thanks guys, i'll be getting back to you this evening telling you whether its working. currently typing away - am formatting my biblio in the evening for submission tomorrow.

i was using word, let me try editing from endnote.

am so sorry driven2insanity. that once happened to me after i spent a whole day writing a paper that i was hoping to publish. when i was done i send it to print and logged off only to check the printer and there was no paper and neither was the paper saved on the comp. its so easy to be furious, but it doesn't make the work come back. take sometime off and come back again, take a deep breath and redo it. stuff happens.

Guys's i still can't add page numbers onto Endnote, can someone help me. I followed the instructions till the suffix part, but i can't get the page number to replace the existing one

woah, didn't know unis allow someone to stay on a course that long - at my uni its four years max or six year part-time. if you still haven't finished, they fail you. i like her optimism tho and ability to still be alive 9 years in. I suppose that is because she's working as well, so she doesn't feel the urgency to finish.

save what? your work?

my advice - comply and get on with it. i've had two supervisors like that and asserting myself in my first resulted in their being prejudiced in assessing my first year report. i eventually did change supervisors, but the way i see it is that, you want your phd and the supersvisor also wants you to graduate. she has a phd and therefore has a clue on how to get you there. you can't both lead, so either you lead or she does. its not nice, but it is a compromise not worth the agony of battling with a supervisor.

interesting shani - where did you learn that from?

Have you tried speaking to an academic with a PhD about this? Your supervisor sounds approachable, why don't you let him know that you are struggling, then he can see how best to assist you. I did that with my new supervsor and although we have a rollercoaster relationship, when he's being constructive in his comments, he gives me a lot of direction in my work.

that is so consoling Rutherford. I totally agree. I was lost for the better part of my first year and now things are beginning to pick up. ryan0583 - am also not a person who works well without guidance and direction and I have struggled with that. i haven't quit yet because i believed that if i hang on long enough i would be able to find direction. and its working! am still learning how to work on my own with little guidance or direction - but that's what a PhD is about. learning how to do one. No one expects that you know how to do it when you start. so i'd agree with Rutherford that what you're going thro is pretty normal. Don't doom yourself with escapism by applying for jobs, it's time consuming, not doing anything for your emotional wellbeing and taking away the mental and emotional stability you need to handle the PhD by getting you stuck in a dilemma.

Just so you know what that means - it means that most evenings and weekends are spend indoors after work doing your PhD - at least 30 hours a week. I have found working and studying a bit difficult, but am fulltime and was working part-time. I find that to make progress you have to devote sufficient time to your PhD - as though it were a full time job. Are you prepared for that Keith?

Keith, i think your proposition is perfectly possible. In my experience as a law phd student, i have never come across in the application process, a uni wanting to know what you do with the rest of your time. All they care about is that you are interested in a phd and you want to do it part-time, and that you are qualified to do one. So i wouldn't worry about being a solicitor at the same time. As a matter of fact I think the exposure to practice will greatly help your work as at the moment am doing my phd and having to contact solicitors along the way a lot and trying to relate to some issues without having done the LPC is quite a task. However, since you're saying you're passionate, if you think you can sustain that passion for five years, then go for it.

am doing my phd fulltime and my first year was spend on teaching and part-time jobs and evenings and weekends on my work. i've recently stopped working to catch up with my work. i didn't manage to transfer at the end of my first year - supervisor problems coupled with being too busy juggling jobs to concentrate and develop any leads i had. am now really enjoying the last 2 months, having quit working til September and its amazing how my work has developed. am looking forward to submitting my upgrading report this month and hopefully everything will work out. are you self-funded? if you are, have you considered probably taking out a loan to cover your period of study so you can concentrate on your work now and pay it off later. i know no one likes to take a loan, but working fulltime and a phd are not things that go together. alternatively change to part-time, although you risk getting bored - 5 years is a long time to be thinking of the answer to one question?

what do you mean by experiences - their experiences as a religious person or as a student of religion?

thanks sue - i really appreciate your willingness to help and yes, freebies are very nice to receive.