Maybe just write without filtering any of the ideas. If you know what you want to say I would get it down on paper (or screen) asap and then edit and tidy it up afterwards. The important thing is to keep hold of the ideas and jist of whatever points you are trying to make. Alternatively if you're working from home or in a private office, speak your thoughts out loud into a recorder or phone and then transcribe and edit afterwards. Might help the writing juices flow :-)

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Thanks for those ideas Sneaks and Screamingaddabs

Screaming: alas I tipped over the 40 mark 4 years ago :-( and have done the whole uni thing as a mature student. My previous career is in a totally different field so it's tough blending uni and pre-uni work experiences to show how perfect I am for the jobs I want:p. So far I have only gotten short-listed for one interview and it essentially was the same type of job I did before I came to uni, just for far less money!! Makes me wonder what the last 8 years have been all about. Many thanks for your tips; I suppose I did know it but your words have impressed upon me the importance of getting it right. I have printed it out to digest fully later when I rustle up yet another CV. Thanks again.

for those of you who might be applying for non-academic jobs [ie not postdocs or lecturing] but nevertheless who want to work in a third level environment, how long is your cv?

Also, while completing this *** PhD I have been a 'jack of all trades' for my department and uni as in, I have invigilated, tutored, given a few guest lectures, hosted practical workshops, manned the desk at uni and dept open days, helped out at conferences, graded undergrad exams, organised fieldtrips for visiting academics etc etc. Any ideas for a good job title?

one down, one to go. Many congrats :-)

I was watching for tips too. I hate conclusions. Originally I had them all short and brief. With each chapter my supv said 'expand, expand...' with the result that my eight chapter conclusions are all a page each. My conclusion chapter was too short as well and is now twice the size it was.

Hi Moonblue

Can't seem to go back past 1997 with Evaluation and Research in Education :-(. However I did come across another paper by the same author 'phone interviewing as a means of data collection: lessons learned and practical recommendations' available at
http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/959/2095.

In searching for the 1997 article I came across 'Comparing telephone and face-to-face interviewing: a research note' (2004) in Qualitative Research. I got it through Google Scholar with a freely available pdf
http://www.akademiska.se/upload/52362/Comparing%20Telephone%20and%20Face-to-face%20qualitative%20interviewing%20-%20a%20research%20note.pdf

Let me know if you can't access either link and I can send you them to you by email.

Good luck with your interviews



8-)

just to add that I didn't have the phone on speaker when I started the call but I asked all my telephone interviewees if they minded if I put them on speakerphone as I wanted to record the call - none of them objected:-)

I recorded a few telephone interviews with my digital recorder. What I did was put the telephone on speaker and just recorded as normal. Tbh it came out clearer that the face to face interviews in many instances. I found it good to do them in an enclosed space such as the car; the subsequent recording was very clear. One I did while my recorder was on a pillow - not good and not to be advised!

Have you seen these articles?
http://qrj.sagepub.com/content/4/1/107.short and
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09500799509533370

Oh yes, I'd do whatever was required :p I made it to 37 weeks with my twins with the result that 13 years later I think I still look 5 months pregnant :-(.

What you have in mind sounds perfect Hannie, the best of luck with it.

In my airline days I had to call medical assistance for a lady who did go into labour in front of me - and I was pregnant myself at the time. I can still see the look on the airport policeman's face when he thought he was faced with two women about to pop!

via EBSCO I do, from 2008 onwards

Nice one KB, well done. Good luck Wed and Wed week (up)

to me, that seems spot on:-)

no doubt others can advise better but my immediate thoughts were, no matter how many organisations, methods etc you are studying and using, you are producing one thesis so you need to tell a coherrant, logical story. Your methods, be they mixed, qual or quant are the tools you use to answer your research ques[s]. I know it's a bare-bones sketch you gave us but I think you need a context chapter, perhaps beyond what your introduction will cover. Also if you cover mixed methods and the whys and wherefores of that in your methodolgy chapter, is that not enough about 'why' you chose the methodological approach you did? You will probably re-visit it in your conclusion (perhaps when you reflect on possible limitations of your research) but must it be re-visited anywhere else?

Hate to say it but for me, based on what you have said here, I think option 3 (albeit developed further) would be the approach I would take. Remember your thesis should tell the story of what you have done and discovered from A-Z.

What do I know though; I'm proofing for the last few weeks and sometimes I read my own material and go "what on earth is the point I'm trying to make...?" :$