Can be a difficult decision and in part depends on what you want your PhD to do for you. A 'fantastic' uni can influence people who know nothing about your PhD but will recognise the name of your uni. On the other hand having a 'name' supervisor can also be a good selling point. For me, I would go with supv; it would override the uni in my opinion. Your supervisor is really important and can be the difference between efficient completion, an 'enjoyable' PhD experience, tearing your hair out etc. Also your supv will infuence who your external examiner ultimately will be. If your supv is a big name, chances are, your external will be a big name as well. Many people keep in contact with their external, use them for academic references and so on so even at the beginning it's something to factor in.

My vote is, if you can't have both - person over institution;-)

I have quotes at the start of each chap too and can't believe how much attention my supv has given them -there was me thinking that they weren't that important. I mean nice to read but do they really matter? Eh,. yes!! He has questioned them, liked them, suggested finding alternatives, told me expand them etc - a LOT of attention. They are all from one theorist, with the exception of one quote which is about the theorist! Both theorist and other guy are dead so that's okay!! Finding it difficult to find apt ones for my analytical chapters though:-( sort of wish I hadn't started...

I'm a bit of a 'play the game too' if I'm honest, particularly as I don't want to stay in academia really. I think you do so possibly it's more important.

This could be a scenario where a presentation at the start of your viva would be be good - it would allow you inform the panel, in more layman's terms the strengths of your approach and the stats tests you used. You could have comparison slides - 'a t-test' produced this result whereas my approach gave this...' Just a thought

Hey all

Just checking in and also to say welcome to all the different people who have posted here recently. It's a busy thread; if we all submit sometime this summer, looks like lots of unis will be short on postgrads for the winter ;-)

Hope you hear about your viva soon, Dunni - you're all set to be this thread's first alumni!

I'm in the middle of my write up; I'm hoping to have a first draft by mid May. I wrote the intro ages ago (similar to Bilbo) but unlike other chapters I haven't shown it to my supervisor as I know I will need to vigorously edit it - as in take some things out altogether, add some new stuff in. However I felt it got me organised. I'm hoping my conclusion won't take 'that' long as it will be just that - a conclusion - as my substantive discussion is in the chapter immediately before the conclusion. I was told that conclusions are often weak and are common corrections to be given at vivas in that many are written in a hurry, when the student is either tight on time, or so sick of the whole process that they don't give it enough attention. That said, I expect it to be short - the guide I was given was roughly ten pages or so. Even ten pages of the tough-going writing won't (I'm desperately hoping!) take that long!

A day or two for the intro does sound short but then again if you have written everything else by then, it should flow, one would hope.

Good luck - hard to write and keep at it with this lovely weather, isn't it??

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Sheyna

My sympathies to you on your situation. I do have direct experience of what you describe, although was not pregnant at the time of my sister's illness. I do however have four children. My mother and my other sister were her primary carers and it was very tough and there was three of us sharing the care, not one as is your situation. It was incredibly difficult and I can only imagine how drained you are. My supervisor was and is great and was very supportive through it all. I would prefer not to go into further details if you don't mind but you are welcome to pm me if you like.

Investigate the possibility of taking time off - going off the books as it is known - between your mother's illness and your pregnancy you have ample grounds. It would not, I imagine, affect the scholarship you have earned. However, you would need to check it out.

Deciding to quit is ultimately your decision. I can see pros and cons of quitting but it's difficult to advise somebody as every case is different.

My thoughts are with you

A

I would think it is option two but in more depth. Therefore I think you should include your methodological approach, if you are interested in particular methods, your theoretical framework etc. I'm not sure what stage you're at but I would structure it along the lines of a research proposal. I wouldn't give a literature review per se but I would include writers or papers that have influenced you, or perhaps on which you are structuring your research design. If it's a competitive process of application (and many summer schools are) you have to demonstrate how much you think what they are offering will benefit you, and what you might contribute to the school. Headings I would include:

Overall topic description
Influencing literature/authors
[proposed] methodology or methodology progress thus far
area you see your PhD contributing to


Good luck
(up)

To me, 1982 seems like last week :-(

Research in the Sociology of Organizations is in the Emerald database (which I have access to). However from that, it looks like Volume 32 back to Volume 17 inclusive are available online. Earlier (older!!) volumes don't seem available. Could be wrong though...hopefully somebody can get it for you

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Just emailed you both of them now - will you confirm you received them as your email address rejected three times before email seemed to send

Edit: it's just been returned back to me - failed to deliver - can you confirm your email address, maybe it's me??

emailed you your paper :-)

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Phew, I can get it (after me saying earlier I have good access!). If you want to pm me your email Hiccup I'll email you the pdf

Theoretical saturation, ie when you just can't read any more theory;-)

There does come a time when you have to call a halt but not for quite a while. Even if you write your lit review in your first year (which I think you're in??) you would still be expected to update it as you progress in your studies. It is very unlikely that you could consider it 'done' in first year.

3rd edit :$ (it's late for me) - you don't have to chase all the references in a paper up. You will probably find that the same core references keeps cropping up so you should try to get those. Then as you fine tune your topic, you will have a better idea which references you need, which would be nice to have, which are tenuously useful and which are not worth pursuing!

Been there, done that...I totally emphathise with you Timefortea. No real advice save try to take things easy, as in on yourself. Get that eczema sorted as it does sound stress related.

My babies are older now but I did my undergrad study at the kitchen table. I remember literally running out of lectures to meet up with my hubs half way home to swap the two youngest over. "They've had their dinner, done a yucky nappy each :-(, sorry didn't have time to change them" :-s. Now they're older and I'm in the midst of raging teenage hormones. I'm writing up but have been phoned by the school twice in the last two months about the carrry-on of my formally cherubic, lovable youngest twin. He bunked off recently with one of his numerous girlfriends (eh he's 13). There's only so many times a person can confiscate his mobile. He's so cool he's in danger of freezing over. My oldest son and my only daughter are both learning to drive and 'hounding' me beyond belief to bring them out practising. I have one other son who, as long as I keep him in Lego;-), promises never to leave home!

Hope things look up for you soon, Time (up)

http://www.savethecomma.com/game/ - show this to your supv team and see how they get on!!

Personally I would agree with your supvs comments about not putting in additional punctuation such as two full stops, i.e. (!!) one stop after etc. and then another for the full stop. However, I know 'etc.' was your example but I wouldnt' use it; I prefer 'and so on'.

Re: Harvard - as far as I am aware it's a matter of personal preference and house rules of the publisher concerned. I only capitalise the first word of a title, unless it's a proper noun so I would go with 'Changing job boundaries' but the other method is also used. The key thing is consistancy, not a bit of this, and a bit of that ;-)