Hi there,

My best advice would be to write down any discussion points you want to raise during your meeting, a list of your progress or what you have been doing (including interesting topics, ideas, theories or articles you have come across and what you think of them). It will help you to structure your discussion, especially if you feel anxious at the time and will prevent the "I should have said this" or "I forgot to say that".

Yes, he is a senior academic respected in his field but in your first few months he should lead/encourage your trains of thoughts. All of this is to be enhanced and even learned or during your doctoral studies. What i often say to new students:
Year 1: your supervisor is the expert, he/she probably knows more about the subject area than you do. You are here to learn about how to do research, how to be a researcher, how to analyse and how to ask research questions
Year 2: you'll start to achieve the same level of knowldge about your project
Year 3: it is YOUR project and you are likely to know more about him/her
Viva day: for what may be a brief moment you are the world leading expert in the topic discussed in your thesis.

Don't despair, relax during your meeting, prepare your discussion points, try to put across the same ideas you communicate to your peers.

Let us know how you get on,
Best of luck

I had a similar experience and actually worked as a postdoc for while which was bad but just not for me. I have a blog post on it (ignore the gender issue references):
http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/nathalie-mather-l%E2%80%99huillier
I am really happy about my career choice now and while I miss the lab sometimes, working in university admin means I still get a lot of the buzz from being in an academic environment.

Cheers, good luck for the end of your Phd and beyond,
Nathalie

Thank you all for your useful comments. Interesting to see all the different motivations and deciding factors.
Cheers
Nathalie

Hi Forum users,
What was the most important factor in deciding where to do your research degree?
*** research experts?
*** university?
*** country?
*** funding?
*** advertised research project?
*** personal circumstances?
I am putting an article together on the topic and would love your views. Cheers, Nathalie

I would add that it can be fun. Also how satisfying to know that you are critically appraising the latest research from some of the leading researchers. Unless the paper is awful, the authors may also become colleagues, collaborators or employers in the future? All to gain, and *only* a bit of your time to commit (indeed as metabanalysis said you don't get paid but there would be no peer-reviewed journal if nobody agreed to review).

PS. If the article contains some good research but is badly written, don't spend too much time correcting it. Your role as reviewer is not to be a proofreader. What you are bringing is expertise in the field, not help with grammar and spelling.

Hello everyone,
Would any of you like to volunteer what you think are the hot topics in your broad area of research? It doesn't have to be very precise/detailed, just some of the areas of interest at the moment.
Cheers, Nathalie
PS. I am planning to use the info for a blog post and a series of articles. Anonymity garanteed!

From your post it seems that you are having a crisis of confidence, which I am not belittling. It is common to have set backs in research and defending your research, how you did and how you are interpreting it are not easy skills to acquire. They come with time. In terms of methodological development, there must be some literature in your subject area? Also even the most senior researchers in one area may not agree on how to collect data. If you have to choose between two different methods, ask yourself:
Which one is best for my type of sample?
Which one is best for the size of the sample you intend to work with?
What are the factors which differ from published papers you ahve read?
What are the basic gold standards? Are you proposing to modify any established method? If so, why?

Have you spoken to your supervisor about your concerns?

Deciding to quit your PhD is a very serious decision and It is also worth considering whether there are alternative solutions to your leaving. Could you take a short break or give it another chance for a set period of time?

If, as a last resort, you decide to leave, then do it without regrets and hold your head up high. Not everyone takes the brave decision to do research at such a high-level. What you have achieved is still amazing!

However difficult a PhD has been and whatever the outcome of it was, a period of research will have given you some amazing skills which are applicable to a wide range of careers and activities. You will have also learned an amazing amount about yourself which is an accomplishment in itself.

Best of luck,
Nathalie

Hiya,
I was reading about a similar technique, the Pomodoro technique, normally used by writers and freelancers.
There is a good blog on this from a former PhD student:
http://getalifephd.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/how-to-enhance-your-writing.html

I hope this was useful. Best of luck!

The supervisor-PhD student relationship is one of the most important factors in the success of a PhD. No doubt about it! However, passion for your subject and your project can take you a long way. As you hinted it also very much depends exactly what the issue with your supervisor is. As long as your supervisor is not obstructive and that you have access to the training you need from other sources, you can get also support on a day-to-day basis from others: fellow students, post docs, research assistants, research technicians, your second supervisor...

If the situation is really bad, it would be worth talking to your supervisor (do not call them lousy to their face!) or other people at your institution to find out how you can get support. Your last resort would be to start exploring the possibility of changing supervisor altogether.

The following article addresses some of the student-supervisor issues:

Hi Réda,

It can be hard to be concise when you are passionate about your research and want to talk about it as much as possible but being concise and to the point is a skill that academics and researchers must have in order to communicate their research effectively.

My advice would be:
1) take a good look at your proposal and check whether everything in there is needed. Perhaps your original proposal highlighted your own in depth knowldge but is it needed for your reader to understand what your research is about or is trying to acheive?
2) Do you need the complete literature review in your proposal at this stage?
3) Are there stylistic changes you could make so that your word count is reduced? I tend to write long winded sentences (probably illustrated in this post) and I find that it complicates what I would like to say (as well as adding to the word count).

I wrote this guide a couple of years ago which may be helpful:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/polopoly_fs/1.58205!/fileManager/HowToWriteProposal.pdf

Best of luck,
Nathalie

I would second pixie and BlackTrinity. It sounds like you are on target. the fact that you are asking and that you have a detailed list of what you ahve done and what you still need to do shows that you are very organised indeed! Well done you!

Perfectly normal to feel a bit anxious about starting a PhD. Not many people know exactly how it is going to be before they start.

But a PhD is a personal pursuit, in that it is ultimately YOUR PhD, and perhaps this is what some people mean by being on your own. There are periods of time when you will need to put your head down and get on with the work. It can be a solitary experience (and at times you will seek that solitude) and depending on your subject area, you might not work on the research itself with other students of but it doesn't have to be lonely. It is true that different people behave differently. As you hinted, some will not want to be disrupted, others will welcome a break to have a coffee and a chat.

There are opportunities to meet and interact intellectually and socially with other PhD students/post-docs/research assistants/academics, in your department or others. You will also have your existing circle of friends, this isn't going to go away.

Remember also that you will be part of a team, even if it is just you and your supervisor(s)!

I had to do a presentation at the beginning of my viva and it lasted 20 minutes (standard conference presentation time).

First, I wasn't sure that I liked the idea of a presentation but actually what I found is that it helped me point out the important points (in my view) in my thesis. I didn't cover everything that was in the thesis. The presentation was in the end the basis for most of the questions I got (as well as others but on the whole that is what we talked about). My viva lasted 2 hours and 45 mins (on top of the 20 minute-presentation) and was successful!

I hope it all goes well and that you find it somehow enjoyable. My supervisor told me before I sat my viva that there aren't many opportunities to talk about your work (and remember at this point in time, you are the most expert person in your topic) and be listened for 3 hours. And he was right!

Good luck!

Hi there,

It is difficult to maintain a high level of motivation throughout and there are tasks that are more enjoyable than others. Don't let it bring yourself down. Depression can be difficult to manage, especially during a PhD but there may be help available on campus. Also why not talk to your supervisor, if you can? or your graduate school adviser?

You say you enjoy being in the lab. Why not try to fit in smaller periods of writing in between tasks in the lab, even if it is only 20-30 minutes?

I recently published an article on findaphd.com about common PhD problems ("common" in that they have been known to affect many students). There is a section of "loss of motivation" which may be helpful:
http://www.findaphd.com/student/study/study-51.asp

Your university's career service or generic skills unit may also have advice on how to enhance your productivity. May be you need a break? Have you thought of taking a few days off (and not feeling guilty about it!)? We all need to recharge our batteries at some point.

As for the writer's blog, I used a "pen and paper 10 minute writing technique" (can't remember the real name :)) at the beginning of my write-up which you can use whenever you are starting a chapter, a paper or a report (ie when you are confronted with the dreaded blank page) and basically consisted of:
*take a pen and paper (no computer)
*ask yourselves the questions: what did I do? why did I do it? How did I do it? What did I find?
*write for 10 minutes without stopping or going back

This will be a very preliminary draft of the abstract for any paper/report/chapter you write and will help you organise your thoughts.

I was reading about a similar technique, the Pomodoro technique, normally used by writers and freelancers.
There is a good blog on this from a former PhD student: