I have done this myself twice, once to get my supervisor and secondly to find a replacement when he unexpectedly retired. On both occasions I emailed them and asked if it was possible to meet and discuss my potential PhD. I would strongly recommend you do the same, that way you both get a feel as to whether you could work together.

I would do as you propose. Then, when you submit your corrections I would include a table with each correction listed in the first column, with a corresponding comment on how you have dealt with the requested correction in the second column. In situations such as the correction above I would also include a short justification. Pretty much as you do above.

I have published a number of papers and was under the same pressure at the start of my Phd.

To be honest I would wait a little, ideally you want to be ahead and publish results with about a 6 month delay. As unfortunately people do steal ideas! I do agree with others though that publishing will help you later especially making the case for originality and contribution to knowledge.

I feel your pain. I sent my first full draft to my supervisor in January and have heard nothing since, although I am five drafts further on now!

Given it is now April I gave up on my supervisor and decided to 'take ownership'. So the document was sent to the binders this afternoon and will be submitted next week.

Although to be safe I read through a couple of other Phd's from ethos in my area, doing a comparative analysis to make sure I had not missed anything - thankfully I appear not to have done. I also used a professional proof reader to check the grammar and spelling errors Which was expressive but worth it.

I would really recommend you compare your phd with a couple of others and check the basic structure and content if all ok ask someone to proof read it for you.

Good luck

Hi ntukieron,

Sounds a very interesting dissertation, however I think you would need to contact a specialist organisation as straw bale is very rarely used at the moment, I only know of two buildings (one for the national trust and one at university of west of England). Have you discussed this with your supervisor? I think you really need to raise these issues ASAP given the rarity of the technique data could be difficult to find.

Best of luck

Tester

Hi gc1,

I am just about to submit my PhD after five years of work, I completed whilst working full-time, change jobs once and moving home twice. As with Mark, I also had to transfer my PhD between Universities due to my first supervisors retirement.

When I started I lived a distance away. To be honest, this was not a problem, I met my supervisor on a monthly basis first thing in the morning (8ish) so would travel the day before (book ]cheap last minute hotels)and prepare for the meeting the night before, I use to write little PowerPoint with the research aim, objectives, progress to date and key issues, these really helped focus the meetings.

Overall it was a great experience, but my supervisor retired and recommended a professor at my home city university, but it is really business as usual, he is just as good as my first supervisor, so really it is just less of a commute to meetings.

I am in the social sciences by the way so I had no need to worry about labs etc., and did not really need the library to much - I mainly used e-journals through my library account. As with Mark I also re-purposed the box room into a small study which became my PhD room, so I could close the door on the PhD (without worrying about the mess) and do the day job.

I am not sure what your discipline is, but I presented a paper every year at a national conference. I found the the process of writing and presenting helped me reflect on progress whilst the feedback on the paper fro the reviewers also helped me avoid some terrible mistakes, the biggest being a methodology which I incorrectly applied, so they refused the paper but provided loads of critical feedback to help me re-focus that chapter of the PhD. I also found meeting up with other part-time PhD students every so often useful.

Good luck, I am sure you will enjoy the roller coaster ride.

I have also used a case study methodology based largely within one organisation. To be honest I do agree that you need to sell the research, really to ensure all parties buy into the process. In my area which is construction management this meant convincing the various parties that this would help with KPI's and further work flow, add the research to their presentations etc.

I would strongly suggest you tell your supervisor, when I discussed it with my supervisor he also came to the meeting which really helped as he had a wealth of experience and really help me sell the study.

Personally I would say that if they have arranged a meeting they are keen on helping, they just want to know what's involved before they commit. If they are not interested why arrange a meeting?

Good luck with it

Tester

Hi Lemonjuice,

I am no expert on philosophy, however, I would say that given the nature of pragmatism and mixed methods, i.e. coming from a practical viewpoint, with the focus on the end goal, it would be impossible to capture an ontological position. Although the number of texts using epistemology and ontology as one and the same does not help.

If you want to read a very accessible book on pragmatism,. I would recommend Talisse and Aikin (2008) Pragmatism: A guide for the perplexed. In Chapter 2 they deal with this issue at considerable length. That really helped me. As my PhD was also mixed methods, based on pragmatism.

Best of luck.

Hi,

I have been hit with a bomb shell late last week.  It appears my main (only) PhD supervisor is being made redundant at the end of August. The university in question failed to appoint a second supervisor either which makes life even more difficult.  To finish this off, it is doubtful the new supervisor will have any contact with my current supervisor to 'hand over' the study given the tight time frames.

I am really now facing a dilemma - Do I stay at this university and hope they appoint a new supervisor who can understand my work as the data collection phase is completed or should I approach other supervisors at other institutions to see if I can find someone who will take a PhD student (Part-Time) with two years of registration left?

Any advice would be really great.

======= Date Modified 06 Mar 2012 19:54:21 =======
Hi All

I had my first year review last week, which was a report of 10,000 words and a viva. I passed without a problem, but a the viva the panel asked questions about the philosophical position in terms of my ontology and epistemology. Whilst I managed a weak response I quickly realised this area of my research needs serious strengthening, indeed the chair of the panel and in fairness my supervisor for the last few months both emphasised that a PhD is based in Philosophy so understanding this is going to be critical.

Yet I find this element of the PhD the most difficult, could anybody recommend some introductory texts which will allow me to develop an understanding of the different approaches. I have so far been pointed towards Crotty and Guba, are these the best texts? Or should I read some more focused philosophy texts specific to the branch of philosophy I intend to use?

======= Date Modified 12 Sep 2011 22:03:43 =======
I am a senior lecturer with seven years experience, but my first lecture was very much the same as yours.  There is no quick fix I am afraid, just keep delivering the lectures and you will develop your personal style and you will improve every time.

Delivering a 2hr lecture without notes, is difficult, it took me five years to develop my subject knowledge to the point where I could arrive and just talk around the topic without any written notes, so please don't worry about that.

Remember every lecturer started just like you, I remember the first module I taught, being a complete disaster, but now my lectures go really well, it is just down to experience.

To give you one piece of advice, not all students will like you, not all students will attend, some will fail (usually around 20%) and some will walk out of your sessions. This happens to everyone, whether your a Professor or a PhD student, so don't worry about it, in fact external examiners get seriously worried with 100% pass rates!  If you can put up with that you will do just fine.


Finally, no one has ever been asked to leave a PhD because of one or two poor lectures, every one of us delivered awful lectures when we started out, in fact I think your inaugural lecture went rather well (up) compared to mine.

Good Luck with it, your doing fine.

Forgot to say, hence the edit, the dry throat, is very normal, I suffer from it every September, its just because you are not normally delivering lectures so your mouth and throat are not prepared.  I take a small bottle of water to every session for the first three weeks of every academic year, while my throat adjusts.

======= Date Modified 13 Aug 2010 16:27:53 =======
I am studying for my PhD via the part-time route whilst also working full-time (4 days per week with one study day allowance) I started last September and I am finding it heavy going to be honest, I work on my PhD for one full day, but usually do an hour or so in the evening reading papers etc which is working well for me, whilst giving me the weekends for other things which is important for you sanity, you have to be careful that you don't start resenting your PhD because your working seven days a week.

If you considering the full-time option, would this come with a stipend or Graduate Teaching Post attached? 

I know at my university the majority of the full-time students are studying with the aid of a stipend, however, this is very restrictive in terms of addition work etc. They are paid about £10k I also think this is tax free but I am not certain.  In addition their tuition fees are also paid. The downside is that they are expected to teach for 6hrs per week (excluding prep time etc) so I would say allow two days per week for the teaching obligation.

A difficult choice really, have you discussed the prospects with your potential supervisor?  I did and my supervisor also studied part-time so fully understood the complications of Part-time study and gave me some excellent advice which I found invaluable .

Good Luck with it.

On a slightly different topic, I am at the start of my PhD and like you I am also dyslexic, so its really nice to see someone finish their PhD. Can I ask how you managed all the reading needed? This is the bit that I am finding worrying at the moment and would welcome your advice.

Hi Phdforever,

I am very much in the same boat as you, I started my Part-time PhD around the same time as you and I also work full-time.  I have also found It a struggle to read as much as I think I should, but about 10 months ago I attended a seminar at which the speaker suggested you should use "golden time" which you put aside each day at a set time and work on nothing but your PhD. I have started doing about 1.5-2hrs per day either reading or writing, and it has really worked for me.  Incidentally to gauge progress I was told at the start if I could commit about 12-14hrs per week that would be the ideal, I so far manage between ten and twelve hours per week.

In terms progress, I am about the same as you, my supervisor, who also completed his PhD part-time thinks this is strong progress so from what you are doing I don't think you should worry to much.

In terms of publications, everyone seems to have a different view on this, my supervisor for example has recommended aiming at one per year to report progress and seek feedback, which is about the norm for my discipline but I think it really depends on your area.