======= Date Modified 02 Jan 2011 18:27:55 =======
Just a few words of good luck to you Jojo- I have read many of your viva prep posts and you sound to me completely prepared and more than ready.

A friend of a friend had her viva recently (she passed it btw). The very first question she got after "hello, you are very welcome" was "so, do you think you will have many corrections?". I told my supervisor that story and he said that that was his first question when he did his viva so maybe it's one to consider.

Great idea about the hotel as well - you can't beat a nice hotel with its endless supply of fluffy towels and hot water - bliss. Just don't forget to get to your viva on time!!

Best of luck

A

My experience of Turnitin is viewing essays and reports undergrads I have tutored have submitted through it, but to be honest I have never submitted anthing myself to Turnitin. Viewing Turnitin essays has been giving me problems this year but from memory does Turnitin not produce originality reports around a colour system of red, amber and green (think traffic lights)? 3% to me seems more than acceptable and to be honest I think amber last year was somewhere over 24%.

I have just viewed the Turnitin resources guide online and you're right, it is as clear as mud! However page 20 of the student handbook seems to detail the colour system. Blue means no matching words which would be bad as this would imply that you didn't utilise any references for your work. Green seems to go up to 24% similarity. Actually I think 24% is pretty high but 3% to me seems spot on.

Is this the resource you were looking at? http://turnitin.com/resources/documentation/turnitin/training/en_us/Student_Manual_en_us.pdf

A

Good for you Star-Shaped (although I'm pretty sure you're not!). I got my interview transcribed as well so am feeling very virtuous and can now turn my attention to more important matters such as my new crime book and riffling through the last of the selection boxes.

Happy New Year to all

A :-)

my report marking finished last night: three very good, some good, some average, some not so good and one just plain incorrect :-(

Goal today is get full interview transcribed - 13m46secs down of 20m43secs so over half way

======= Date Modified 30 Dec 2010 21:13:07 =======
I can access the Denning Law Journal as well (per my Library's electronic journals), via Hein Online Law Journal Library, but also only up as far as 2009 - sorry:-(

======= Date Modified 29 Dec 2010 11:45:04 =======
Main goal for today is to finish marking my 3rd year projects - 11 of 16 done, so not too ambitious to think I might get the remainder done today. Just read a really excellent one which lifts the heart after the last one I marked before giving up last night, totally dis-heartened.

The dog still keeping me company although he has just eaten a Christmas decoration which I fear will reapper pretty soon on the carpet and so might scupper my chances of getting my corrections done :-( - You can take his dinner off him mid-meal but dare try and take a bit of plastic from him and you risk losing your hand.

Research questions naturally emerge out of your literature review and even organically over time so I woudn't worry too much about getting them down 'pat' at the outset. My research questions, now during my third year, are radically different from those of my original proposal.

A

From my experience if you have the academic credentials and are willing to pay the fees any university should be interested in you. You can contact a professor in your field but I would advise that you have the bones of a proposal thought through before you do this. Even though you have missed funding deadlines why not check out how funding organistions wanted the proposals formulated? You should at least know key writers in your field and have some idea of your methodological approach. Check the research/postgraduate website section of whatever university you are interested in before contacting a staff member so it is clear that you have put some thought into your application. Increasingly PhDs must be completed via a Graduate Education programme which involves acquiring credits (ECTs) for various modules you complete during your PhD. No exams but assignments to complete which can be a total pain in **** even though they do get you writing from the off. I was obliged to get 60 ECTs during my PhD over three years. Thankfully I managed to get them all in in two years. Funded and self-funded students in my university have to complete GREPs. It's a pretty common system in the United States but is increasingly becomming the norm in European institutions.

Being self-funded does not necessarily put you at a disadvantage apart from the obvious lack of money (sic). Being funded entails obligations self-funded students do not have. Self-funded students are generally more 'free' to pursue their PhD in their way.

Good luck whatever you decide :-)

A

I can access that if you still need it - I can pm it to you

A

======= Date Modified 11 Jan 2011 18:11:42 =======
Yep, I'm working during the holidays as well. The goal is to get them marked by New Year's Eve and then back to PhD.

When I'm stressed with deadlines I find I day dream about a time when I won't have anything academic to do and then when I do get a bit of down time I find that I day dream about PhD etc!

A

No, it's not just you!

Like Natassia I just wanted to show my support. I'm a few months away from submitting so I say 'Good on you' for having submitted your PhD. I am finding the writing up process difficult, not in the writing up per se but I find I am constantly doubting myself and what I say, with the result that I am saying very little. It's definitely a case of 'the more I learn, the less I know' :-(

As for your cousin not really being interested in your thesis, let's face it, nobody really understands the whole process and how traumatising it can be except you, and of course those of us embroiled in the same relentess PhD process. My mother asked me the other day "tell me again what you're doing, I'm having lunch with a friend and want to be able to tell her". And so I told her, for the 100th time!!

I'm jumping ahead to what happens after the Viva as well re jobs, or lackthereof. I know I don't want a postdoc and yet want to get something that will vindicate all these years of study.

Anyhow chin up and chillax over Christmas - as my daughter says!! Put on 'It's a wonderful life' and let James Stewart remind us all what it's all about!

A

======= Date Modified 23 Dec 2010 10:17:13 =======
I think many popular web forums are not keen on postgrads recruiting participants through them. I tried it once and was 'wrapped on the knuckles' pretty quick. You could try contacting individual societies in the universities - they might be more amenable?? Some of the more popular socs have large memberships.

A

======= Date Modified 11 Jan 2011 18:14:03 =======
Hi Euan

I know what you mean and worry myself that I over-cite at times. I think it is because I have done so much undergrad teaching where the students are definitley not guilty of this. Still I think under-citing is a far greater crime than over-citing. I have used journal articles and as I cite them I am often aware that the author themselves has not cited anybody. Have a look at Donovan, Stephen, K. (2004) I've got a little list. Area, 36, (3), 327-328 [hope I referenced that correctly!!]. It's only two pages but well worth a read.
Happy Christmas / Happy Referencing

A

Brilliant, an inspiration to the rest of us. I'm relatively new to the forum although I am writing up - I find it great. Hopefully I'll be posting a 'just got my viva' this time next year.

Enjoy your Christmas:-)

A

you could try www.theses.com - not definitive list of recent theses but not bad

A