Very good answer Sarah.

Dude/dudette, cheer the f**k up you have got a PhD for Christ's sake.

You are the elite.

I would give everything I own to be in your situation right now.

I don't have a PhD but your attachment to your supervisor obviously comes from your being in his company for so long and you have come to rely on that support. Your attachment is emotional. You need to focus your emotions before you can be of any use to yourself.

Go on holiday, go backpacking with some hippies, go homeless for three months, none of it matters, you already have your PhD.

I would trade positions with you in an instant. I would sell my soul to be where you are. You need to get it into perspective.

Remember how far you have come and that no-one can take that from off you.

You need to build your new life so you have to take some time out and focus your chi.

Try a mystical and spiritual adventure into the unknown. Watch Forest Gump then walk round the world or something.

When you come back it will all become clear.

You need to stop caring.

Nothing matters.

Once you've got that sorted the nerves will disappear.

(up)

Sometimes when I tell people it is my goal to get a PhD some say (amongst other things) "It might never happen".

Why do people say that? It really annoys me.

What do they know that I don't?

Why are they so negative?

For me this type of talk is useless.

What is the point of saying that to a person that obviously cares about his or her own future?

Why the negativity?

I know I am very good at my subject and I have the paper work to prove it.

What gives random people the right to judge my situation based on no knowledge of me whatsoever?

:-s

Cheers.

On second thoughts just get the article if you really need it.

It ain't worth the risk.

======= Date Modified 06 Feb 2010 23:42:15 =======
You can reference anything you want including the guy in the pub.

However someone might ask you to justify/explain your souces at some point.

I suppose it depends on what exactly you are using the source for and how much you need to know about it.

Make sure you write and know, in enough depth, what you have got to write and know.

I suppose judging this can be hard depending on the circumstances.

If you know exactly what the criteria for evaluation are and what questions you are likely to be asked this will always help but it seems this information is often not forthcoming until it is too late, at least until the next time anyway.

If you have enough information maybe you could just summarise the whole argument of the article using the abstract then just reference the article as if you've read it.

This may be risky though if there came a time you were asked to defend this point by someone else who had already read the whole article.

My problem:

I am in a foreign country doing a Masters using a language which I only have two years of experience of. My supervisor, who has not helped me at all structure or approach a 30, 000 word dissertation (the most I have ever written is 8000), gave me a useful plan/structure after the viva which he said I failed. Thank you sir. He never replied to my emails and gave really vague advice on only two short occassions. I had no time to read last semester due to working full-time. My girlfriend of four years (whom I moved to this country for two years ago) is kicking me out because she doesn't want to support me through the three years it will take me to get my foreign language up to the level that is required to pass this course.

So I'm going to have to go back to my home country without her. She said she'll join me in a year. I don't know if I believe her. She refuses to support me emotionally through this hard time, she just goes out with her family when she has any spare time at the weekends. She has done this the last five weekends. I have no friends here. Sounds funny I know but it ain't.

I will have to work in my home country for a year while living with my dad to fund a taught MLitt to start in August 2011.

I am a qualified secondary school teacher but I want to work in a low responsibility job to keep my stress levels as low as possible. Is this a bad idea? Will PhD admissions take this into account?

I have chosen a taught MLitt in a high quality Uni in which the thesis is only 15, 000 words and many hours are spent on research methodology, planning, etc, because there was a big gap between my 4 year degree (2:1) final thesis of 8000 words and this 30,000 word thesis in this country. Here there was no consideration taken of my prior learning and I was just left to flounder. No advanced research skills were taught and my advisor didn't help. Am I just stupid? It feels this way. But I got really good grades in my undergrad when I knew where I stood.

Is it a bad idea to take a taught MLitt? Am I stupid for not knowing how to approach the 30, 000 word thesis?

I am also paranoid about the academics at this Uni (on a completely different continent to my prospective Uni) telling my prospective Uni that I am arrogant, disrespectful because I complained about their standards of education a couple of times. Is this completely irrational? I fell like I'm going mad.

Also I am worried about my references I have asked for from my two Undergrad Professors. I wrote to them telling them the situation that I have to quit here due to financial reasons. Is it possible they won't provide references because they might think I am not a good student?

One of the professors has written me two excellent references in the past but maybe she won't write another one? Maybe there is a limit to the number of references they will write?

Please say what you think of what I wrote! I feel like everything good in my life has died.