My computer is acting up...besides the smiley faces, I meant to add..

it looks like we have something going here...could it be brown haired PhD students are more extroverted than introverted?

Well-- you COULD make the hair colour generalization! I have brown hair.

As someone on the way extrovert end of the scale, I like noisy busy places to study--most of the time. Silence makes me go crazy---most of the time, but there are those times you need to lock yourself away to get stuff done...

Hmmm...another question--do people with brown hair in PhDs tend to be more extroverted or introverted?

And if you smile, make eye contact with your presenters, use VERY confident body language, people will not guess the extent of your nerves. In a way you trick your own body!

I did a presentation where I was soooooo nervous....and had to make small talk with the faculty prior to it as they came into the room...I just smiled and chatted away about the weather or the lightbulbs or something inconsequential...and afterwards, I was like WHEWWWW glad that is done, and people were surprised that I had been nervous!!!!!!!

Smiling, deep breathing, eye contact....it will not make nerves go away, but it does give you a way to manage them while you still make an effective presentation. Don't under estimate eye contact---it is SO important when you speak.

Did you get the upgrade, if so congrats!!!! And just think of this as part of learning--if you know you get nervous presenting, then look for every opportunity that you can do get more and more actual experience doing presentation. Figure out how to manage your nerves--because I think if people are honest, everyone has nerves presenting when something big is riding on it !!!!

Breathing deeply is supposed to help calm you, so that you are speaking and breathing from more than your diaphragm...breathing shallowly ( as we do when nervous) makes your voice sound more thin and nervous...a deep confident voice SOUND confident even if you don't FEEL it. Smiling helps to relax nerves as well. I know that when I get nervous before presenting, that my voice will even shake the first minute or two---I HATE THAT---but it goes away quickly, and I get into the rhythm of what I am doing--and generally am feeling good at the end.

Congrats! Well done!

What is the basic personality inclination of people doing PhD studies? Does this vary by field of study? Can such generalizations be made?

I am only asking in an unscientific, somewhat curious manner---knowing the nature of generalizations--but that said--any thoughts? ( making small talk...could you ask this of a social gathering at your department?)

Those are sound words of advise, RogueAcademic. The understanding of law from an academic v. practitioner point of view can be quite varied as well--so it depends on who the target audience of the publication is.

Periodically, journals and universities team up and have special editions devoted to postgraduates. Are you familiar with the law journals in your law topic? Go on their website and read their submission guidance. Check to see if anyone has a call for papers out in a legal symposium that will result in publication of accepted papers. Does your subject matter appeal to a wider audience than legal academics/lawyers? Can you publish in a journal in a related discipline?

What do you want to write about? What have you got to say? To whom? Those sorts of things are important when you try to locate journals--you want to be sure that your areas of interest match that of the journal.

Given that there are 10 zillion journals....it should not be hard to find. Then there is the bepress website...check them out to see if they are a match in terms of your interest.

For a variety of reasons, I have taken the decision to move overseas for the next several months to finish my PhD work. I I joke to people that having nothing to do but work on a PhD and not a PhD plus a job that I will be done in about 3 weeks!

Balancing work with a PhD has been challenging, yes, but it has made me VERY efficient at time management and sticking to deadlines. I have had times when I wondering WHY AM I DOING THIS??!!! but those pass.

I think its quite possible to balance work and PhD. Look at it this way, at some point, there are diminishing returns in the number of hours a day you put into your study...you get tired, you have no more to give to it. I think there are advantages to working and doing a PhD, in that, you keep one foot in "real life" and again, there are the pressures of having to get work done, so you figure out how to maximize the time and energy you DO have.

I can understand where you are coming from. I have been doing my PhD abroad ( and alone) for two years, and it can be hard! Friends, family and colleagues seem to forget that I am doing a lot of study, just because the university is not physically "here." I have been doing it combined with my full time professional job ( a 40+ week job) and yes, it CAN be hard. Its great there are boards like this to get some cameraderie.
I would get a boost from my trips overseas that would last about 6 weeks and then I would hit such a low...

I think the important thing is self motivation is to break your task down in sizes you can manage. If you look at the big picture its overwhelming....so just keep breaking it down until you reach a size that feels do-able that day. And then do it. Like the writing 500 words, or updating bibliography, or precis on boring new article. Then the feeling of frustrations give way to feelings of achievement, of having got SOMETHING done, and seeing progress.

On those days I am stuck, I make a simple yet achievable task for myself---like write 500 words. They can be the most rubbish 500 words, that is not the point, its just to write them. Sometimes then the writing takes off and becomes more than that, and sometimes its just that. But at least its a milestone and something done.

continued..

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I think you might make some adjustments dependent on your field of research--but that the overall principles apply no matter what!

Another helpful piece of work on how to edit is by Bryan Garner. It is geared at American legal writing, but its editing tips for structure and flow, how to tie one paragraph to the next through simple words that serve as connectors--again--this HELPS soooo sooo much, and it takes the pain and mystery out of writing.