Mine's 19,000 :-( - supv knows though and seems to think length is not a problem. I hope he's right...

Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway (John Wayne)

Enjoy :-)

Ah so that's what it's called, this feeling I have!!

I got yet another crime book in the post this morning from Amazon (good value though!) and it's calling me to start reading. Maybe I'll have a coffee break and start it? Oh, I've had a coffee break - how long 'til lunchtime??

I agree with Olivia's approach and having just read her edit, agree with that too! I'm not hectic at networking but you'll probably find, over the course of your PhD that you actually have 'networked' more than you realise. However, it might be at the conference after this one, or even the next where you reap the benefits. You will find over the course of your PhD that the same people keep bobbing up at conferences and over time you will get to know some of them.

People generally respond to praise so consider complimenting somebody on their paper can often be a good 'in' to the conversation. Lots of attendees know each other so it can be difficult to muscle (!) your way into a conversation but if possible, try to let it happen naturally. Practice your PhD elevator pitch so at least you won't be stumped when somebody casually asks you "so what is your research about?"

To be honest with four children and therefore a busy life, I love the solitude of a conference hotel room and therefore don't network enough. I find my mind wandering during some of the papers thinking "right, so later I'll have a bath, then get room service, then read my book or watch a film..." You are young - don't do that!

Conferences can be really enjoyable but the tea and coffee bit can be stressful all right. Often there is a conference dinner or evening event and from a networking angle, or really as an opportunity to get to know people going to those things is usually a good idea. Networking is over-rated as an art and sometimes very obvious networkers are cringe inducing or maybe that's because I'm not very good at it ;-)

I've had to do classes and amass credits as part of my PhD. The accepted wisdom among my cohort was do enough to get a decent grade but no more unless the class/module is really important to your PhD. It's difficult if you are used to pulling in the high grades but it's important to balance what's required of the classes with your own work. They do get you writing from the start and I have made it my business to copy 'n paste at least one paragraph from different assignments into my final thesis, so as I don't feel that they were a total waste. My supvervisor supports structured PhD programmes and yet advised me to 'just do enough' so it sounds as if you're doing fine. Some of the classes were good, some were not but my goodness I'm glad they're over!

A 'B' is good :-)

Huge congratulations Dr. 'LittleMissdoesn'tneedtoworryanymore' :-)

Indicators of dog barking // Dog barking proclivity??

Def not sure about 'influencers'

on your marks, get set, GO! Sounds a tight deadline but you have loads written already so I'm sure you'll be fine and do brilliantly (up)

Re: your hubs viva - I asked two people about maths-type vivas but didn't get any astounding insights I'm afraid. Really it's a case of the basic viva rules apply. 20-30 minute presentations are pretty normal apparently.

I suppose it depends on how formal you think other papers might be; will there be other postgrads presenting or will you be one of few among seasoned academics??

My approach to conference presentations tends to be informal. I try to present with just my slides, not to read from the text and speak in quite a conversational tone. Those are the presentations that I enjoy listening to. Having said that if you do make it more informal, I think there is more pressure to be a good presenter. Some people might misconstrue a relaxed presentation as lack of preparation.

One of my colleagues always gives formal presentations and reads his papers which are always theoretically heavy and dense. He was contacted recently and asked to write a chapter of an edited book based on the paper which he had presented. So maybe there's your answer???

======= Date Modified 26 Mar 2011 20:00:42 =======
Hi Eska

I feel for you as something similar happened me this year. I got okay-ish feedback for a third tutorial I gave. The format was adjusted this year and tutors were told to concentrate specifically on primary research, methodology etc etc. I did this and lots of the students grumbled saying they were not been given enough direction. They definetly didn't like coming up with their own ideas for a tiny mini-project they were expected to complete. To be fair I don't think this changed format worked, regardless of the tutor. The year manager posted the feedback forms on our in-house learning system and we were supposed to get students to submit online. Like a total lemon myself and one other tutor did this :-(, with the result that only our two feedbacks are up and available for all to see. I was raging as everybody else conveniently didn't see this instruction - or pretended to not see it more like. One guy's comments actually really stung, similar to your experience. There were positive comments but I suppose it's the nature of things that we only really focus on the criticisms, not the positives. It's frustrating as when you are delivering somebody else's module your hands are really tied. I enjoy teaching undergrads but it can be frustrating. That's twice now that I have used that word but that's how I felt, totally frustrated!

Anyhow take heart because you wrote 550 more words than I did today!

You sound more positive Hiccup - that's great. Your postdoc friend gave good advice. Try it out and see if you can draw up a plan to work for you.

That sounds so traumatic about the circumstances of your baby girl. I really hope she will be fine.

Take things easy - three months in, you still have oodles of time ahead of you :-)

My goodness, a lot of papers in one go! I can get some, though not all. It's easier to list the ones I can't get as then you could continue to source them. I can't get:

Pizam, A. (1978). Tourism’s impacts: The social costs to the destination community as perceived by its residents. Journal of Travel Research, 16(4), 8–12.

Allen, L. R., Long, P. T., Perdue, R. R., & Kieselbach, S. (1988). The impact of tourism development on residents’ perceptions of community life. Journal of Travel Research, 27(1), 6–21.

Long, P., Perdue, R., & Allen, L. (1990). Rural resident tourism perceptions and attitudes by community levels of tourism. Journal of Travel Research, 23(9), 3–9.

Allen, L., Hafer, H., Long, P., & Perdue, R. (1993). Rural residents’ attitudes toward recreation and tourism development. Journal of Travel Research, 31(4) 2–33.

Allen, L. R., Long, P. T., Perdue, R. R., & Kieselbach, S. (1988). The impact of tourism development on residents’ perceptions of community life. Journal of Travel Research, 27(1), 6–21.

The other more recent ones I can get. Pm me your email if you want me to send you the pdfs.

Hi Hiccup

Everything is relative, I know but honestly 3 months is only a small fraction of what at best could be a 36-month PhD, and very often is quite a bit longer. You sound like you're being very tough on yourself and you should try not to be. It's the nature of the PhD beast that most (though not all!) of us lurch from crisis to PhD crisis. I thought "if only I could get my fieldwork done, I'd be sorted". Now I'm mid write up and am wistfully looking back on that time of my study when I felt I knew what I was doing!

I hope your daughter is recovering from the trauma of her birth. That and working part time as well as getting to grips with your PhD has been very stressful. Going to 3-days a week after Easter is a really positive step and should ease the burden considerably.

If that lit review draft by end of May is a self-imposed deadline I would rethink it. Sketch out a structure for it and aim to complete SOME of it by end of May. Setting smaller achievable goals is usually better than larger ones, which very often you will miss and then feel a complete failure.

If you're going ahead with your masters presentation next week I would make that, your work priority. Revisit that research, formulate your presentation and in doing so you might find you clarify in your mind where you are going from here.

Pace yourself over the next few years would be my advice (advice that I need to heed myself!!). Honestly, the sense of failure when you don't achieve a large goal you have set yourself is debilitating. Smaller goals which you can literally tick off as you go should make you feel better.

Hope you feel better soon

A

======= Date Modified 24 Mar 2011 17:09:05 =======
======= Date Modified 24 Mar 2011 17:08:24 =======
That's brilliant Dunni, so pleased to hear that :-)

Edited rather than put in another post! Chin up Patience (above!), I feel for you. I used SPSS for my masters and really didn't like it so I don't envy you. Hopefully you'll be able to move on to more interesting interpretive material soon.

Fm (below!) although the feedback sounds tough it does sound like you're on the homeward strait. Really tough working and finishing out your thesis at the same time but the sense of freedom when you submit will be worth it.

I have asked a friend whose husband might know - he's has a maths PhD himself but from a long time ago! Meanwhile has your hubs seen this: http://www.maths.manchester.ac.uk/postgraduate/pgstudies/docs/rough_guide_phd_pure.pdf - it's quite general but there might be something there. Basically it says don't panic!

I'm in the social sciences but it's normal practice in my field to give a 20 min presentation in our vivas. I'm pleased as I think at least it gives you some control in your viva to lay out your 'hypothesis' before the questions start coming.