As others have said, it depends entirely on the audience. If you're presenting at a specialist conference, it's reasonable to assume some prior knowledge on behalf of your audience (although a short section of background may be useful). If, however, you're making a presentation to examiners who will be judging your PhD progress, it's not just about what THEY know, it's proving that YOU know it as well. That's why theses have quite lengthy literature reviews - I doubt many examiners learn that much from reading them, but you're demonstrating that you are clear about what your work is building on.

Whatever setting your presentation is in, you must always provide context for what you're doing and how it adds to existing knowledge. It just depends on the audience and scenario whether that context needs to be one slide or 20!

If you've got time to kill there's some interesting posts on the art/challenges of academic dress at Thesis Whisperer:
http://thesiswhisperer.com/2012/04/16/what-not-to-wear-the-academic-edition/
http://thesiswhisperer.com/2012/06/05/what-not-to-wear-academic-edition-part-2/
http://thesiswhisperer.com/2012/06/22/to-wear-or-not-to-wear-that-is-the-question/

(not specifically addressing the issue of viva-wear though)

======= Date Modified 09 Nov 2012 12:15:36 =======
Can you ring your supervisor/turn up to see him/her in person? Does s/he have a PA you could pester?

I think under the circumstances you have a right to push for a response from *someone* even if only to tell you when you will get the result.

I've not finished my PhD but a course I went on at my uni suggested smart-casual as a minimum (even for our upgrade viva), and I'm inclined to agree with that. That said, we were cautioned against wearing something that would distract us or make us feel uncomfortable - so stick with an outfit that you know rather than testing out something new!

If you think about it, a viva is kind of like a peculiar interview for admission to the world of academia, so casual wear probably isn't advisable.

Waiting for anything can be horrible, especially something as important as this. You have my sympathies.

However, I think it's just as likely that the hold up is some dull administrative thing, rather than anything thesis related. It's probably sat on someone's desk somewhere waiting for them to find time to sign something/send out confirmation.

I think you're well within your rights to chase someone up about it at this stage.

======= Date Modified 06 Nov 2012 14:37:31 =======
Maybe check your personal tutor's recent publications and see what his current institutional affiliations are?

Academics are rarely completely unGooglable if they're still active. Maybe try different combinations of relevant key words along with his name. Send me a DM if you want a hand.

Actually, there is a caveat. One CAN have too many variables for accurately carrying out some types of analysis, particularly if the sample size is small.

But really it's impossible to give you further advice on this without knowing the nature of your project. Sorry.

======= Date Modified 05 Nov 2012 16:29:59 =======

If you asked 30 questions (or sub questions) then yes! You sound concerned though - is there something you're unsure of.

======= Date Modified 05 Nov 2012 11:51:07 =======

Another vote for Powerpoint.

A lot of stats packages allow you to either enter data directly into a data viewer, or import data from other file types. For example, I work with existing databases that are saved as '.csv' files and I then import them into a stats package.

Check the requirements of whatever package you will use, but one thing you could do is to enter your data into Excel, save it in a suitable format and then import it to another program. Use a new row for each study participant, and a new column for each question reponse.

I should point out, I don't typically work with questionnaire data and likert scales, so someone else who does might have a better suggestion for specific ways to go about this. Likert scales are a funny kind of continuous variable in as much as the values are kind of arbitrarily defined, unlike true continuous variables such as age, height, weight etc. Depending on your sample size, you might need to use non parametric methods such as the Wilcoxon signed ranked sum test or Mann-Whitney U, but this isn't really my area of knowledge so check with the statistician who approved your questionnaire!

Congratulations Dr Swetchha!

======= Date Modified 03 Nov 2012 17:05:40 =======
I see your point Badhaircut. TBH I'm quite content to be called a student WITHIN academia (although having previously been an RA, I now have far more skills and knowledge than when I was a staff member, though I do spend a greater proportion of my time learning stuff).

But it's outside of academia I steer away from the 'student' tag. Not least because, having pursued two different fields, I've spent best part of a decade under the student label, but I do not want that interpreted as a decade of going to the odd lecture and watching daytime TV, as that is very far from the truth.

If non academic people ask what I do, I say 'I work in research' or 'I'm a scientist' depending on the context. I don't think that is misleading. At the end of the day, I have a desk in an office which I work at full time at least five days a week, with colleagues and collaborators. I'm happy for those colleagues to regard me as a student (as long as they don't interpret that as 'idiot' or 'lackey' though.)

I also find it a bit odd that we are called 'students' because we are still learning stuff. I don't anticipate that my need to learn will stop if I start my first post doc, or lectureship. The intensity may be different, but a sustained career in academic requires continual learning and training, surely?

Perhaps 'Apprentice researcher' would be a better title! :)