there is someone in my department who I think would take the same line on my research, if he had the chance, which he hasn't at the moment. These people may score points off you, but probably lose more in the eyes of the rest of the audience, and are just plian rude. If you have to deal with this person again, perhaps you need to get a phrase stashed away for such comments. I always like the one that goes ' that is an interesting point/comment/idea which I have not/will/ consider/take on board/look up now that you have raised it, perhaps we could discuss it later when there is more time'. serving the dual purpose of shutting them up- and showing that you can treat everyone with respect even when they are trying to score points off you. you get the brownie points, they get nothing :-)

if your IT guys can't fix it, you could try a local independent shop, we have one here which has a go at fixing anything, and they are usually successful . They even managed to rescue a whole load of material from a computer that had been pronounced dead by another company for the daughter of someone I work with, which was lucky because it was her 'A' level art coursework. I too have had loads of different makes, it depends what you want them to do really. I've never spent vast sums as I don't want to play games, or do loads of complicated graphic work, but always go for a high memory. If you have got it running follow others advice and back up everything, then at least you will be able to retrieve the stuff - and once you have done that I expect the computer will work as though nothing has happened... until the day you write something magnificent and forget to save it in several different places!

Definately get back in there and do some biting (only theoretically of course :-) ) I think sometimes we should question the unis more than we do, and sometimes they should be a little more willing to look at cases like this and take a less passive role in finding a way through these difficulties they owe you that.

This is indeed a bad situation. I had a similar problem when I was doing my Fellowship exam viva, someone who decided that his idea was right and mine was wrong, but in this case the board phoned me up and apologised, I still had to do another viva, but it was so much better.

Who have you spoken to about this? What has the internal examiner said - you have presumably got written feedback from them both, were they in agreement?
don't take this lying down. You - or your sponsors have paid good money and you should not expect a fail at the end of it. there needs to be some explanation from them. Make sure you see someone about it
go to the student union, go to the head of your faculty, and the dean. They all need to give you an explanation, not only why they failed to give you proper support, but why they chose this person as your external.
The object of the exercise is not to please your examiners, but to present a coherent account of your research. It should not matter whether they agree or not, your findings are your findings, and unless you have made illogical conclusions which fly in the face of those who know better in your field, and you have not acknowledged their views, they should not hold this against you. It sounds as though your examiner was biased, and as such should have ruled herself out of being your examiner for that reason.

I'm not sure what they would offer as a 'consolation prize'. but if I were you I would go for the re-viva, but i would make it very clear that you expect them to do better with their choice of examiners, you need an external who does not have  the bias of the first, and an internal who will stand up to them. If you have to have the same examiners, ask them what they intend to do to make sure you have an unbiased viva.

good luck, and don't let them get away with it

Even if you do settle this between the two of you, I think you should let your insurance company know, stating that you are not making a claim, it is just for their information. Something I can't quite recall at the moment suggests that this is important. you don't want to find a bit down the line that the bump is more serious than either of you realise (cars now have crumple zones which may mean they look alright on the surface, but closer inspection shows there has been more damage) and the bill is larger than you thought, and might need a proper claim they could reject this as you have not informed them now ... you may want to check this out with someone who actually knows - or you could find that if the insurance company found out about this in the future, they could invalidate a more substantial claim because you failed to inform them. At the moment I'm sure there are loads of people who have had minor bumps and are paying for any damage themselves because of this bad weather so you would not be alone in taking this action. Although the council may be liable they could well use the length and severity of the weather as an excuse, many councils were advised to conserve stocks of grit and salt to maintain the major roads, so they would have a major line of defence - and you might find yourself in a major -costly battle,- and there is also the warning about making unnecessary journeys - they may contend that it wasn't.  Same with 'badly parked', it would be your word against theirs, especially as you were moving - and would therefore be expected to take avoiding action- even if road conditions made this impossible. I think you might as well consider it bad news, but it could have been a lot worse.

for me the problem is this work. when I'm sitting here working away I feel the need to get up and get...a coffee...a few crisps...a choccie...a bit of fruit... etc. I do try to get some exercise in, 30mins three times a week, but its hard sometimes fitting it in with everything else. Whilst its been snowy and the roads have been icy I've walked into the school where I work, 40mins or so, and when the spring comes I think I will do this more often, hopefully once all the Christmas goodies have been eaten that will make a difference. Being veggie I find most diet plans pretty useless, they only seem to include one non-meat meal, and I wouldn't want to eat the same thing for ever! :$. The only advice I can give is don't buy too many 'snackettes' so you can't go foraging for them!

I'm part time, rarely at the uni during term time, so there is no bumping into each other! There is no regular pattern to our meetings. I joined in one of his MA classes, because he asked me to go along, so for a while I saw him every week, but not a lot of time was spent on my stuff. We had a meet up a couple of times a term, but now he has moved, so I don't think we will be meeting up in person very often. We do keep in contact via e-mail though, and I send him stuff when it is at a suitable point for his comments which seems to work fine. I've got the whole thing planned out in rough, so I know where I'm going. If I need any help I just e-mail, if he wants to know how things are going he does the same. The thing is, being part time I work in chunks rather than having a steady pace, so there may be nothing written down to report on for a while, progress goes in fits and starts depending upon what else is happening, so a regular meeting wouldn't be much use. We are supposed to meet up every six weeks, but hey, rules are there to be broken! :$ :-)

Not quite sure what you are trying to convey. Is it that your research is different because you have managed to reach these people? in which case you can explain why they were hard to reach and how you managed to get to them - I've also explained why my group were hard to get hold of and how I did this, how I have recognised bias in the method, but why it was important to use this approach. As far as anonymity is concerned I have stated that the possibility of inadvertant disclosure by inference makes direct quoting inadvisable, so my results will be agregated to prevent this. You might want to look at articles that note the ethics of approaching hard to reach groups - I suppose there might be some. I used information concerning internet collection of data which has some of the perils of collecting information in more unusual ways, that is not using standared selection methods. Methodology books should have sections concerning non- standard data collection.

Do you have a director of studies who is above these two? if so go to them, if not, go to whoever is in charge of post grad students and ask them for advice. You should not have to be in the middle of their petty games. They are grown-ups, not babies and should not get their personal and professional roles mixed up. You may need to ask them why they have such different ideas about your thesis. The 'I' thing is a difficult one though, the use of 'I' is becoming more accepted, although not by all, this was mentioned at one of our post grad meetings here quite recently. As for not having time to read your work, remember one way or another you are paying for their services, so you are entitled to some of their time!! :-)

My mix of methods is really mixed! However my chapters also lead from one to another, starting with very important material which comes from another area (business) so might seem a bit odd. but at the beginning of my thesis - in a rough draft way at the moment - I have put in a table with the chapters named, labelled and each one has the aim of the chapter and the research question it will answer. This means that I can refer to these when writing my methodology. The main general argument about qual, quant, mixed methods etc. had been placed in the appendix and I refer to this in the main methodology chapter, keeping this chapter for info about the way I have used the different methods, and why I have used them. For example my questionnaire contains material for several chapters, so I have put a note to this effect, what will go where and why, and why I have chosen to work on my thesis in this way, how my approach is different (my sup says it is any way :$. He says the methodology chap should relate very closely to what you do/did and why this worked for you. (I suppose because you should assume that the people reading it know all about the pros and cons of different methods or they wouldn't be reading it!). I have also made a chart to show how the chapters fit together, if you can do this it will clarify where you are going - my sup likes this too!:-)- then how ever complicated your thought process/methodology is it will give the reader something to which they can refer to make sure they understand where you are going. I think if you try to describe things in each chapter they might not like it, convention rules OK (this comes from someone who, when the class was asked to produce a pot, instead of following everyone else and making a little didy thing, actually formed hers in two dustbin lid which she then joined together, so it was a bit - um- larger than everyone else's pot :$

I have not actually reached this stage yet, but in my chapters I have included bits of songs etc. and I have put their origin in a footnote rather than in the refs section. I guess as long as you put a note somewhere so anyone who wanted to look further I would think that would suffice. However I too will probably have a quote from a children's story, but as that is in the body of the thesis, I will reference that in the reference section. Your academic librarian may be able to give you the definitive answer:-), they like a challenge.

Is there any chance you could do it by publication? I know this is a route some lecturers here take, but I'm sure it isn't exclusive to them, you could perhaps base it on some area that interests you. Might be a possibility.

I'm using mixed methods too - but I have put these methods in my methodology chapter, relating each set to both the chapter and the research aims and research questions. that way it is easy to see why I have used specific methods in each one, mine also builds on previous chapters. I have put the main argument about qual and quant approaches in an appendix, since I think whoever reads it would know enough to be able to skip that bit if they want, and have concentrated on the reasoning behind using the approach I have taken. I also spent a bit of time on my use of the internet etc. and the ethics.

Do they mean chapter one, as in the first one of your thesis, or just chapter one, that is the first one you are going to write? If it is the latter you choose!!:-) if its the former, ask them if you are not sure!!:$

Yes you can reference this, if you are using Harvard, in the ref you just put the usual stuff, name, date etc. then personal communication- and make sure you keep a copy of the e-mail. However I would just check that whoever sent you this is OK with you quoting it before you do so, only polite really, and the ethical thing to do too.