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Not in relation to the OU specifically but it would be normal practice for a PhD student to go to (and present at as well), a number of conferences along the way. Registration costs do vary and there is generally a postgrad rate, but still they can be expensive.

Other than that it's the good old stationery (can never have too much of that!!). There is free open source software which can help with some things. For example Zotero is an open source reference system. I believe there is also limited free project management software out there as well. None of these are necessary to the successful completion of a PhD though - afterall, all you needed years ago was a paper and pen! It's really up to the individual student how much they feel they need.

Good luck with it - it'll be tough for sure, but no doubt worth it in the end (up)

I don't indent the first one of the section but indent all others.

Agree totally Patience. If I do manage to submit in Aug/Sept (3 years) I will be bucking the trend in my uni. My supervisor says I can but it's hard as you say. With every section I used to feel "if only I could get through this the rest will be such much easier"!! I'm finding the writing up process the hardest bit of all!

Great to know others working on Saturday morning as well :-)

Dunni, thought you were taking the weekend off?!?!? In my area (human, social sciences) it is normal practice to number sub-headings and sub sub headings.

2.1 Introduction (Bold)
2.2 Ethical considerations of this study (Bold)
2.2.1 Access (italics, non-bold)
2.2.2 Informed consent (italics, non-bold)

Enjoy the painting Pink, or are you just supervising??

Brilliant Pjlu - I know from posts here that you were kept waiting around for ages. 78% is a really great result and qualifying for free fees, the icing on the cake! Enjoy the time out - you're free :-)

Morning anybody who is around

My one goal for today is to sort out a small sub-section that gave me a lot of trouble on Thursday, so much so that I totally rebelled yesterday and did very little, apart from numerous games of bubble shooter! Actually I did also create two maps; it's that they were nothing whatsoever to do with my PhD. I also re-jigged my CV. Maybe not time completely wasted as when I look at this section today I think I know where the problem is.

Today's goal: reorganise that problematic sub-section before lunchtime

Btw: do people spend time giving their chapters and sub headings within, interesting titles? For example, at the moment my Chapter Three is titled 'Research methodology' - not exactly the most exciting title in the world!! Does it make a difference?

======= Date Modified 04 Feb 2011 17:11:04 =======
Hi Florence and Tusco - a man in this thread at last!!!!

We're all at different places and paces within our research but at least if we all commit via this thread to submitting this summer (or there or thereabouts!!) we have something to work for. I got nothing done today except construct some maps for something that is nothing at all to do with my PhD and a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny bit of analysis.

I always forget something so have to edit: Thanks Dunni for the info ex your Gantz chart, really interesting:-)

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Hi Ribenagirl - welcome onboard but don't get put off. We're all at different stages. I'm hoping for a late summer submission, hopefully August but probably Sept. I do have my data collected but am still trundling through the analysis. Take heart, we're all in this together(up)

Whoops, had to edit, spelt your name wrong!!

I agree with Star-Shaped. Once you get it in today, you will have fulfilled your end of the bargain. Try not to worry, it takes a while for a submission pattern that suits everybody to become established.

I tried physically handing my supv hardcopies as that way I knew for sure that he had them but he lost a couple and also left a few lying around the photocopier :$. He told me once that he thinks it's hysterically funny that I keep to 'agreed' deadlines which was a bit unsettling!!! Does everybody else not?!? I also never found out where the lost copies got to!

======= Date Modified 04 Feb 2011 09:38:18 =======
Gosh you poor thing, a really difficult dilemma.

Being pragmatic, if it were me I would first find out if you will be definitley be awarded a postgrad diploma on the strength of the work you did at the UK university. With that info confirmed, I would request a meeting with your supv team, be honest with them and tell them your situ. I would sooner that than be 'exposed'. I imagine they will need time to mull it over but by giving them the facts and your options (ie a postgrad diploma) in a logical, composed manner. they hopefully will accept what's done is done and move on - all of you. If possible, keep calm and explain the problems you had during your masters but don't labour them - ie these were my problems, and so this was the reason I didn't complete. Realistically, it's not really an option to write up a dissertation for a masters long since completed while also being part of a different PhD?? If it were me, I would take the postgrad diploma option (actually I would grab it with both hands) as I feel this would put that era of your life behind you and enable you move on.

I wish you the best of luck with it. For me, being proactive would be infinitely preferable to continuing as you are but being terrified every time the phone rings or one of your supvs come into the room.

Good luck

Edit: I have just re-read Corinne's reply and our advice is pretty different so in a way it just reinforces that ultimately the [tough] decision is yours but I really do think you need to make 'a' decision, otherwise fear will stop you progressing well with your current project. It must be constantly in your mind, I feel for you.

Hi Dunni

You deserve a bit of thumb twiddling. It's funny, when we're all so mad busy with PhD, babies, life, we dream of having a bit of spare time. Then when we get it, we feel a bit lost. There's nothing you can do to hurry your sups reading your thesis, and not much point you working on it until they do, so take out that Kindle and enjoy :-)

Oooo Dunni, a full draft pdf - BRILLIANT (up)

Hi All

Have had my 'fix' of my lunchtime soap :$, so can now get back to work.

I am re-drafting chapters two and three at the moment and hope to send them to my supervisor the first week in March. I am also analysing with a view to getting a 1st draft of a findings chapter off to my supv mid March. Analysis for findings I do in the mornings, re-drafting in the afternoons, grading undergrad work in the evenings - wot a fun life!!

My supv has some really good suggestions one of which using 'boxes' along the way. So for example instead of having a separate sub-section on ethics (I work with under 18s) I am going to insert ethical thought boxes along the way, the idea being that they will interupt the text as they interupted my data colletion. It's a nice way to present it but it's challenging. With a sub-section I can write away, with a box I have to be very concise. Still I think it adds to it.

After that I hope to have a draft of preliminary conlusions in April-ish (!!!) - could I possibly have a full first thesis draft by end of April???? I live in hope...

Good luck all

BTW Patience, I worry about post PhD as well. Not postdoc as I don't want to go that route. I'm fortunate in that my supv is very experienced so I will trust him when he says I am ready to submit. Pink's suggestion to get another reader is a good one. I know people who have done this. Do you have a 2nd supervisor, 2nd reader as some people call them?

gosh, sorry Pink I def wasn't implying you would get somebody to do them for you. I remember floundering around during my masters, even crying, no actually bawling my eyes out that I didn't have a clue what I was doing. How I found myself in a quantitative masters I do not know!! I asked my then supv for help as he was a whizz at all things numerical and I remember him looking at me as if I had three heads. I could run the correlation and regressions, print them out but then had no clue what they were saying. Even still I shudder when I think of r squared values. :-(

You're right, it's a murky area.