LAC30, I have always worked from home and have had no problem and I am in the humanities. I had to do some modules in my first year and also was teaching so I generally tried to mix with other PhD students and staff on the days that I was there for teaching or attending class. Personally I find I get so much more work done at home because I can just get up and get stuck into it whereas if I was going to work on campus I would have to put on better clothes, do my hair, travel all the way in and get distracted talking to people ;-) I also saved a lot of money on travel expenses.
Everyone's different. You'll find what works best for you. But to answer your question it definitely is possible to get your work done at home.

Hi folks, Just a quick query from me. I am just wondering if any of you have ever had to translate your work into a different language. I can't speak any other language except English but I am hoping to submit an article to a particular journal and they ask candidates to translate their abstract into the other language if possible. I think I might have a better chance of being accepted if I translate it but was just wondering has anyone else ever had to do this and where did you get it translated? I've never used translation services before and was just Googling the issue but would like to hear from people who have done this before. On the other hand maybe I should just send it in English as they only say 'if possible' translate it. So if anyone knows anything about this please let me know. Many thanks. :-)

Dotdot681, I am so sorry that you feel this way. Might I just point out that I personally found the first 6 months the worst. The start is naturally going to be a tad unsure and scattered because you are not sure exactly what literature to consult and you feel overwhelmed if you think of the project as a whole piece so try break it down into bite-sized chunks. What I found helpful was to start with a 30 page document like 'I'm gonna write 30 pages on my project now' (didn't put in anything about methods just literature). I was able to eventually work out from the 30 page document what my major themes might be e.g. what will my first chapter be? what will my second one be? etc. Of course, I look back now and think how awful the 30 page thing was and I've dumped a lot of the lit from that and I've taken a few wrong turns etc but I think most of us do. It's a big asking and it's all your own original work whereas an essay is easier as you've been given a course outline with the relevant lit and you've been given a specific question so this is harder and as I said naturally more scattered at the start. It was that disorganisation that made me feel down so the cure was to just go for it and I found that *acting confident* worked. It's now the reality but you'll often here people recommend that if someone has a lack of confidence then *pretend* you're confident and it does work, even in relation to academic work or so I found.
I feel I've waffled enough. Just some food for thought. Maybe others will be more helpful. However, I will emphasise that you should look after yourself and take care. So don't take what I said as something you have to do, it's just my thoughts based on my experience. (up)

Never really spoke to you on here Jojo as I was more of a lurker/reader back when you initially posted about this but I just want to say a huge congratulations to you. You've been through so much and to keep going and get through it shows great resilience. Big congratulations on the jobs too. That's the main thing - getting a job at the end of those 6 years. So well done you! You truly deserve it. Wishing you ever success with your future academic endeavours
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Never really spoke to you on here Jojo as I was more of a lurker/reader back when you initially posted about this but I just want to say a huge congratulations to you. You've been through so much and to keep going and get through it shows great resilience. Big congratulations on the jobs too. That's the main thing - getting a job at the end of those 6 years. So well done you! You truly deserve it. Wishing you ever success with your future academic endeavours
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Ms_Researcher, I'm sorry to hear your supervisor said that. He should at least expand on that explanation. Also, can you show some of your work to another professor? Have you got a second supervisor or anything you could run a sample of your work by? Always good to get a second opinion.

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Edit: Oops. Double post.

Hi Deesbees09, I'm a PhD commuter albeit in Europe (never been to America unfortunately. But maybe someday :-)) so I cannot comment on your specific route but I can comment on some of the issues raised in your post. My commute is shorter than yours at about 35-40 minutes and I generally have to go in maybe 2 days per week for teaching or attending an educative class for the PhD itself. I try to pack in a bit of socialising while I'm there on those two days so that might just entail having lunch with one or more of my fellow PhD students or simply having a chat with them and maybe hang out in the computer room for a while to mix with some of them. I generally find that this is enough to keep me in touch with everyone. I sometimes also go into the library while I'm on campus and empty the shelves and photocopy everything I need! I use the internet a lot though for sourcing relevant texts. I didn't relocate because my commute isn't too long and I didn't have the money to relocate but also I have found that I get way more work done at home. So I don't know if any of this helps but it might give you some food for though. Simply, you can create and maintain some connections with fellow PhD students as a commuter and if you're the kind of person who works better in isolation you'll also get more work done at home. But ultimately it depends on you and what way you prefer to work I guess. Either way I wish you the very best and try to *enjoy* the experience (Oh by the way I always attend any social events like the Christmas party and so on and the odd seminar - keeps you connected too). Good luck and congrats on obtaining the position :-)

Don't worry OP. You're still early on in your PhD and I found those early meetings tough too. I agree with the 2 previous posters that you should consider setting an agenda. I know someone who takes notes on their laptop during the meeting and then sends it on to their supervisor afterwards and the supervisor inserts anything they've missed.
Personally, my supervisor is quite scattered and would never do that for me but what I have done to improve the meetings is I started bringing along a sheet of paper with everything that I wanted to ask them and talk about to the meeting with me so I wouldn't forget what to say. It was like having a set of prompts with me and our meetings have been much better ever since. I think it made them feel happier too that, as another poster said, I was taking ownership and pushing this forward. Also when you start writing or doing experiments or whatever and you have some work to send on to them it also becomes easier because then you have the chapter or experiment to discuss and you can ask them 'what did you think of my inclusion of this author?' 'I was also thinking of discussing X' or whatever and find out what you need to know.
So, yeah, long story short I think it would help to just have a document with a list of what you want to discuss. Hope this helps!

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I remember reading a thread here before of a similar issue and people were saying it made them work harder when they fancied their supervisors as they wanted to impress them ;-)

Good point, Pjlu. Imagine him with all his disgusting habits, Mooni, like leaving his smelly socks on the floor etc. Actually knowing the real person behind the supervisor professional image could be very different. Pjlu has put it very well by saying it's his job to be calm and patient. Often the supervisor is the only person who will listen to us yap about our projects and so we might come to like them for that but it's their job to listen and take an interest however feigned or genuine it may be. They're getting paid to listen to us. I don't mean to dismiss how you're feeling or anything because it must be difficult to focus on the work if you're feeling like that but I'd caution against acting on any of it.

There has been a case of a PhD student and a lecturer having an affair in my uni. The aftermath is not pretty. Messes up things for both parties concerned but especially for the student. You can't help how you feel about someone but I would advise keeping it professional, getting involved in other things where you might meet other people outside of your dept, fill your time with other things and immerse yourself in your work. If you care about him and yourself I think it's best to keep it completely professional. Good luck
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I'm more of a reader than a contributor but just wanted to log in to wish you all the very best for the future both academic-wise and health-wise. You've given a lot of inspiration and positivity to others & so I hope that positive energy comes right back to you. It certainly sounds like you've got lots of great stuff going on at the moment. Wishing you all the very best. (up)

Lol! Noctu’s last response there is so funny. I must remember that one. If anyone asks me I’ll say I don’t know and will you look into it. That’s a way of ensuring nobody asks awkward stuff ;-)
Firstly, thank you Tester for bumping the thread to the top. I had assumed no-one would ever respond so thank you very much. Your kind words made me feel a lot better. It was good to hear someone as experienced as you now are let some of us less experienced people in on the secret that you senior lecturers were once nervous just like us! The dry throat thing… I practiced and practiced my lecture notes for the second lecture and think that may have been the reason I didn’t get dry this time. I had my bottle of water but didn’t need it too much which was amazing. So I think you’re right that you’ve just got to get your throat used to all that talking! I really knew what I was talking about this week and amazingly was able to ad lib! Unfortunately it won’t be like that every week as for some weeks I really don’t know the material at all so I’ll need to do a lot of work to pull that off those weeks. I was told to cover some particular areas and so I had to include some stuff that I knew nothing about.
Yeah people walked out in my first lecture which was worrying but as you say you can’t please everyone and my performance was not good that week. The second one went really well both lecture and discussion. I had to prepare very well and practice it about 3 times before the real event and then was confident enough to just go in and do it.
So thank you Tester as your comments really made me feel a lot better. Also, Eska I agree it is so much easier if the topic is related to your thesis (as the second week was) as you know it then and are much more confident but as I said that’s going to be a problem for some weeks. Sneaks – yep the discussion works very well and it is material they can relate to everyday life so the discussion for the second one was great.
Bewildered – thank you very much for your comments. Yeah, I have been told I look younger than I am so that’s another problem in this case. Yes, quite right the person was very rude to ask making me feel like I couldn’t possibly be the lecturer. I guess I should have been stronger and had a comeback but it was so difficult being my first time. I agree about the dress thing. I think power dressing is a good point. It’s like putting on a persona. I even noticed my accent was slightly different. I think I pronounce my words better when I lecture! No-one would understand me in my real accent ;-)
Cheers folks. Twas fab :-)

I remember reading this book (wish I could remember what the title was and the author... it was a book on PhD writing or research writing anyway) and the author was saying how she once reneted a log cabin and basically got everything written in 10 days cos she was just in the log cabin with no distractions whatsoever. Now that's great if you could afford to go off and rent a log cabin and you weren't worried about Jason or Leatherface coming after you but I think you can borrow her logic in the sense that try and find a setting in which you won't have distractions and tell your friends and family you've got to get this done so no distractions for 5-7 days and just sit there and get it done. Still sounds like a huge amount to try and get done and esp. if you're stressed but definitely a quiet environment, adopting a 9-5 approach and just sitting there and saying 'this has to be done' helps!

Hi guys. I'm just posting to ask for advice or tips on how to fill a lecture. I did my first lecture tonight - a 1 hour lecture and 45 minute discussion and 10-15 minute break (factoring in time spent getting in, distributing sheets etc.). I had spent about 3 days preparing the lecture doing out my lecture slides, doing the necessary readings and writing out my lecture but still feel it fell flat. Now maybe it was because it was my first time lecturing (I've done smal discussion groups for 3 years) but I kept tripping myself up, realised there was a lot of repetition in my notes. I felt confident walking in but then when I went to start I found my throat and mouth were so dry, I had to stand in the one spot and read off my paper (when really I would like to be able to walk around and ad lib). The lecture is not really my thesis topic so it's hard/impossible to ad lib as I don't know the material well enough. The group are also all a lot older than me. I'm 20 something, they're 40 something and someone even asked me my age the minute I walked in and was I the lecturer! I think that might be a factor in my nervousness. But as I said I didn't feel nervous at all until I went to speak because I knew I was so well prepared so I just don't know why I kept repeating myself and was unable to think. Very worried now about whether students will leave in their droves from my lecture and the impact it will have on my PhD. Have any of you lectured? How did you find it when you first started? How did you cope? How did you fill an hour? I want this course to be enjoyable for them and myself and I did do the work but my performance fell flat. Any tips? Thanks peeps :-)

'I Will Survive' is indeed a good one. I find litsening to Queen can really motivate me. I have been known to put on 'The Show Must Go On' by Queen when I get rejected for funding and shout along with it ;-) Don't forget 'We Are the Champions'. Queen have lots of motivational stuff I think. 'We Will Rock You' (Fast live version). 'Three Little Birds' by Bob Marley.