I would list only publications and maybe cite a few of the conferences you have spoken at. Otherwise I imagine it will be a distended and messy list of various things... you could always tuck a few footnotes in the thesis itself saying something like " ** A more detailed version of this was presented at XXXX on YYY. See www.XXXX.ac.uk"

======= Date Modified 09 Jun 2010 00:20:55 =======
Up late doing the intro (still!) need to be up early tmrw to get a cracking start with the thesis. running out of time.

So bloody fed-up of the thesis - it is a miserable mess and I have wasted so much time with relationship trauma and procrasatination. I need to get a grip otherwise I risk not turning in a good enough thesis. My internal examiner is my HOD and there is no way I will be allowed to work here in Sept if I don't pass or indeed pass respectably.

I just can't seem to write an introduction that works at all. My supervisor has told me that my thesis will not pass if I cannot sort this out. Just venting now. :$ Lots of rage and despair chez Chrisrolinskis house right now!!

Buckling down. Over soon.

I wonder if anyone else gets these or has recieved these in the past? Every few weeks I am sent a email from the editor (or someone who purports to be the editor) of the African Journal of Biotechnology with a polite (but lengthy and never variable) request to review an article which is attached as a word file. These seem to be genuine articles - only, even though I am in a unrelated field of study I can tell that these article are not, urm politely, particularly high or moderate impact factor.

I am actually in the humanities (history/history of science) and have no idea where this journal got my details from - perhaps a weblist or institutional list? Anyway, what do you people think - genuine though misplaced attempts to get reviewers or a front sham to provoke email contact and further details...?

It always asks for a response in 72 hours - which I am sure would not be the timescale given for a normal journal review period givne the time I have waited for my publications to get reviewed!!!!

...to the department research assistant/temp lecturer office! Feels weird. Once I finish the PhD it will be mine for 9 months! Could definately do with posters and plants! :)

Feel happy but now very stressed that my thesis must pass and be good!!!

heading into the department today to discuss future employment with the h of dept. So I won't be leaving the office until late because I need to sit their until vast sections of my thesis introduction are done.

Not at all - work loads are all relative - so good luck with it all! I'm wacking on the kettle and the loud music! window open wide for cold air to keep me awake!

Not at all - work loads are all relative - so good luck with it all! I'm wacking on the kettle and the loud music! window open wide for cold air to keep me awake!

I am here on the 4th draft of my thesis introduction (yes, I know, kill me)

Good luck!

I often complain and get distressed by the PhD process - esp being so close to the end - but there have been many upsides! I have been lucky to have quite motivated supervisors who have encouraged me to publish and go to conferences so I have been able to travel much more so than I would if I had been just working, I think. I applied for a doctoral fellowship at another European institute and was able to live abroad for 6 mths which was amazing and prob. the crowning point of my education :) I have almost taken 4 years to do a humanities PhD so sometimes I feel like I have taken too long, but I think I have squeezed a lot into it. Just tired now, but even when the thesis reduces me to tears I still remember that it has been good for me! Like DanB I feel like the critical and writing skills that a PhD gives will be valuable life-long skills. It feels rather strange to read my cv and look at my words in print. It almost feels like it happened to a different person sometimes!

======= Date Modified 05 Jun 2010 17:05:13 =======

Thank you both very much for those posts. Yes, I think I will do a reduced acknowledgements page. Supervisors. Funding bodies. That's all.

Leave it business like and baggage free.

Yes, I imagine it would be really strange explaining that to a future partner too. Just leave it out.

I'm currently in the siutation of writing my acknowledgements page for submssion later this month - well not the most important bit to write left, but it is on my mind. I am currently in the sad and difficult situation of deciding how to phrase the following:

I have been in a relationship with someone for the entire duration of the PhD but it looks like it might end perhaps in the next few weeks to months (not my decision, but no resentment on my behalf). This would roughly correlate with the period I get the thesis bound. I am trying to find a way and decide to acknowledge them either the following ways:

1) take the risk and acknowledge him as the boyfriend, thanks with love (because I do) and risk a watery eye when I look at it in the future. I am kind of opting for this choice and be done with it.

2) give a lukewarm kind of nice sentence that can be read eitherway

3)omission for my future sanity (do I really want his name in there in 5, 10 , or 20 years time?) But then maybe it would be nice to have his name in there and fondly remember the relationship and phd support in a few years time, even though it is no more...


Have any of you done this in your theses? Or seen book acknowledgements which have done this well? I imagine there are book projects (from thesis to books) which span more than one relationship!

======= Date Modified 05 Jun 2010 14:42:22 =======
Congratulations!!!!!!(up) Getting a PhD and becoming a mother within weeks of each other! Must be amazing having soem many big life events happening so close to each other!

Thanks for the encouragement! Can't wait for it to be over! Spent the morning hiding under the duvet pretending the thesis doesn't exist - finally in the university office and must start work...

Thanks, trying to sort out the introduction as we speak. Reading my external examiners work for tips. Her writing is so elegant and interesting - no way I can do that!

Best of luck MumPhDstudent(up)