number one, find out exactly what you need to submit, because it does vary from uni to uni. Use the administrators of the PhD to get an idea of what is expected, they are the ones who know. Ask a few people who have been through it, again, if you don't know any the administrators will probably be able to help you find one or two. Even at this stage I doubt if the research question will be set in stone for the rest of your work, but you need to sort out what you think it is. It should reflect the aims of your research I have four aims and therefore four research questions which are reflected in my overall title. Once you have got the title, try writing an abstract, one of the supervisors here suggested at a meeting that this is something you should be doing all the time to help you focus your research. Once you have these two elements and your information from the admin staff and fellow students, start writing your proposal for the first time round just write as it comes, then you can start refining it. If it isn't 100% they ususally get back to you for revisions, so don't panic too much.

The only way you can do anything like this is to think positive, you may be able to alter a few things as you go along. I have told people here that the prgrammes were much more suited for full timers than part timers, and why this was so, and they have now put together a series of Saturday and evening sessions. I have attended all the ones I can, and sent messages about the ones I couldn't go to. Have always said how good they have been, how  useful, how it lets all of us meet up etc., I encouraged others to do the same, and it has worked they have now become a regular feature. There is little point just complaining, it just makes you seem moaney, if you feel you must say something now, the make sure you are constructive and suggest ways of improvement, tiny steps rather than big ones will probably give a better result.

It is true that the world of academia is small, and you will meet many people who will remember you and will have influence upon your future, so it is better to be remembered as someone who made some improvements, rather than someone who stamped their foot and demanded change. They may not even realise what they are doing, its probably the way they were treated and they are just following in the same footsteps.

Once you get to their position, you can start to do things differently, and maybe do the research that will validate your suggestions and change things for others - but you have to also remember that not everyone wants to work in the same way, so you may find that what you want will not suit everyone either. Swings and roundabouts I think!:-)

For the word count and chapters etc. read Dunleavy's 'Authoring a PhD' it will help with this, I use it quite a lot just to make sure I'm doing things right.
It doesn't seem to matter which order you do things in, I think it is just traditional to start with a lit review, I'm not starting with that, I'm getting other chapters sorted first, but that doesn't mean I'm not putting bits aside for the lit, just as I am for other chapters, but it isn't my focus at the moment.
Ref getting out and about, you can do both! often the inspiration comes when you least expect it, and you can enjoy the great outdoors and be subconsciously thinking about your research at the same time. Anyway you can work when it isn't so nice, you need a bit of a break sometimes and can come back refreshed and ready to go!

I'm away from my paid job for two weeks, one advantage of working in a school!:$ however I have a meeting with my supervisor two weeks into next term and I want to get the two chapters I've started in some kind of order, and get a bit done on some others. He forgets I'm part time and have ages before anything else has to go before the board, so that will be my main job this holiday. BUT.. one of the teachers has asked if I will prepare a practical revision class for them for when we get back, which involves looking through all the stuff they have done, working out what I can set up for them, writing out the lists of what we will need to get out writing the worksheets, etc. etc. :-( AND the librarian told me last week that they would really like it if some staff to take home some library books and did a reveiw of them, so I have four books to read too (two down two to go, one really good, the other a bit rubbishy, not sure quite how to word that one) so apart from eating easter egg 'yum' and making lasagne for Sunday dinner - special request of youngest daughter who gave up pasta for lent and really missed it I will be working

There seems to be many problems here that have got knitted together. It looks like you have had a great deal to contend with, and this is just the final straw. However, as others have said, you do have a little bit of time to work things out concerning the baby bit, so concentrate on the other bits first. If you want to stay with your partner, then keep that positive thought in mind. Make sure he knows that first before you start on a campaign to make your work easier :$. The TV thing is difficult, I have the same problem when I'm working at home in the evenings - or trying to do so. there isn't really a lot you can do about that in the short term, becuase if you come over all heavy handed the blame will inevitably land on your door - that is you aren't being sympathetic to the other situation, which may have nothing to do with you but can be used as a bargaining card. I get round this by working at the weekend, and doing corrections and reading articles whilst the TV is on. Try this for a while and if you really need to work at something more complicated, just negotiate, say by suggesting that you need say the next evening to work in silence and could they do something elsewhere for an hour or two whilst you crack on. teenagers are moody, they are programmed to be so, plus she probably feels she needs to take it out on someone, and you are nearest. She is probably quite frightened and needs to talk to someone - fast. You need to take a cool look at your options and write down a few possibilities, getting a space to call your own to work in, summers coming - how about a gazebo, with sides for the garden, either you or they could go there :-) , putting down some ground rules about the way you are treated for example, then ask for them to do the same, then you may be able to work on a solution together. Try a bit of compromise, explain how stressed you are. Hope things work out, remember to keep calm there and have your rant on here. :-)

Wish I could find that nail - and of course the hammer to go with it! The process has, I think, been made more complicated by the grading process for post grad work at universities that goes on now, they have to show they are 'helping' you through the process, and have strict signposts along the way, instead of letting you get on with it. I found the first bit here rather a waste of time because they don't seem to really know what they want. They ask for a brief outline, so you give them that, and then they say it isn't detailed enough, so you put more in, but then it goes way over their word count they want, so you have to cut it back and stick in loads of endnotes, plus with them not meeting during the summer, the whole process is delayed... It is really just like a little game, so find out the rules, - as I said the secretary of the post grad school is probably your beat bet - follow them and you should be OK. I like to think of it as getting my money's worth out of them! :-)

Thanks for the input. My research is into the effect of role transition within education and I could start with a look at the changes being suggested for education, which would lead into the chapters, and might combine the introduction with the review, but then I've just re-read Bell's book on doing your research project which suggests that it needs to be a more critical piece of writing - which is quite difficult as although there is quite a bit on the labour process as applied to industryand some applying it to education, there doesn't seem to be much stuff on my particular aspect, loads on teachers, and some on pupils, but they are not the subject and I want to save most of the stuff I do have for the appropriate chapters! I've set out my chapter headings using the method from Dunleavy's book, so the lit review is supposed to be quite a chunk and I don't want it to be a waffle, or to reveal the plot :$

I thought I had this sorted, but now I'm not so sure. I've been working on chapters rather than the lit review - putting it off I suppose :$ but I think I need to take some of the material out of a chapter and put it in the lit review.(I've decided that I need to do this for each of the chapters I'm writing as I go along) The thing is, how do I decide what should go in there? I don't want to put too much, or it will affect the chapter structure. I can see how this might be useful for some areas, but much of the material in the first few core chapters will be providing the stepping stones for the rest. I've tried reading through it and marking bits I think might be moved, but then I look again and wonder if this is the right way to go about it (because they look quite comfy where they are, as they do, don't they when you have been working on them for ages). Should I start the lit review from scratch and leave the chapter as it is, or should I pinch some of the bits - it is too long at the moment, so will need some trimming, well stuff put into endnotes anyway :-). The subject is education, but this bit is about labour process and labour theory. Any ideas?

Here it is slightly different in that you have to submit a longer and more detailed proposal, including the ethics bit (there are some good examples of the kind of thing you need to write here on some university websites ) your chapter outlines and your plan of action (Work plan). This is easily produced using excel, just put all the dates along the top, chapters and sub chapters down the side, fill in the boxes starting at the 'finish' put in blocks for final review, review of chapters, writing up for each chapter, when you will start each one etc. - with overlaps of course, use different colours for researching, draft chapters writing up etc. it looks quite impressive! Here this part has to be done within about 6 months for full time, 8 months for part time, although this can be longer because the boards do not meet regularly. The next hurdle is to have two chapters done, at least in a suitable state, as obviously these will be revised later, plus you have a viva, but both these are with your supervisor and someone else from your department. You also have to produce a document setting out why you think you should be allowed to continue, which is the only thing that goes to the board, the structure is set out in our guidelines, and here the senior admin person in the post grad block is the one to talk to if you are stuck, he knows what is and what isn't expected - maybe you have someone like that?

perhaps it depends upon how important it is to the article. If it isn't that important leave it out, if it is important can you reword it so you don't need the page number, if not, leave off the page number. I'm assuming this is just (!) for a first submission, in which case it might come back asking for the page number, by which time you can find it ready for putting in.

You don't say if you are part of full time, which makes a bit of a difference, as if you are part time you have longer to get things right, but all is not lost. As has been said the first year can have a large settling in aspect, and may not be as productive as you might have wished/ expected, but nothing is wasted, every bit of work you have done will have helped if only indirectly, and the day you read something and they are talking about the work of someone you have already read... then you know all the background stuff is worthwhile. I had a change of supervisors which has been a positive thing, one new person, one sidestep, one more or less out of the picture (phew to that bit). If you are in a bit of limbo at the moment, it might be worthwhile looking through the stuff you have done,look at what you were asked to do, and see if YOU think it fitted the bill, then decide where you think it fits into your work, get yourself some more files, file all the stuff away, get some kind of index system going so you know what you have stashed away and then write a short piece explaining what you have done, where it fits and where you think you need to go next, then, when you get your new team, you can e-mail this info to them so that they will be up to speed. your next year will probably be much more productive.

You are certainly not alone, I think it is a bit like that for all PhD students, however I did suggest that my uni put on more events where students could meet up, which has helped. You may find that many students are in exactly the same position as you are, and things may well improve in a few months when everyone is more settled, also the weather is -hopefully- going to improve and there may well be more events that you can join in. look in the library, or wherever people put up notices and see if there is anything you like the look of, then go along and see what happens.

i may put in some photos to illustrate some points, I think they will more clearly illustrate some of the points I need to make...however I did a presentation a month or so back, and somebody asked if I was going to put in a DVD of the material I presented (I did a couple of impressive experiments to illustrate some points I was making, the audience was very impressed) so I'm wondering about that one - anyone included a CD or DVD who is not arts based?

My supervisor got away with doing this, but I'm not sure if a lesser mortal could do it! (he had already got an international reputation before he even did his PhD) My method chapter will also occupy the third spot, I can't see it fitting anywhere else, it is quite unconventional in its own way, but then so is the rest of the thesis really.

Goodness, I went straight from work so was in my work clothes, and in the lab I work in, its jeans. Mind you, I did know the people doing the interview from my MA days, and they wear jeans too! :$. If you don't know them I would go somewhere in the middle, but it may depend upon the subject.