Make sure you are clear on the difference between depth and detail.

Focus on who you are writing for i.e. the examiners, people who are knowledgable in the field. You don't have to explain it so that it is comprehensible to an undergrad.

your original contribution will obviously need clear explanation. But it is not like a taught course where you need to explain well-established ideas to prove you understand them. Be clear on who you are explaining things for - if it is for your benefit or to prove you know it, rather than to make new knowledge clear for the examiners, then it is not strictly necessary.

Also bear in mind you word limit, and that to endear yourself to examiners, the shorter the better.

Just another thought, but I believe there is such a thing as a 'doctor of social work' research degree (DSW). Depends what your project idea is, but if it is practice oriented this is another option.

For a PhD, you'd need to find a supervisor and institution first, before the funding. they are inter-dependent, but generally place before funding. Dont know how it works with DSW.

OK, crossed threads!
glad it is working

are you actually editing the citation using endnote (via endnote tool bar in word)? i mean, rather than just trying to type in a page number in word, because the latter wont work as it doesnt add it to the endnote ref.

either:

make sure you have the ouput style set to show page numbers (edit, output style, citations, templates, and if it only shows (author, date) then insert citation: cited pages).

or

put page no.s in 'suffix' box not 'page no' box.

I do later as it seems to give more flexibility for formating (e.g. when i want to refer to chapter rather than page, or several sep pages or para no.s etc)

hope this works!

I've not done this (too lazy to do multiple papers/presentations), but I never thought it was a problem to present the same stuff on more than one occasion. I know it is not acceptable when you submit for publication, but honestly, i have seen so many profs churn out the same stuff time after time after time. and also in prefaces to books, where they say 'versions of chapter 3 were presented at' and go on to list 5 or 6 conferences.
unless there is one rule for profs and another for lowly PhD students of course!

But there are ways and ways of acknowledging someone aren't there. I'm planning this already, what to say in my acknowledgments to incude a sup while making clear that they didnt contribute anything to the thesis.

In my case, I'm hoping this sup might prove useful as a reference (being better known than either of my other ones who do contribute). But unless a sup is actively hindering things, is it worth the hassle of dumping them, with possible ill feeling etc?

Oh, and i have a few 'we's in there too. On the basis that 'the thesis is a journey' and I (as the author) am acting as a guide to the reader, so I've got the odd 'as we saw in chapter 4' type of thing.

At the moment. till the sups say i can't.

i think it does depend on the field, and I agree with Shani - if it is you that is making the argument, rather than 'the data, then you have to acknowledge that. I'm also taking my guide from the literature i am using, which uses 'I' or 'we'. On that basis i dont think the use needs to be justified. though i guess if it is uncommon in your field then justification might be necessary.

all my chapters are 20k words or more at the moment

Currently up to 140,000 words and still got 2 chapters to go

but i am consoling myself by thinking that once i have a first draft I'll not have any more writing to do only deleting

specific projects with funding attached are more common in sciences. there is some ESRC funding where the ESRC gives money to a research group and the group appoints students but generally with more flexibility in topic than the science-type projects (quota awards) so worth seeing if the group you are looking at has these.

good luck

Hi Stevie,

the research proposal is an important part of the ESRC application, so yes, you do need to get something coherent together. However the proposal is only a start, mine changed a lot during the PhD and what I have ended up doing doesnt bear a lot of resemblance to what I said I would do!

have you identified a supervisor you would like to work with? They will be able to give you help with putting together a proposal, if they agree to supervise you. The ESRC application also assesses your suitability (qualifications, experience etc) and the suitability of the potential supervisor and institution. My advice would be to start a dialogue with your potential supervisor sooner rather than later.

cont ...

No cat is very disdainful and reminds me there are more important things in life

ewwwww! I'm with Sue on this one, no all the way and I'd be worried if I said yes to any. this is what friends are for. And the cat. Well, obviously i dont email the cat, but talk to cat a lot about research being poo

Do some unis really charge tuition fees for 4th yr? here, the 4th yr is 'registration only' rather than 'period of study', so as you are not 'studying' you do not pay fees. There is a 'continuation fee' but this is only charged if you don't submit by end of yr 4 - it is more like a fine for not submitting.

or are people still doing lab work and getting bench fees?