Wow... I'm super tired today. I've literally discussed one theme in one of my chapters all day... I can't even bare to start the next theme. I'd quite happily use my keyboard as a pillow right now.

Today I have achieved very, very little.

Anyone else having an equally sleepy day?

Hi Chris,

Do you mean putting articles you've had published into your thesis?

What I'm planning on doing is just referencing myself where necessary, and then putting the actual articles in the appendix.

What I'm worried about though, is one of my lit review chapters was published in my first year after I wrote it, and I don't see the point in re-writing the same material for the thesis. I'm nervous about getting done for plagiarising myself. My sup says its perfectly fine to copy and paste from my article ... although I think I've essentially copied and pasted the whole thing and just added things in. Hmmm. Should I be worried?

You aren't alone here. I share an office with 8 other PhD students, and we only ever really talk to each other if we want help with something. I'm lucky though because before I moved to this office, I shared one with just one other person and we became quite good friends. I also go to uni in the area I grew up in and so I have all my old school friends and so on, so don't feel the need to brach out and find anyone new.

Anyway, what I wanted to say was more in response to Emcollins. You said you were thinking of setting up a postgrad network group. My friend (mentioned above) and I set one up in our first year... well he set it up and I've taken over as the "chairperson", and it's been quite good, but it is difficult to round up other PhDers who actually want to meet up. I'd say go for it though. We now get funding from our research council, publish a quarterly bulletin, and run an annual research conference. It's fab for your CV if you do set one up. We still have difficulty rounding up the troops but always find that new faces want to join... even if it's just so they can go for coffee with someone. Plus, its a lot easier to organise social things if you know you have an established group there. I think it's a really good idea.

Also, have you thought of joining any student groups, such as a sports club? This can be an excellent way to meet new people, as well as being a vent from all the PhDness.

I hope all goes well. Chin up!

:-)

I'm busy writing up, and my procrastination tool today was to Google "writing your doctoral thesis"... why, I'm not too sure. Anyway, I found this link, and reading it made me smile. Hopefully it'll make you guys smile too :-)

http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/5/12/21333/7169

I'm currently doing my PGCert LTHE alongside my PhD, and am finding it quite useful. I'm quite nervous when it comes to teaching and the PGCert has helped no end in raising my confidence. As far as I know as well, it's becoming a pre-requisite to lecturing jobs, and if nothing else, it's something more to add to your CV.

I'd so go for it personally!

Hi Sarah,

Try not to take the rejection too badly. I've had a couple of papers rejected (from the same publication), and the first time it was heart wrenching. But if you try to not look too deeply into it, it's really not so bad. I re-submitted both articles into other, equally decent publications and had them accepted with only minor corrections, and put straight into special editions! I just figured my work isn't what this particular journal are looking for, and if others are, then it's their loss.

If the editor was supportive and suggested a re-submission elsewhere, go for it! You have nothing to lose in trying!

Good luck!

Thanks guys,

I was feeling better after reading your responses, but then I went for cofee with some of my older PhD buddies and they started talking about philosophical matters... complication central. I think I need to eat a latin dictionary....

I once had to sumbit a conference abstract which could be no longer than 100 words. It was basically 2 sentences including my title and what my presentation would cover. When the word limit is so small, I doubt they need a lot of detail. It's just to guage whether your presentation would fit with the conference themes. Try not to stress too much, giving the basics should be enough... also try cutting out words you don't need, like "and" or "moreover" or "also". Words like that can easily be removed without taking away from the meaning.

Good luck

Hi Amy,

I'm sorry to hear about your dilemma.

Your institution is, I'm sure, obliged to provide you with an alternative supervisor if your supervisor is leaving. He cannot expect you to finish your PhD after only one year, and it sounds like he's being quite unreasonable. I would suggest talking to your head of research or head of faculty about this to ensure they get you a new supervisor.

Good luck

Hi guys,

I'm currently writing up and was hoping to guage some thoughts on the matter of the kind of language used to write up.

I was reading an article yesterday written by a colleague, and to be honest really thought it was written using such complicated language I'm positive he must have sat with a thesaurus when he wrote it. To be honest I felt like I needed a dictionary to be able to understand it. He's just passed his PhD, and this got me thinking... Do I need to write in this over-complicated manner?

I think my writing is quite good, and my supervisors and other colleagues seem to agree, but now I'm questioning it. I've started to over-analyse how other researchers in my area write and I don't know whether to change the style I'm comfortable with just to sound "more clever" by using big words.

What does everyone else think?

Thanks :-)

Hi KB,

I'm also in your situation. I'm new to teaching and as well as doing my PhD, I'm doing a PGCert in Higher Ed teaching and learning... which means I get assessed on my teaching. Ahhhh. I used to find I was a bag on nerves before each lecture/ workshop and I'd over prepare and then panic when I didn't say everything I planned on saying, or if a student piped in with their 2 cents. I've taken the approach now though, where I will only prepare what's necessary (slides, handouts) and wing it from there. If you know the material you're teaching, just try relax into it. Remember, you know more than your students, and teaching is in a sense just imparting that knowledge on others.

The thing that stresses me out most is trying to actually get the students to respond to me. A lot of the time they will just stare blankly at me when I ask them questions or give activities, and that annoys me. Like, yesterday, I gave them an hour of the allotted lecture time to get one part of their assessment done, while I was there... I walked them through it and half of them just sat there and doodled on paper. Geez... why do it in your own time when you can get bits of your assessment done in class?!! Silly people! Their loss I say!

Anyway, you will get used to teaching... I hope, for my sanity, anyway. I'm definitely a lot less nervous now, and while I still get the odd few moments when inside I'm screaming out for someone to swoop in and save me, you get through it, and it's all about learning for you as well as the students. You'll get there and I'm sure you'll become and excellent teacher because you obviously have the passion to do it!

Hi Walminskipeas...

I've had a systematic review published which is essentially a summarised version of one of my lit review chapters...

At the end of your chapter have you brought everything together and basically summed it all up? If you have it might be easier touse this as your starting point. Alternatively, instead of seeing your 11 questionnaires as separate entities, each needing individual attention, could you not perhaps look for the main similarities and differences and draw on them instead? You could still discuss them in terms of the different developmental procedures they represent, but rather than going into the in-depth complexities of it, give an overview.

I'm not sure if that makes sense.

Sticking with animal confession stories...

When I was younger, I lived in an South Africa, and we had a squirrel monkey as a pet (like Marcel in Friends)... squirrel monkeys like to eat meal worms as treats, and rats tails kind of look like meal worms. I had an inquisitive mind back then and decided it would be a good idea to test the intelligence of my monkey, by seeing if she could tell the difference between a meal worm and my pet rats tail... needless to say, she couldn't. She just munched the tail. I felt terrible. The rat (Mickey) died as a result of his injuries. I was very young, and have never forgivven myself for that.

RIP Mickey.:-(

Hey,

I'm in my third year, and while I'm in my office from around 9:30 - 4:30 "every day", I don't actually work the whole time I'm there. I get maybe 3 hours of actual work done a day... sometimes more if there's a deadline or I'm feeling motivated.

Think it all depends of how efficient you are when you're actually working, and what works best for you. I wouldn't worry about how much other people do... I know some PhD students who work 8 - 6 everyday, and are still miles behind where I am despite starting at the same time.

Work to your own timetable and forget everyone else! :-)

My cat has been known to catch squirrels... and rabbits. He's the hunter-gatherer type... apparently his Felix just isn't good enough.