Another person who thinks that late twenties is old age - mmm not sure what they think of the large numbers of us here who are already in or forties (or older) when we have started our PhDs - postiviely ancient?

Am at the very early stage so can't comment on whether it is a suitable about of time but could you outsource the transcribing? I know someone who got some funding to pay someone to transcribe for her which meant it got done quicker and she coudl focus on the anlaysis. There are places in India which are pretty inexpensive.

There was a great wrokshop held yesterday in Manchester on the engaging researcher. Some great ides (but rather more focused on science engagement)

I needed to do a very specific proposal with aims, methodology and justification all tied down even though it will change. Every one tells me though that the final PhD will be quite different.

I would include it (unless you have such a long list of publications (I saw a cv a couple of weeks ago which was 30 pages - mostly publications))

Haven't tried this yet (but my husband used it about 12 years ago) but am going to give it a go.

Reason for posting is that Amazon has the student version on offer at the moment for £60 which looks a pretty good price compared to list or other student software sites.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dragon-NaturallySpeaking-Preferred-Education-Version/dp/B001C0LR68/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1278324626&sr=1-15

Poor you Eska. Have you tried the "thank-you I hadn't thought of that but will now" / " that's given me somethign to think about" method of cutting a conversation short? You don't actually have to think about it if you think she is wrong.

I think you are extremely lucky to have been able to carry the credits from one university to another and to have had what is effectively four shots at the Masters. My gut feel would be (and sorry if this is harsh) that you are not upto masters level work. Take the PGDip and move one. Even if you get the Master's you aren't going to be able to hide on your cv how long it has taken you. I don't know how old you are but many people find that they aren't cut out for it in their twenties but are very successful at research when they are older and have some life experience.

If you are self funding at many universities you can start when you want. I started end November (in part because my applicaiton got lost by central admissions)

I would echo what has already been said. There is an assumption that a DGDip is a failed MSs (a bit like the assumption that an MPhil is a failed PhD) - yes you can explain it away but you might not get the chance - short listing decisions are often made by HR peopel who don't understand the comparablity of qualifications. I woudl stick with it. (I was in a similar position when I did my MSc - due to personal problems I didn't know whether I could get my dissertation done and as I already had an MA (with distinction) I contemplated taking the PGDip but my supervisor counselled me against it and I am glad I did as I got another distinction)

Ok so today I loaded loads of papers (from my datastick) onto Menedely and I thought I would do some more at home on my laptop but the papers aren't there just the references. Do I need to do something different?

I'm not sure how sensible this is - you can't ignore the original one on any applications and you have a master's already. Do you really want to spend all that money for no guarantee it will work. I would use the money to pay for the first year(s) of PhD and try to pick up some funding along the way.

WELL DONE - take a break now - you deserve it!

Have signed up for Mendely and spent the afternoon dropping fields into it and then updating them. Looks pretty good.

Thanks for recommending it.