I understand your feelings, and your fears are perfectly comprehensible. You have put so much time and effort in this project, and you want to see it completed with the best result, and you will.

Possibly these people are all very busy, sometimes we tend to perceive the fact that people do not reply as personal, but they might just be busy and unable to spend any length of time on other issues. I also think that they might want to see that you can manage your thesis independently.

But as I said, I understand that you feel on the quicksand and you want to be reassured that what you are doing is suitable. You still have time, so do your very best, and don't be to concerned about dong things "wrong". As long as you provide a suitable explanation for your amendments, you should be fine. Do send the electronic copy with the rationale to your supervisor (so that he/she can see what you have been doing) and then to the internal with plenty of time.

If there is anything that need to be further modified there will be time to.

Hi Eimeo,

I am sorry that you are in such a difficult position. If it can be of any help, your situation is much more common than you think. Everyone want to be part of your success, but they are very quick to turn your back on you if they perceive that you are a potential problem for them. Also, unhelpful supervisors are not going to change for the better after the viva, although it should be their primary interest that you are successful.

Some people are very lucky and are able to interact with their internal examiners during the corrections period. I had minor corrections luckily, but some of the points that I had to amend were written in the form of a comment rather than a suggestion for a change. So there was room for interpretation, but I did all the corrections first and I e-sent the file that was corrected using "track changes" to my internal examiners. I also sent a rationale where I explained why I had done things in that way etc. Luckily it was fine and was accepted without further modification.

I think it's also a fine balance between asking for guidance, but without pushing too much, or otherwise you risk to get the opposite reaction.
If I were you I would do all the corrections trying to follow their advice, deal as well as you can with the points that are a bit foggy and then, once you are at the end write a rationale to explain the points that you found difficult and how you dealt with them.

I think that they are not going to be fussy about details, as long as structure and content are suitable, so do not lose sight of the bigger picture.




 

Hi Mamara. I agree with Keenbean, I don't think that presenting a published paper is a problem, but it might be a problem to publish it in the conference proceedings.

Some Publishers have strict rules about re-publishing articles - I edited a volume of conference papers and one contributor could not insert her paper because this was already published elsewhere. That Publisher forbid re-publication before the period of two years. So you should ask your Publisher before you agree to re-publish your paper in another volume. It might be enough to re-elaborate your paper or to acknowledge that it draws from an earlier article etc, but it is always better to check.

Hi all,

I am very much in the same boat, and as I cannot move my options are pretty much restricted. My supervisor never showed any interest in my future employment before, and there is little sign of it now, and the problem is not even the luck of support, but the fact that often I come across things I could apply for just a day or two before the deadline.

I think that you might find interesting the following link : http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/1235/Raising-your-profile.html

I believe that especially when you don't have the help of your supervisor, it is vital to establish a network with other researchers, but I am fully aware that even though, it is very difficult to find a job anywhere.

======= Date Modified 15 Oct 2011 12:56:13 =======
======= Date Modified 15 Oct 2011 12:55:40 =======
I think that Huhu simply expressed the fact that she is uneasy when meeting that particular friend/ colleague.

Every person deal with these situations in their own way. There is nothing wrong in asking questions, but there are different ways to pose a question, and different ways to perceive them. We all have our luggage of personal experiences when it comes to this. As it has been said, we all deal with our own insecurities.

I certainly have plenty, and I don't feel better than anyone else. But it is true that often the grass of our neighbour looks greener. If you have a family you feel that you are missing on your academic life. If you don't have one and you are surrounded by people with partners and children you feel that you miss on that side.

Definitely there is not right or wrong. It is about what suits you best, and above all, what you can do with the cards that you have. Sometimes it's not a choice, and that guy should have kept is big mouth shut! His remarks were very inappropriate Phdbug!

Hi Shanshuprophecy,

I apologize if my expressions come across as akward - English is not my first language. What I meant is that this person was pushed to the limit by her supervisor in order to finish on time, and she did. But the whole thing was clearly too much for her, and she is now suffering from a nasty illness (I would prefer not to detail what it is for privacy matters), which in my view is the consequence of all the stress she had to go through. As I said, she is still without a proper job, and this clearly does not help.

So, what I learnt from this story is that we should learn to listen to our body and soul and we should not push ourselves over what we know is our limit. Your health is much more important than anything else.

I thought about adding a glossary to my thesis, but in the end I decided not to, as I thought it would "eat" a good part of my word count. Then, after the viva I had to clarify the meaning of some words in footnotes. So retrospectively it would have been better to insert the glossary.

I don't think you should reference what you write in the glossary, unless you write it in the style of a dictionary entry, and at that point you can reference things in-text using the author-date system.

Florence,

You are definitely not a loser! Dealing with a full-time job and a PhD is very demanding, and getting over-tired and depressed is not surprising.

I know more than a few people in my department who didn't complete within the 4 years, and didn't have a job, a family or health problems. So, do not be harsh with yourself.

It is normal and very important that you focus on getting your thesis finished, because you deserve to see your work recognised. But, believe me, in the end taking an extra year is not important. What is important is to complete your PhD successfully.

One of my colleagues finished her PhD within the 3 years (to my defence I can say that she didn't have a baby in the middle of it!), and she had the same external as me. I finished a year later, and luckily successfully. She is still applying for jobs since then, so getting rotten to complete within the allocated time didn't pay off (unfortunately).

So, do focus on your writing up. Take some time to rest properly first, and then give yourself some short-term deadlines to achieve.

You are only a loser if you leave now.

======= Date Modified 14 Oct 2011 11:59:01 =======
======= Date Modified 14 Oct 2011 10:51:19 =======
Hello Huhu,

I think that many people are just very insecure in spite of the fact that from the outside they look very successful. I had more than one chance to see that these confident researchers probably wouldn't get very far without supportive supervisors, etc. and you should consider that you probably know only her version of this great success.

Also, a person that is genuinely interested in what you do does not try every trick to cast a shadow on you or your work (they shouldn't praise you all the time either though!).

I usually try to answer as politely and as vaguely as possible, I avoid to disclose any plan for the future and then step back and avoid contact with people like this as much as possible if I can. Your PhD seems already quite a stressful experience, and I think that you should focus on networking with people who can show support and understanding.

Hello Mumbler,

Yes, I think that we all feel we are wasting time at some stage in our PhD, no matter how much effort we put in it. Then, if you are funded, the guilt feeling is even worse! However you should consider that a PhD is a long-term project that has an evolution over the period of 3 to 4 years. Realistically, only people who started to research their topic prior to their PhD can expect to have visible results in year 1. I am sure that you must have passed your annual assessment and that your progress was judged positively.

My suggestion is:

1) If there are any generic/ academic skills courses/workshops on how to manage your PhD time productively, make an effort to attend them, even if they sounds like another waste of time.

2) Try to take control of your time. Do not expect your supervisor to do that, because 9 out of 10 they won't.

3) I used to records thoughts/ ideas and quick notes in pocket-size note-pads. I numbered and indexed them. Then I went back through them every once in a while. It is incredible how many things you forget along the way! Also, you have a constant reminder of all the things that you have been doing.

4) I used to send monthly reports to my supervisors, with a detailed list of what I read, fieldwork I had done, papers I'd written etc, and what I planned to do next. They never acknowledged they had read them, but it gave me a structure, short and long-term deadlines.

Last, but not least, enjoy your research time! Panicking about time that is past won't help you to move forward. Focus on the year ahead, give yourself some short-term deadlines without losing sight of the bigger picture. I found the second year the most interesting, because I started to see that the jigsaw finally started to make sense.

Writing up won't be that exciting!

I don't know if it is the anonymity of the forum or the fact that, ultimately, we are all in the same (PhD) boat, but it is evident that people (myself included)feel free to express feelings and concerns that wouldn't normally tell to their family and friends. I personally found this forum a great help. Even just reading other people's stories and how they manage to cope with similar problems is a huge support.

I was very touched by Flack's story, and I also feel close to Neemo. As I am not in my 20s anymore I got to the stage where I "learnt" to accept the fact that although you are part of a family, you can be very different from the other components. I used to be very emotional about this, and I would be a liar if I said that it doesn't hurt anymore, but I as I said, I learnt to put a "safety" net between myself and anyone who is overtly negative.

I agree with Neemo that trying to change these people's attitude is pointless. It is much "healthier" for you to live your life without constantly going through the cycle of request of love/ attention= rejection. You need to surround yourself with positive, supportive friends. I think that life usually finds a way to balance things in a way or another, without locking yourself in a dark room.

It may well be that they will start chasing you after you stopped running behind them!


 

Hi Delta,

Your post makes a lot of sense, and I can very much relate to what you are going through.

In the end I submitted with the idea that any correction from the external examiner would have made my thesis better, but of course the fear of failure was there 24/7. I was confident about the material I had, but I was not so confident about the way I laid out some of the chapters. In the end, I passed with minor corrections, and none of these involved structural or any major change. Nonetheless, I still feel that the thesis could have been better in some areas, with a little guidance.

All I can say is: do your best, and ask other academics in your field to read it if you have time. I am pretty sure that your supervisors wouldn't let you submit anything that is a potential failure, but I understand your frustration, because I still find very difficult to detach from this myself.

Also, if you have had the chance to present papers at conferences and/ or published, it is already a very positive sign that what you have been doing is considered positively.

Anyway, I'll be around the forum if you need an injection of positive thinking!


:-)

Hello Flack and congratulations on getting your PhD offer!

I agree with Delta. We tend to put our families on a pedestal, and think that they are above the rest of the world, but this is not true. They are like everyone else, with their faults and insecurities. Once we understand that, it becomes easier to accept their behaviour.

I have a very supportive husband, and it is thanks to him if I managed to get through the up and downs of the PhD. But it's sad that my parents won't be at my graduation. Actually, I didn't get a word from them about it. Years ago I would have been broken by this, but now (this is my 3rd graduation), I understand that they can't relate to what I am doing (neither of them has a degree) nor to the person I grew up into.

Study is a sort of "waste of time" in their views, and so their behaviour is not surprising.

So, be proud of yourself, and of all you are going to achieve in the course of your PhD. You don't need the seal of approval of your relatives to be confident. What you have been doing speaks for you.

If you are unlike family-wise, you are lucky to have supportive friends. Cherish these relationships and go ahead with your life.

Well done and good luck with your PhD!
(up)

Hi Rina. I think that it is a good showcase of what you are doing. There aren't personal web-pages for doctoral or post-doctoral students at my uni, so having the possibility to let the wider academic world know what your qualifications are and what you are researching is a great opportunity.

You get an e-mail every time that your page is read by someone, so you also know how popular you are in the academic world (that is: how many other scholars are interested in what you are doing).

Personally, I find the "follow Dr x work" part the least interesting/useful. But other people may have different opinions on this. I suppose it also depends in which country you live/work and what other opportunities you have to meet and exchange ideas with other academics in your field.

======= Date Modified 04 Oct 2011 18:26:12 =======
Hi Sneaks,

You can also up-load the single word documents/ chapters in a single/big PDF file using Adobe Acrobat or similar. I used Expert PDF 7. My computer wouldn't have coped with the cut & paste process. Also, my uni asked for a hard bound copy and an electronic copy in a single non -editable PDF document. so, this was the easiest way to do it.

Also, the more you work on a big file, the higher the risk to corrupt it. I don't know how long is your thesis, but mine was very close to the word limit of 100,000.