Alex,
If it feels right do it. No good being in a place or situation you don't want to be. Good luck in your new career and remember us chimps as you climb out of the jungle and back into civilization
:p

Give a shout back sometime and let us know how things are getting on. Not being negative but don't be bitter about your experience and use it as a lesson that will strengthen you.

More importantly, its the weekend so get out and enjoy it in the knowledge that you have shot that albatros that was perched on your shoulders.

In the words of the great Phil Lynott,
"Auf Wiefdersen til we meet again!"

oops - messed up that reply a bit, but ye get the gisht. Have a good weekend y'all!

Ok stall the digger and back up. You don't realise that you deffo are making a mountain out of a molehill ... It would be different if you were actually in your PhD. Trust me, there is nothing here that a bit of thinking will get ya thro'. Two weeks is ample time to sort it. I know this forum is meant to be anonymous but I've no hassles getting rid of that to help a fellow PhD-er, so if files or a few skype calls have to be made, it'll be done. Anyone else here on this forum into their PhD would agree.

Ok - DON'T FOR A SPLIT SECOND CONTEMPLATE ENTERING EACH PAPER YOU USED FOR YOUR MSC!!! Get all the papers and ruthlessly throw out the rubbish - if you need one of them, you will find it again online. Easy way is to look thro' your Msc itself to identify the crucial papers. Once this is done, using Google Scholar, import all the details of this pile (Ok it won't get all the details but it deffo will get a lot of it). Then as Sylvester suggested, number the printed paper with the Endnote record.

[quote]
2. I cant seem to master EN. Our school has EN Ex 1 on some machines and En 9 on some...I got the guide book but cant manage to learn everythign....[\quote]

Short answer - Get EndNote 9. Seems to be more dependable. Put that on your work PC and your laptop

As for familiarity with EN, your college should run a 1/2 day starters/refreshers course - if they don't, find out why not! The college I am at is nowhere near the Premier League but it has an extensive set of courses for the Post-Grads, from presentation skills (which I clearly didn't attend 8-) ) to how to deal with the pressure of PhDs (absent again).

[quote]
3. finally, can you tell me how to form a good EN "habit"///lemme explain...Everyday i see videos, read list servs, read bits and pieces here and there and all of this shud idealy go in EN, cos most of this i find useful...what do I do? do i turn on EN the moment i turn on my laptop? [\quote]

One tip I would say is once you have found a decent paper, store it RIGHT THERE AND THEN into EndNote. Don't forget any details (URL, attaching of downloaded file to record, General Area ... a field you may have to set up). Might seem extreme but it does get easier. Don't worry about the number of records - you can delete records later of unused papers.


Its Friday, I have part-time stuff to do ... as well as the PhD which I haven't looked at in two weeks (YIKES ... any of ye looking at Decision Support Systems?). I meant what I said about sending on files and so forth but, as I said about the Tips list, everyone is busy so it might take time. Main thing is stop worrying - you are ahead of the game.

In the words of Jimmy Osterberg aka Iggy Pop ...
"I'm the chairman of the bored"

Only 9.14 and I have a meeting with the supervisor next week and no motivation to do up a presentation ... its 9.15 now

I agree with RubyW that it is key to get your research question first and then fit the mthodology around that ... might seem a bit difficult but don't worry - once you get the question, go to your supervisor and ask him/her how to advance that. Believe it or not, that is their job.

When it does come down to methodology, if going down either case study or especially surveying, make sure you try to fit your line of questions and the type of questioning to fit a statistical model. In brief, meet up with a statistical analyst from your maths dept. for advise before compiling your questionaires/surveys.

Hope the panic is over and the plans coming along for the second year. Good luck and keep the boat afloat (up)

Eventually to be able to teach ... seemingly a Masters wasn't good enough.

That, and a bad case of cerebal dysentry ... a rush of cr*p to the brain :-s

Why indeed!!!

Sorry for the negative vibes - been a long day. Good luck finishing up Ju-Ju and enjoy proper wages.

Just to add to Sylvester's suggestion - you can also add fields in EndNote and then store the record by the specific area (ok, you will have to input the area itself, but a small price). This then allows you to sort the records by the basis of the subject area - yeah, I know this information maybe stored in the Keywords section, but not always.
To do this, go to Edit, Preferences and Display Fields. Select one of the redundant Custom fields and then give this the title "Area" (when updating the record, this will be then shown and you can input the area of your research this article pertains to). This aids searching for papers later.
Sorry to harp on Phdbug, but to augment this, make sure you link the record to the downloaded copy of the paper (under File Attachments field).
The measures seem a bit overkill but do pay off when you have to write up stuff.

P.S. Back up your EndNote reference file regularly.

Not a bother. As for methodologies (if using case studies, surveys or anything similar), take a gawk at
COHEN, L., MANION, L. & MORRISON, K. (2000) Research Methods in Education, London, Routledge.

Although this book is centred around educational research, they do extensively cover all the main methodologies and refer to the central papers, but it only covers the main areas.

It will be hard tying down an idea and then proposing how you finish your project from there, but you are not behind - although that said, I wouldn't just yet head off to the pub for the afternoon

:p

First things first - calm the digger, you're nowhere near a slump and if anything, you might be able to actually get ahead. If you have an idea, that is half the battle. What you need to do is look at this area specifically and see how it was tackled by previous research - then you might get a better idea of how to make your project unique. Get these papers looked at soon (in the next 1-2 months) and develop your idea. I know every PhD is different but realistically it is the 18-20 month mark that people get an absolute idea of what they want to do (this should be after a somewhat 70-80% complete Lit review, which the other respondent so rightly alluded that you should have someway done by now, but if not, don't have a litter of kittens just yet).
In brief, look at previous research into the area (or similar areas) and then propose a means of making your study unique (this could be based on geographical or demographical factors ... or simply that you propose to use a different methodology from previous research (for example case study as opposed to the use of surveys) .
I have been there and to be honest, have lost a good six months work, so just trying to stop you from having your brain wrecked. Sure, there is a lot of work to be done yet, but are you behind? NO!
Assuming it is late in the day there, just go online and try to find a few papers similar to the area of your research (use phrases such as case study). Also, as H suggested, get the Lit Review done - if not, at least get a rough draft.

Gage64/Eric,
Being too harsh on yourself - first of all, what you are describing is common and the advise of the other contributor is spot on in saying that you need to make a sound argument for your research. That brings us to the second issue - originality. True, your research does need a degree of uniqueness, but the level of this does not need to be earth shattering. I know very little about Elect. Engineering or your main topic, but one suggestion is that you would apply previous research to your geographical area (or use case studies to test somehing already tested by surveying). Here is an interesting article

http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:ZPxAGSfxycEJ:www.postgrad_resources.btinternet.co.uk/student-resources08-originality.htm+pat+cryer+website+originality&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk

As for help from the supervisor, be patient but keep him up to date with your progression and thoughts on a regular basis (preferably via email so to keep a record)

Good luck and godspeed, John Glynn!

Thanks lads and ladies for the advice - unfortunately I slipped up again when I was out over the weekend which made the hangover twice as bad so only now getting around to doing work I was meant to have done earlier :-( Like Will E. Coyote, I guess its back to the drawing board - now where's Acme's telephone number?

Juno - that is actually a good idea, although I would rather see my money not helping anything at all that I would fundementally disagree with (maybe I might make it out to the supporters club of one of the teams I don't support ... was gonna say hate but think thats too far an emotion).

Thanks again - now gotta get this work done so I can go home and make like a spud and throw my painfully sorry carcass on the couch :p

Gat - Fight fire with fire i.e. fight dirty!
First of all, the most important work relationship is between you and your supervisor. As someone has suggested, straighten that out, regardless of how humbling it is. Ask him is everything kosher and that you are still commited to the project.
Secondly, remember what motivates the bully - the fact that he is getting to you is just fuelling the fire and I'm sure you've went thro' the scenario of calmly making your points but then when it comes to doing that, you freeze and find the rage taking over, where any bit of common sense goes out the window. He is NOT an important part of your life and besides, people have to accept that a). Not everyone is your friend and b). Some people might even dislike you (Cold facts). Be positive and don't let a negative creep win. Speaking for the rest of male-dom, we are sorry for the behaviour of this clear loser.
I know this may seem extreme but since it is a case of your word against his, you need evidence and to do so, you may need to tape some of his remarks. Dunno about the legality side of things but mightn't need to do that - the threat of actually forwarding this to both HR and the supervisor might get him to at least calm down. I assume you have consulted some professionals on this matter, even if its only the free legal aid from the student union?
Main thing is to get your spirits up, which have clearly suffered. This may require some counselling to get yourself back on top, but everyone needs this from time to time. I was going to say that you can't fight a battle injured, but it is only a battle in your mind ... to dil*o brain, its just cheap laughs. You can either a). fight this dips**t or b). learn to ignore it, remember the reasons why you want the PhD (for your benefit and no-one elses) and the fact that your life is probably 10 times more interesting and rewarding than his. What you really should do is actually play along and when he says something sexist, confirm he is right by making him look stupid e.g. when he alludes that the office is no place for women, tell him the chains holding you to the kitchen sink broke ... think of Steve Martin in the bar room fight in Roxanne
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWNLhptltBg

Sorry for rambling and remember that you have people on your side.

EndNote ... but only up as far as version X ... Version XI seems to be buggy (but that could be fixed by now).

Enquire at your college if there is a training program running - if you don't, many of the simpler tasks would be difficult.
Also, if using Endnote, update ALL information available to each article (including downloading the article and then linking to the relevant Endnote record). After a while (a few weeks) it'll be second nature.
Another tip (well, what I do) is if I print an article and have it stored in Endnote, I put the Endnote record # on the hard copy. I then store them in that fashion i.e. in numerical order. If you are using Endnote to search thro' abstracts and notes using the Search functionality, all you need to do then is get the relevant record # and see if you have already printed it.

Good luck with the research and ta for the advise earlier. (up)

A bit late in the day, but if anyone in Ireland interested in going to Oz, this might be a handy diversion from the reading/writing for a while ...

http://events.workinaustralia.ie/events_other.asp

Ta Pari,
I usually just go cold turkey on it, but its the nights out that really get me (or the really hectic days). Thinking of just getting some ring or something to that effect so that when the urge kicks in, that would remind me. Going to the gym and , after the usual giving up 'flu, now feel a lot better health-wise (also doing Tai Chi ... laugh on but it is great). Want to get rid of the set of spare tyres for Christmas.
It is just, as any smoker will testify, the whole "Ah I'll only have one", and then ya buy a pack of twenty and slowly but surely, end up smoking during the day again.
Thanks for the post and have a good weekend,
Bonzo!!!