I know you're in the social sciences Delta but don't know your particular skills so my suggestions (such as they are) are academic-based:

1. Contact the international department of your uni and suggest/offer your assistance to students for whom English is not their first language.

2. Contact editors of journals and see if there is any copy-writing/editing jobs going. My supervisor suggested this to me a while ago. I didn't do anything about it but as an editor of a journal himself he assured me that it was okay to 'cold-call' editors.

3. See if the OU has any vacancies.

4. Contact think-tank type organisations and enquire about vacancies. Also charities/philanthropic organisations don't always advertise in the normal way so some of them might be worth a call.

Good luck - I have just started a job which is not academic but in a university setting. At the moment I am in the fish out of water stage; I don't know where anything is, don't know who everybody is, not sure of procedures etc but fingers crossed it will all 'click' soon.

Best of luck Delta

======= Date Modified 06 Nov 2011 16:15:29 =======
I was going to suggest similar to Delta. Have a look through other theses to see how the author sets things up and discusses what they did but most importantly WHY they did it that way. Here is the link if you don't know it to downloadable theses at the British library
http://ethos.bl.uk/Home.do;jsessionid=B70CA576E236A5092E3BF910B921342B

tbh, if I was going to put a specific section on 'ontology' or 'epistemology' I would probably put it in my introduction chapter. That way, you set the scene early on for your particular 'take' on things, thus leaving you clear to discuss what you did in your methodology chapter. To my mind, you need to convey in your methodology chapter that while you are aware of alternative approaches, here is what you did and argue for why it is so appropriate for the problem at hand.

Hi Huhu

I just wanted to offer you some words of support similar to the others. I am really sorry you are feeling so stressed about everything which can only be excerbated by the language barrier and being away from home. The others all offer excellent advice but I suspect that you have probably thought of some these things already. I can totally relate to how you feel about your deadline and the worry that it is slipping away from you. The only advice I can offer beyond what has already been said is to approach your supervisor and ask him/her for a meeting but make it clear that you don't want to discuss finicky aspects of your project but rather your deadline, if he/she feels you on target and if not, what you need to do to get there, or (and this is scary), how far away from the target they feel you are. It takes guts I know (been there, done that!) but if you don't, what can happen is that you leave the meeting and berate yourself for not tackling the issue. And so the negative feelings about yourself only increase. So many times I went home after a meeting and gave out to myself saying "there's another meeting gone and you still haven't asked him x, y or z..."

As the others have said you ARE a talented, gifted person; your scholarship alone is vindication of that. However, I too had a scholarship but used to feel that somehow, some way I had slipped through the net and had gotten it by mistake! I don't know if that feeling ever goes away.

Finally, about your possible external examiner - remember that you have moved on since your own masters and no doubt know much more about your particular topic but also how to argue your case. Also at least you know what he is like in a viva so can mentally prepare.

Take it easy HuHu - hope things improve for you soon (gift)

======= Date Modified 31 Oct 2011 13:50:57 =======
Bad luck, you must be raging.

It happened to my sister as master's level. Even though her thesis had been officially approved, it emerged about two months before submission that a student in another university was pretty much doing the same thing. The master's was in quite a specialised field and the advice she was given by her supv was 'just make sure you get yours in first'! Not really that helpful! In the end what she did was flip the focus -originally she had been looking at her issue from the point of view of one set of users but what she submitted was the issue from the perspective of a different set of users. Even to this day (~10 years later) she still grumbles about nearly being caught out!

While it didn't happen exactly as you describe to me, there was an article published about 18 months into my PhD on my topic - not on my particular case study but on the overall topic or idea of my study. I remember showing the article to my supv saying 'is this essentially my PhD in 20 pages'?:-( He just laughed. As you say you can always look at something from slightly different angles, or user group etc. I think topics that are 100% unique are increasingly less common, if only because there are so many more people studying. Also the worldwide web (sic) means that it is far easier to 'suss' out potential duplications.


It's really annoying for you but better to have found out now that have a stinger of a question on the similar research in your viva - that would be a nightmare.

I agree with Emmaki; you need to read up on theoretical sampling. Also each coding stage segues into the next and also happens concurrently. Therefore while 7 interviews doesn't sound too much, were they in-depth interviews? If they were only 10 minutes then it is unlikely you will get much out of them, but if, and they probably were, much longer than of course you can start to extract themes etc.

Chapter III, page 45 o.w of The Discovery of Grounded Theory (1967) is the chapter that deals with theoretical sampling. It is also covered in every other GT book.

Thanks Dunni :-)

No date for me as I was told that there was at least 25 theses ahead of me still waiting to 'go to chair', thus (I'm still in writing mode!!) my chair may not be appointed until late November, hence (!!) my viva may not be until after Christmas. I am refusing to get too stressed (she says enjoying the first thesis free Sunday in what feels like months, and months, and months).

I sent you pm Delta

Well done Skig, I'm sure you're relieved it's in. I submitted mine this afternoon - feel a bit numb to be honest1

Life is too short for what ifs - Great job, the same city as your partner - sounds a win-win. Go for it.

Hope I'm understanding you correctly Rina - I did vote you a helpful user. Stars get progressively more difficult to get. One star as far as I can see takes just one vote and all the others are multiples of that. So my vote for you will bump you up the star ladder as it were just not enough to get another star.

Probably as clear as mud ! but there you go!!

Best wishes for the future Bilbo - I read all your posts as they always contains gems of wisdom. I have your 5 important points to bring to the viva pinned on my noticeboard at home; my hubby asked me the other day who 'Bilbo' was! Many thanks for inciteful and yet no-nonense contributions.

Hey Dr. Slowmo, not so slow now, eh! Congratulations on a great result. Look forward to hearing your viva details if you want to share.