venturin12 - i certainly wouldn't recommend a PhD as the place to find out what you want. so, i don't think you've given me any reason to change my stance on this one.

ally.towanda - without going through your long list, the truth is that if you are meant for a PhD, you know it. You don't need someone else to tell you that or to clarify that. You will know that a PhD is what you wanna do with your life. Until you know that, i recommend staying away from it, because without strength of conviction, you can't get through a PhD no matter how intelligent you are. Your work will be criticised endlessly and your passion has to last for as long as the PhD goes on. These are things that only you can answer, no one can diagnose them for you. Sorry if i sound harsh, i just don't want you to make the wrong decision - i.e. stay in industry or do your PhD.

- its not a undergrad degree which you can pass by intensive reading two weeks before exams or a masters degree where you are given direction, a reading list and the precise question you are answering. With a phd, you are not only in charge of completion, but of direction, acquinting yourself with literature and staying motivated.

jinio - everything is possible assuming you have no other committments, i.e., financial constraints, family committments, friends to take up your time. if you live for it, i guess - you can do it - though am very scepticle, not that your experience will make a difference, but that it will reduce the amount of reading/research that needs to be done for a PhD. There is a reason why full time phds take three years and part time ones take five years. It's not about how much you know, its about whether you can put it down in paper within the context of the geater field and literature within which it exists, as well as assess your contribution. I would think twice about that offer and probably take it, knowing that it is more likely to take more than three years and if it takes less, good for you. But don't be fooled - a PhD is not as easy as it sounds at the point of application

congratulations! what year are you in?

time has flown between March and April, i don't remember doing much else other than my research and looks like that's how the rest of 2007 will be.

sorry about that driven. do you have a research group at your department? perhaps you can do a presentation there before your viva.

can't believe its may already and the annual review is coming up, this time with a mini-viva... and soon it'll all be over!

thecoastman - she's an editor of one of the journals in my field though her work concentrates on the same issue in a different geograhical area. so maybe it won't be so bad if i show her this paper.

fluffy - am an open minded person. am not looking for sympathy here, am looking for honest opinions on the PR surrounding this. so thanks for your opinion.
in that case, i think i'll just update it and hold on to it til about end of June, then i'll submit a revised version as chapter 3 and later show it to her as a proposed publication. i just wish i didn't have to wait forever, it kills motivation. meanwhile, am not gonna be a PhD student forever, am afraid of a viva without publications at this rate and not being able to get a job in academia coz of waiting for people to catch up. for that reason, i feel i should just show it to her. besides, it was already written and presented at a conference before she came into the picture. so am only doing what's natural by wanting to publish this paper and not disregarding her direction.

should i publish anyway, show it to her first? am afraid of being discouraged - last year i showed my other sup my paper and he reckoned i should wait til i knew more in the area. What should i do? am also thinking of publishing a paper from every chapter i complete and hopefully when i get the first two chapters approved, i'll do that. or should i wait til i get to ch.3 with my sup to publish? what would you do? i sometimes feel that having to get my sups approval for everything slows me down. am planning to go ahead without her but i don't want to appear distant, rude or disregarding of her opinion or worse, working on other stuff instead of the first two chapters she been had me redo several times. am in the social sciences by the way, so i have a right to publish independently. its only PR am concerned about and the viva. would you show her your work?

hey everyone, am currently waiting for my supervisor to get back to me on my work and meanwhile i want to complete the conference paper i've been working on in the midst of submissions. After the conference, the paper has been reviewed three times. By two academics and by someone in industry. I've been writing this paper since October last year and i've wanted to get it out of the way, but each time i've send it to colleagues its come back with comments which i've endeavoured to incorporate. i've decided that this is about the last time am incorporating comments. My problem is, this paper, substantially forms chapter 3 of my thesis - in a general way and my supervisor has never seen it.

thanks everyone - my sup has agreed that it is repititive and i shouldn't have to write another theoretical chapter on minute details on the thesis. every wondered why someone says one thing and then says they didn't say it?

Has any of you done a theoretical chapter after introducing your research question? How did you structure it?

speak of the devil - i lost part of my work today. it just disappeared from my screen two hours to handing in and i really panicked - anyhow, i wrote a sketchy version of it and handed it in. i wasn't very amused, but these things happen.