This is quite a common thing to do in education research at the moment, so books on research methods in education should give you some information

I bought myself one of those timers for parking, so you know when you have to get back to the car and I set it for a certain time, so if I'm sitting here procrastinating (as I am at the moment)I know I need to stop to get back to work!

Um Sometimes I come across notes I've made a while ago ... and I can't read my own writing

I'm also unable to work the 9-5 pattern,I'm part time and it is quite difficult sometimes to get anything done especially when I have a lot of work to do for my job. However I'm on holiday from school (well at least I can choose when i go in!)so I'm getting things sorted.

I've read the book 'Authoring a PhD' which has been recommended on this site, thanks for that by the way, and that has helped me sort out where I'm going as I've produced a rough outline (preliminary)of all my chapters and am now putting documents ready for each chapter. I feel much better now, and it will stop me photocopying the same paper three times as I have forgotten it is in the pile of files.

next week its going to be start the write up time! - I hope

Speaking as someone who is old enough to know people who were hippies... well not at the actual beginning, more at the tail end really, and some of them still are at heart I would say it is more a reaction against governments than for them. Once upon a time government etc. used to say 'i think we will go to war now' and the public would say, 'yay, lets do that, its our patriotic duty'. Now there is a lot more questioning, for example the thing about MPs expenses, that would have been accepted in the past as only right alomg with their right to tell the rest of us what to do and how to think, and the expectation that we will defer to their greater wisdom. Now of course the earliest hippies may be thinking about retiring in the nearish future. so watch out for a new wave of hippidom now they have a bit of time on their hands!

I don't think you should simplify unnecessarily, because I think the examiner expects to find the language that you find in journals etc. that relate to your field, but on the other hand I don't think you are supposed to use a llong or obscure word if there is a simpler one that fits the bill. Supervisors are to be tolerated and given respect, but you are allowed to make faces at them behind their back!

Both supervisors have difficult writing, but my problem is they comment both favourably and critically and sometimes, when the paper is covered with comments I think, oh no, they don't like any of it, and then I find that they do - well some of it anyway! luckily in the era of electronic wizadry they now use the computer program to write comments, which menas at least I can read them

Write it down so you are clear what it is about, doesn't matter how, charts, bits of notes anything, however you work best, or what language you start with, you need to get it absolutely clear, if you can't explain it to yourself then you can't explain it to anyone else, once you have done this then you will be able to start to write it in english, it doesn't have to be great to start with, it can be polished up later. Getting your ideas across is what its all about to start with.

Not sure this is a unique problem, it may not be the words, but the idea that you have not explained properly. Happens all the time at all levels, I've had it on essays before now. you may not need to take such drastic action, and I agree with others this isn't the way to go at all, you may need to clarify your idea before you start writing. It may depend what your subject is, but if you have an idea X, then you need to put down something about where the idea came from, flash of inspiration/from reading A,B,C/ conversation/results of an experiment.

I got -7.75 and -7.44 respectively. Shows I was right to do all that demonstrating when I was younger! - and why my kids behave the same! An interesting site, I liked the book lists too, should prove very useful. Glad to see Illich made it.

My super is not exactly MIA, just very busy, and 'away from the office' so I'm a bit stuck, but can e-mail him. What I'm doing at the moment is collecting everything I need him to sign etc. and will send him an e-mail of the stuff so he can get it back to me....soon....well in the next month.....well by September at least!!!!

You should find you have a second supervisor too, so they will probably be experienced and help your first super, and if they have been second supervisor on a number of other occasions, there shouldn't really be a problem as they know what it is all about! The dept as a whole will know this anyway and will probably be there to help out if need be. Go for it, its better to have someone you can get on with, and with nine other students, you will be one amongst many.

thanks for the information. I will look up Green, although what I am really after is information from the late 18th and early 19th centuries. For example Faraday went to school and was taught to read and write even though his family were poor, and it is quite lucky for us that he did! but I'm wondering what was actually taught and why it could have caused the government enough concern to 'take over' education. - and why there appears to be a similar pattern emerging now. Its just for a small part of a chapter, but would make a link between the past and the possible future via the present situation.

I've been reading a book (Ha!)and it has stated that education (1870 act), far from being thrust upon an illiterate public, was actually used to control the education they received to stop people 'risimg above their station' and in fact they were already literate. I'm trying to follow this up, but it is proving difficult as every other book in our education section, and everywhere else I've looked at so far suggests that the 1870 act was needed because the vast majority of the population were illiterate. It is a minor point , but would be useful for my argument if I could find another reference that backed up the statement, but not being an historian I wondered if anyone on here had an idea where else I could look.

the very specific area, not a lot, but them I wouldn't expect anyone to know that much as there has been virtually no research into it at all, however my supervisor knows a lot about all the factors that affect this area, which is probably a very important thing.