

In relation to Sue2604’s post – Re anonymous peer review: I suppose this process can ensure that submitted papers are assessed on ‘merit’, but I think social networks have a role to play before this point (e.g. feedback on draft papers). I also wonder how anonymous peer review really is, particularly when the content of the paper makes it obvious to those ‘in the know’ who the paper is by!

Maybe I’m just becoming bitter!

Lou

Hi,

Since this is my first post, I thought I’d give a brief intro to myself – I’m a FT social science PhD student in North West England in my late 30s. I’m in my third year – hoping to finish writing soon. It’s been a traumatic experience: isolation, changes in supervisor, writer’s block, stress and trauma – I identify with many of the posts which have been made here. Oh yes!

The specific point I wanted to raise concerns the role of social skills. My social skills aren’t great – I’m pretty reserved and reflective – but before my PhD I worked for 10 years in a job which required a lot of communication, so I must have some skills! However, during my PhD experience I have become increasingly aware of the importance of social skills for research. I find that people who are able to network are capable of getting ‘inferior’ research published or cited and it makes me feel left out in the cold.

More significantly, I have come to think that the whole field that I am working in is based on who you know rather than what you can say. This isn’t good news for me, particularly as my research topic goes against the orthodoxy. It makes me feel that academic life just isn’t worthwhile!

Does anyone one else feel this – how do you deal with it? I wonder if it more the case in arts/ humanities/ social sciences rather than the sciences?

Louisa