I think there are times during the PhD when you just need to do 'a bit', rather than nothing. As EffinIneffable says, when it gets closer to the finish line you will step things up because you need to, but if it's one of those times when you feel you're just plodding, I think that's just the nature of working on one project for so long. Maybe see if there's some interesting training or something else that's kind of related to the PhD but not your everyday stuff?

I know what you mean about the attitude you sometimes get. I think that if your supervisors have a good publication record in your field, this will really help.

I can only comment from doing my Masters with the OU - I found it to be very good and it certainly opened the door for me to do my PhD.

As far as I know, for PhDs with the OU, you need to be there in person some of the time just as you would with a PhD anywhere else. I would think that the important thing is to get the right supervisor for your project, regardless of whether that is with OU or a traditional university.

Thanks, Pjlu!

Good luck with your meeting with your supervisors. Hopefully they will approve your plan and won't suggest any big changes at this stage. Hope you can enjoy a bit of down time until the meeting - sounds like you've earned it!

Congratulations to both of you!

Congratulations, litphdgirl and teegs, brilliant news! It is so good to hear from people making it through to the end!

My thesis has been ready for a while now, but submission is being stalled at every turn by internal university 'stuff' that I can do nothing about. I know it will get sorted out, but it is very frustrating, having everything sitting on hold for one reason after another!

I am at the stage of waiting for a viva date, and I will tell you the advice I had from my supervisors, which I have found helpful. They said that if you are asked a question at the viva and can't quite answer it, in all likelihood it will become a correction, rather than a reason to fail you. I went to a viva workshop and the trainer said the percentage of people who actually fail a viva is very low (something like 1 or 2 percent) - the only guaranteed way to fail a PhD is not to submit your thesis! I think the odds of passing are very strongly in your favour. I would recommend doing a search for typical viva questions and having a think about these, and if anyone (eg your supervisor) can help you practise with a mock viva, this is meant to be a good idea too. Good luck!

Sometimes it's just like pulling teeth. I'm at that stage post-thesis completion and knowing I should be writing stuff for publication, yet resisting it with every fibre of my being. I tend to find I need to just do something (when I'm not feeling like it) just to get the momentum going again. I should take my own advice really :-)

Bullet point what you want to say, then write it up one bit at a time with spaces in between to do nice stuff?

Two good reasons to let this crush die a death: he's your supervisor and he's gay. As a gay person, posts like the one above from Kahn make me feel uneasy - it still takes courage to get to the stage of being comfortable with one's sexuality and out at work, and it is not appropriate to assume a different sexuality for someone you find attractive.

I think answers may vary for this, but I prefer to send things I've already proof-read and corrected as far as possible, so that I'm getting feedback on content/structure/ideas etc, rather than things I can fix myself. I guess you can always direct your supervisors to the type of feedback you're looking for - I've said things before like, 'I've still got citations to put into this, but can you let me know if the content seems ok?'.

SPSS for Psychologists is a good text which talks you through the processes as well as giving examples of how you can apply the different stats SPSS can do. However, I'd also recommend a chat with your supervisor (assuming you have one) about how you're going to approach the analysis.

Just to add: if you want to use qualitative approaches with a mainly quants supervisor, try to establish their understanding of and attitude to qualitative work, as some don't have a lot of faith in it and may look at it through a quants lens!

I used qualitative methodology in my Masters, and mixed methodology in my PhD (with the qualitative elements being completely different to the ones used in my Masters). It involved a fair bit of learning, but was worth it to tailor the methodology to the topic. It is possible to approach a supervisor who has the topic in common with you but not the methodology, although supervisors may feel more comfortable taking on a project that's within their existing field of experience. In my case, I sought external support (from specialised research groups) with my methodology, as I wanted to use an approach my supervisors hadn't used.

One thing I have learned from years of working in various workplaces is that you become part of the reputation of that workplace and it becomes part of your reputation, if that makes sense. I have overheard other PhD students bad-mouthing my university to visitors, and I think that's crazy, because they're effectively letting people know that they are investing their time in a place they don't rate! In my opinion, it's worth spending some time thinking about this question in case you are asked it, so you can demonstrate that you'll be an asset and a positive member of the department.