i have a pair - of them, for the garden, they are great for gardening. I wouldn't dream of wearing them out though. Mind you, i did have a bit of a problem yesterday, I was cutting the hedge stepped up to reach a high bit, and stood in a hidden pot of water ugh!!!!!!

PhD will give kudos with the pupils, and stand you in good stead for the future I should think, and it will be easier (!) to do before you have loads of other stuff to take up your time. That said though teaching is an art and a craft and good teachers make it look effortless, like the swan on the water, serene on top and paddling like mad underneath, the thing is, teachers have to understand why people don't understand, the best teachers are not necessarily the ones with the highest academic qualifications who sometimes seem to think the basics are so easy that anyone should be able to understand them without further explanation, but those who can explain things in as many different ways as it takes to get the meaning across.

Well I've fnished it, apart from getting someone to read it to make sure it makes sense. It is now 23 pages long (double spaced instead of the single spaced, no break between paragraphs, size 8 font, minimum margins of the original) . Hope I've answered all the comments.

I'm still working on it! I hope to get it sorted by tomorrow and sent to my potential supervisor, who just happens to be head of the department. The thing is it is going to include stuff that both myself and the supervisor(s) think is a possible outcome of present changes, but I think the guy doesn't agree. the subject is in education, but from a sociological aspect rather than a bit of action research which appears to be the in thing at the moment, and perhaps more acceptable to this person. It will be very controversial so I guess it is something I will have to get used to. Its not that I mind the challenge it is just that two sides is hardly going to give enough space to include loads of evidence is it?

I sorted out my proposal with the help of the person who should/wants to be my supervisor, he and several others liked it and I got the interview etc- but now someone in the dept has put a spanner in the works asking for a load of refs to be put in disbelieving I have supporting evidence, which I do) - the prospective supervisor and I spent ages getting it down to the required 2 pages so it could hardly have everything in, if it did it would be the thesis wouldn't it? Am writing a reply at the moment, and trying hard not to be rude, when in fact what I want to say is 'you idiot, this is the outline proposal, not the whole thing'it is going to add another 6 pages to the proposal!

Just another small point or two
1. Always save your work before you send it to print, not the other way round, the print command can do strange things sometimes, and this will mean you will not loose the work.
2. Keep cats away from the keyboard - my daughter lost one of her undergrad essays when the cat managed to delete the lot.
3.Keep a backup copy of all your work, at one stage I had work on two computers, a memory stick and a CD - just in case - oh, and a printed out copy.

usually it is just surname, although I've seen papers in my field (education)when both first name and surname are used. In this situation I would stick to the surname, unless there are two people with the same surname of course.

I've exactly the same problem, mine is also theory based and I'm really stuck about this. I've started several systems, cards- cards relating to cards,but I can't see how this will work long term. I've printed out more documents and used more trees than I care to think about. I've a filing cabinet in the garage full to bursting with stuff from my MA days, and every time I think about clearing out a few bits I also come across that vital bit of info that I will want to use, but how to remember where it is, or even that I have it is really causing problems and I would like to get it sorted before I get much further as otherwise I'm going to have to go back over a load of stuff in order to get it organised.

At the front of my reference for referencing (!)it says you can do some things any number of ways - but you have to be consistent - that is, use p. or pg. but don't swap between the two. In the text I always put the date after the name for every ref and then the page no if it is a direct quote e.g. - Smith, J. (2003, p.7)if before the quote and (Smith, J., 2003, p.7)if after the quote. et. al. should always be italicised, as should ibid, not used ibid myself anywhere butI've come across it in articles referenced using the Harvard system. I think its Bournemouth uni that has the definitive Harvard ref stuff on its website where you can find how to reference almost anything - or so I've heard anyway refs are a pain, especially those that are a bit out of the ordinary, I'm making sure I do them as I go along

congrats Dr Fluffhope you are going to stay around to give us lesser mortals the benefit of your experience!!!!

I've always been terrible about word counts!, but so far I've manged to get away with it by shoving a lot of stuff in footnotes or endnotes or in the appendix which didn't count, that way I managed to increase my total allowance by at least 75%. I assumed that I could do the same here I hope so or I will have a mass of editing to do. I hate editing, everything always seems so necessary

The whole point of a reference is that the quote or whatever can be located from the info given. So if you accessed the site and found the info in 2005 or whatever then that should (as far as I can make out) be the date you put in. If the site is the same then it doesn't matter I suppose, although the point about last minute stuff may well be valid, but if it has changed or is no longer there for some reason then the former date, which is when the info was there, is the important one - that is why you should keep a hard copy of material you find on a website, so you can prove that it existed. . anyway thats the basis I work from!

Thanks for the replies, it just seems a bit silly, like quoting your teacher!!!!

I'm going to be doing my study part time too (still to get the place, but it looks promising)I have a further prob though as I work in a school (not as a teacher)so there is going to be very little chance of getting out during the school day -the head even says you have to ask if you want to make a docs appt during school time 'and it will be considered' Still I will have the holidays to catch up. Luckily it isn't going to be lab based.

I'm in the middle of writing my proposal (the guys I hope will be my supervisors are very keen on the topic, and keen for me to do it too,and are going to be my references) but my problem is, and its a bit silly really, I really need to quote their work, but feel a bit embarrassed about it, what if I have the wrong idea about it for example. They are both very well known in the field and one even suggested I look at their work, and I know them too which doesn't help as I did my MA with them. Should I just bung them in and hope I have it right or what?