Hi TimeforTea

I have four children, two of whom are also twins, though now are 13 so I'm past the baby stage. I did my degree and masters though when they were younger so I remember what it's like. Although my house no longer reverberates to the sound of babies crying, it's full of raging teenage hormones - not sure which is worse??

My advice pretty much mirrors Dunni's. If yours head to bed c9m then realistically that is too late for you to start hitting the books. Do they sleep on in the mornings? It's hard but if you get a quiet time, maybe then abandon the housework and give your PhD a couple of hours. Remember when the babies were tiny, people used to say 'when they sleep, you sleep'? Well maybe now it's 'when they sleep, you study'?

Dunni's advice about having the workspace ready to go is good. I do that as well so at least it means that when I do get a few hours, I am not wasting it searching around for this or that.

It's not easy but for me, leaving the little matter of theory aside (sic!) this PhD has been as much about project management as anything else.

Good luck with your studies (up)

======= Date Modified 20 Feb 2011 22:37:13 =======
hi Natassia

I'm pretty sure that if you are looking at a book on google scholar that you can't save and print, I presume 'coz Google want you to buy it somewhere!! Maybe the more technie people might know otherwise but as far as I know that's the situation. If you just want to print a few pages, one option is to take a screen shot and print that. It's not brilliant but it can be useful for one or two pages. You probably know how but in case not, hold down the ctrl button and then click the print screen button (usually somewhere at the top of your keyboard). Then in a word doc, right click and the paste option should be available.

If you're looking at a document that is fully available you should be able to print that. However, lots of articles you access via Google scholar are still restricted and only available if you have a subscription to that particular database or journal, or through your uni's electronic journals or databases.

A

Hey All

Pink, you sound at a similar situation to me - just at the moment I feel it's writing, writing, writing. It's so relentless but at the same time means that we are still progressing. And if we are to submit this summer, let's be honest we do need to keep pressing on but at times, when I fire up the computer, I click on my thesis, I click on the particular document I'm working on and then see all those words, I feel I will scream :-s but I don't :-x

Dunni, I can only imagine how frustrating it is to be so close and yet waiting for those supvs' comments to come back. It's good you are spotting a few format inconsistencies as that means your eye is still 'in' but I'm guessing you are worried then that you have missed a few. One positive thing about the supv delay in getting back to you is that you are conducting a slow and methodical proofread with the result that you are spotting the odd typo and inconsistency. I'm sure lots of people have to submit with only a frenzied proofread and a lot of typos probably go unnoticed. Your way is the textbook way to do it so although I'm sure it's torture, your thesis will be the stronger for it!

I've taken the day off my thesis - to tidy my house! Not as exciting as Pink going out for a day with hubs but the sun is streaming in the windows today and so I can see that my house is without doubt the dustiest house of all those on this forum:-(. Trying to get my twins to give their room a deep clean. "That's not mine, it's his - I didn't do that, he did - he was the one watching that dvd - those are his socks, not mine" - :-s

Good luck all - Summer 2011, here we come, or in Dunni's case, Spring 2011 (up)

Congrats about the paper Fm. How are you finding the write up phase plus working your new job?

my sympathies Patience! I dealt with SPSS during my Masters. Funny, I'm going nowhere near it in my PhD!!! I know you're having problems with your data analysis but hope your write up going well in general :-)

Thanks :$:-) - some of what I'm slogging away at must be going in!

======= Date Modified 18 Feb 2011 12:35:37 =======
My speedy elevator pitch for classical pragmatism is that it has a deeply rooted pluralism, it is anti-foundatinalist, anti-essentialist - essentially a philosophy which brackets experience through direct action. No distinction between thought and action, both are joined in experience and so on and so on...:-)

Forgot I had this one myself

Mixed Methods Research: A Research Paradigm Whose Time Has Come
http://www.aera.net/uploadedFiles/Journals_and_Publications/Journals/Educational_Researcher/Volume_33_No_7/03ERv33n7_Johnson.pdf
and

Below is the one of the references which should have been in my friend's bib!!

Burke Johnson, R. Onwuegbuzie, A, J. and Turner, L.A. (2007) Toward a Definition of Mixed Methods Research. Journal of Mixed Methods (2007), 1, (2)

Difficult to see how someone could do mixed methods and be able to claim that they were a true positivist (assuming it's a mix of qual and quant). Maybe if it is a mix of quant methods? Can one be a positivistic qualitiative researcher - is it not a contradiction in terms??

Im a confirmed classical pragmatist, it's what my supv says will get me my PhD, never mind what my topic is about! Not sure if I should be pleased or not! Seriously though, I have loads of readings on it - not all of which I have read, though I should have at this stage
:-(

Hi Sneaks

A friend of mine successfully passed her viva just before Christmas :-). Before she submitted she had to put in a lot of extra work on why her mixed method approach was appropriate etc. I just skimmed her thesis and found a few references but not all of them appear in her bibliography:$ . Haven't read them myself so am not actually recommending them but they might give you a few new pointers. The Datta one (what a great surname to have for a reseracher!!) is available online and seems itself to have loads of references which might be handy.

Datta, L. (1994). Paradigm wars: A basis for peaceful coexistence and beyond. In C. S. Reichardt & S. F. Rallis (Eds.), The qualitative-quantitative debate: New perspectives (pp. 53-70). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Greene, J. C. (2008) Is Mixed Methods Social Inquiry a Distinctive Methodology? Journal of Mixed Methods Research 2, 7-22.

Beyond these there is The Journal of Mixed Methods Research which you probably are already aware of.

Supvs don't tend to say things just to make you feel good, or simply to motivate you in my experience. If you supv said it was high quality work, then most likely it is, so well done! Having said that, there probably will be a heap of corrections/suggestions but only really with a view to making it even more high quality.

Could be - though maybe ethical implications of doing a language course and tipping away at your own research in the background, on uni property, using uni software etc???

Still, it keeps you in the uni loop. It sounds like the challenge will be to get an interview for a PhD place/scholarship but after that you could very likely convince them of your suitability for the research.

Good luck(up)

Sounds like your eyes (body) are telling you that you've done enough?

One thing to try if you are reading a hardcopy is put a sheet of coloured plastic over what you're reading. The white paper can be harsh especially when you're reading under lights. Or, if you're reading a pdf on screen, highlight what you're looking as it goes that lovely shade of blue, again easier on the eyes.

OR - go home and go to bed :-)

Nite nite

With the caveat that regulations differ from institution to institution and region to region, I would think, to be honest, that you would find it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to proceed without a supervisor.

It is of course technically possible to write research papers without supervision but without institutional registration behind you, I don't think any journal will accept them for review. The review process can be quite savage at the best of times and nigh on impossible if you are not accredited. Being blunt, I don't think your paper would be considered - but I may be wrong.

Also, from the research point of view, when a person is trying to recruit participants, your institutional details give you some sort of clout and an 'in' into the area - particularly if you are dealing with gatekeepers. People want to know who you are working for, what your agenda is, where will your reserach be published and so on.

If you enjoy the reserach process so much but can't go down the PhD route, perhaps consider private consultancy work, or reserach for a think-tank. However, to be even more gloomy (sorry) I would think they have so many people applying that they take only those people with the best qualifications. Although years ago people gained their experience at the coalface, these days I'm afraid you need the qualifications.

Another option is perhaps target private industry in your field, try and get an interview to pitch your proposal to them and argue that they pay for you to reserach at university. I asked someone once how to 'cold-call' an organisation I would like to work for. "What will I ask them?" to which this wise person replied, "you're not asking them, you tell them what you could add to their organisation". I haven't actually done that yet but I might - but when I have my PhD.

Sorry to be so gloomy

Good job Batfink on what sounds like a really good presentation. Networking and making contacts, what I'm totally rubbish at!!

That's really annoying Dunni not getting feedback from supvs 2 and 3 although your first supv comments were really positive so logically you shouldn't have anything to worry about. Let's hope no news is good news in this instance. My supv told me two weeks ago that he was 'just about to look at' an article I want to submit for publication. Nada since :-(

Academia moves in a parallel [slower] universe to the rest of the world!