you could not cite it in bibliography but use a footnote to acknowledge, sort of 'thank you to xxx for this idea'. Like people do in prefaces to books where they thank people for suggesting stuff, where it is not actually a peer-reviewed source.

depends, are you using it as data, or as 'literature'? I have loads of internet material because it is a data source for me.

definitely time for violence.

Do you think you need to do these extra experiments Piglet? Are the sups saying 'you need to do X to get a PhD'. or are they saying 'X needs to be done as the next step/to get a good publication/to get us more funding and we want you to do it (cos we know if we tell you to you will)'.

I know all the stuff about listening to supervisors advice, not submitting if they dont ok it etc, but it seems daft for them to be suggesting you NEED to do more 7 months after agreeing that you dont. and so close to submission.

is anyone thinking of trying to get a book out of their PhD? and if so, are you trying to get papers out of it as well?

so do i get a prize for rescuing this thread before it slides off the page into oblivion?

like apostrophe says, in the humanities it is much more the done thing to have a masters first, and if you are hoping to get funding it is pretty much obligatory

I still dont see how anyone can live on 3000 or eve 3500 a year. even if you're only paying £40 a week rent (and there aren't many places you can do that) and £20 on food, that leaves like £5 a week for everything else - bills, transport, clothes, stuff you need for study. even if you are a complete hermit and never go out.

but 12k I reckon is enough. the people who are struggling are mostly the ones who are self funding or the one's whose depts are really stingy about research expenses.

That is soooo true! spent this afternoon trying to read comments prior to supervision and gave up in the end. BOTH sups have illegible scrawl.

Do you think the writing implement is significant? one uses green biro and the other pencil. I suspect the green biro is an indication of political affiliation, but not sure about the pencil. an indecisive personality perhaps?

As Donald Rumsfeld said,

As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to saywWe know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know we don't know.

A PhD isnt so much turning known unknowns into known knowns, but turning unknown unknowns into known unknowns.

So you will always end up not knowing more than you knew you knew at the begining.

If you are doing it right.

eh?????

oooo, so do I. You can get into the library, there are no queues for photocopiers, you can have a coffee in peace, your supervisor isnt driven to distraction with teaching and marking. It is sooo much better when the undergrads aren't around.

if the suggested reading is papers the supervisor has written you could ask for copies, or ust ask for some of their latest publications.

I'm happy!

I've finished a chapter section

And I'm having a glass of wine to celebrate

PhDs now are moving to a four year (min) programme – in arts and humanities the research councils are demanding a masters prior to the PhD, in sciences there is the introduction of four year programmes with the first year being a rotation between different research groups. I’m not sure if this is because there is a perception that people coming from a UG degree aren’t ready to go straight to a PhD. But I think also the nature and purpose of a PhD is changing. There is a greater expectation that PhDs aren’t necessarily followed by a career in academia, and that students need a greater preparation for life in general, hence the introduction of ‘personal development’ and ‘professional skills’ training elements.

I make no comment on whether these changes are good or bad or what their impact is likely to be.

But, I do think there have been changes in the UK education system, and I am not sure what the impact is going to be. In the UK, it used to be a very concentrated education. Two things have changed. One is less funding, so students are having to work during their education (as opposed to having a Saturday job to earn some pocket money, or a holiday job that was ‘work experience’). The second is that specialisation is being left later. 30 years ago, kids were basically deciding at 14 what they wanted to do, arts or science, fewer options taken at O and A level, then a degree and that was very focused to, there weren’t the modular degrees and optional units that tend to be the norm now (outside professional degrees).