Good luck Batfink, that sounds great! I love it when there's less to do than you think there is! Well done on completing a perfect presentation - that is no mean feat! (up) Ah your positivity has buoyed me up! We will get through this work today peeps! :-)

Morning Espresso, hope you have a good and successful day today. And hope you are getting on well too Clementine if you're around today. I'm going to be working on a different chapter today which has already been commented on, which makes amending slightly easier! Good luck today everyone!

Ady, you are the reference finding queen! I don't have access to this journal before 1999 either.

Hi Sega,

I was the same as you when I first started - I felt like I was trying to shoe-horn my research into any passing epistemology! Can I recommend Crotty (1998) The Foundations of Social Research as a starting point? It is very easy to read and should make things a bit clearer for you.

It also depends on your methods of course, some methods go hand in hand with particular epistemologies (e.g. ethnography and interpretivism). It's good to think about it but don't panic early on about "making it fit" - as your study unfolds and you become more experienced the right answer will come to you - I certainly found this to be the case for me. The other thing I can really recommend is doing lots of reading around your study and find out what methods other people have used, and what their epistemological position was, again this helped me no end when pinning my study and approach down.

I hope that helps :-)

I have funding until the end of the year so I don't have a submission date yet, I would like to submit before Christmas though if possibe. I hate leaving things until the last minute hence why I have worked so hard to get a thesis together this early in the year. I think I will have lots of corrections and amendments to make which will keep me busy for most of the year.

I've just kind of dived in to the chapter and started making changes, but I'm really not very happy with this chapter at all! Part of me wants to scrap and write another one but I don't have time to do that! Eek!

Hi,

I can't really - I think it does depend on the uni in question. I would advise that you look for a university that will offer you a studentship as it's really very hard to work and study for your PhD too. Being on a studentship usually incoporates your fees too so its one less thing to worry about. I really wouldn't advise entering a PhD without a studentship or some funding.

Thanks for the post Ian, really useful info (up)

I did just remember this morning that in my PhD contract it says I am not allowed to work more than about 15 hours a week, so it will be worth digging yours out and checking you don't have the same stipulations in yours. You can transfer (at my uni anyway) your registration to "writing up" so you stop receiving your grant but you can work as well (I think...!)

You just need to be careful that you don't break your contract.

Well done Batfink, that's brilliant! I agree with you about time - I love that feeling too where you look at the clock and realise it's only 10am or whatever, it's the best feeling ever! I only have buckets of time to write though because I have many, many amendments to make before I submit!

Hope you're having a good day so far Espresso - remember there is only so much you can do in one day - it does sound like you've got a lot to do today! I agree though - WHERE is the sun?!

I've had supervision so now I'm going to crack on with my amendments of Chapter 1 - I'm at the worst section of the chapter so this is going to take me some time... I seriously don't know where to start with it tbh but I suppose I just need to dive in there and get on with it!

Microsoft word is making me laugh out loud this morning with its suggestions about my grammar! It doesn't seem to have grasped the fact that "Staff" is correct for describing more than one person! And the suggestions it makes for some of my sentences... Seriously, if I allowed it to, it would correct my thesis into something written by Yoda! I admit, as a Star Wars fan I am almost tempted...!

Good to hear from you Heidi - how exciting (and scary) that you have a viva date! There are loads of threads about preparing for viva on this forum which have been really interesting and useful to read.

You're on the home straight now - and have a fresh start with your daughter. Wishing you the best of luck (gift)

Morning all,

I know the feeling Espresso - sometimes all I feel like I do is sleep, eat and write my thesis! But it will be worth it in the end (hopefully!)

And don't worry Batfink, I think you've made the right decision, sometimes when I've been working on something for ages it stops making sense to me so it's better to take a break and come back to it fresh in the morning!

Well this morning I'm going to be cracking on with Chapter 1, then I've got a meeting with the supervisors. I really would like to get Chapter 1 wrapped up today so I can make a start on Chapter 2 tomorrow (which needs less work) then I'll have the majority of next week to go through the whole thing and make sure it all ties together! I still can't quite believe I have a massive chunk of writing under my belt! I never thought I'd get here in a million years!

Have a good day everyone (up)

Haha I love the shoes story Ady! It's the type of thing that always happens to me! Good luck Stressed, I am going to be in the same place as you in a few months - I still can't believe I've only got a few months left! The time has gone so fast!

You've got about 5 weeks left so if you plan carefully it can happen - I find it useful to print off A4 diary pages (a month at a time) and plan what I'm going to do every day. And do reward yourself too (perhaps buy the shoes in advance!)

Hope you're all having a good day, I've had a reasonable day so far so it's looking good. I should get this chapter finished by the end of the week then I'll have next week to make minor amendments to the next one before sending the thing away. I'm not looking forward to putting it all in one document though, eek!

Hmm... Well I used my car for fieldwork which was a good 2 hour round trip without changing my insurance. I would strongly argue that fieldwork is "our place of work" but then I've worked in the community before where I've used my car to visit patients and had to make sure my insurance covered business use as well. In your case, I think you should be fine. It is our job, after all. And presumably you're driving it to "a place" then leaving it there all day, then driving home again. That's no different to anyone else who uses their car to get to work.