ok I have a pretty newb stats question. I am terrible at stats! I only use it every year or so, so I forget it all by the time I need to use it again.

Anyway, I would be very grateful if someone can be patient enough with me and walk me through my first write up with stats....

I carried out a study to see if participants give the same answer to a questionnaire in two different formats. so I ran a within-subject study where they answer the same questions but once on a computer, and once on paper (exactly the same questions, same layout, etc).

I have 1 ratio (age), 1 nominal (yes/no), and 4 ordinal (opinions on Likert-scale) measures.

I would like to see if answering the questions in the different formats had any effects or if the two can be used interchangeably.

Am I correct in thinking that I need to run correlation tests for each measurement and if they all come out to correlate, then I can draw the conclusion that they can be used interchangeably?

I am also guessing that I will need different correlational tests for the ratio, nominal and ordinal measures, am I correct in this?

Thank you in for anyone that has taken the time to read this :)

Batfink, sorry to hear that you felt like you were going in circles with your sup.

I think we need to build a wall in this thread where everyone can bash their head against from time to time... I know I often feel like doing so myself...

Afternoon everyone :) wow everyone is being so productive!

okay, my next goal is to do data analysis on study 3 (yeah I know, I haven't done study 1 and 2, but study 3 seems more clear and so I thought I'd get myself started off on the easiest one!)

oh wait, I need to ring my mother on the other side of the world first....

I just really want to thank both the original poster and everyone that replied, as this thread triggered a sequence of events that lead me to really understand the methodology I was using! so thank you thank you thank you!!

morning everyone :)

I finished drafting another chapter yesterday! phew!

I have been reading everyone's post, I also can't see how most PhD students would be able to get a ref from another institution... unless I guess you've worked as a volunteer on a conference, and just happen to get noticed by the chair person or something! I hope you find the right referees anyway.

I'm off to start a new chapter...

Hi Vi, welcome to the thread :) wow, thesis hand in in 1st July then getting married in Septmeber? You have a very full year this year! It sounds so exciting!

Thank you for the link, it was an interesting read. I read elsewhere (lifehacker I think) about working standing up... has anyone tried this? I'm farrrrr too lazy to even contemplate working standing up all day, ha ha ha.

I have a confession to make, I actually do most of my work in my bedroom. Am I weird? It's the only place the cats will let me work without meowing me to death for attention. I do do what the article says - to move around, and I have may positions in my bedroom (;)) to write.

I'm so glad so many people have joined, reading all your achievements really motivates me to stay on track. Thank you also for those of you that has shared their thesis structure, it has really helped me think through my chapters for my own thesis.

Dunni, I do find being driven around (because I'm too scared to drive and zone out at the same time), and having a bath great for getting my thoughts together.

Ady, I too would love to try the Weldon method, but I am utterly useless in the mornings! I'ma typical programmer, a night owl. Please do let us know how you get on with it though, as it is facinating.

Patience, I have a daily writing goal too. I agree with you that just getting to that goal makes me feel like I haven't wasted my day... but then I come on here and read how much more work other people have done and I have a minor panic... ;)

Thank you Dunni for sharing your chapter layout, it really helps to see how other people do it. I'm guessing you're in the hard science/engineering field from what you have said. I'm across between computer science and social science. I've seen thesis with the 3-lit-then-research-method layout, but I've also seen one-lit then get on with the work, but then have another lit review in the middle of the thesis (?) too.

I'd rather avoid having a seperate research methods if I can, because my (so far) two lit chapters are about how the data is collected, and then analysed in this particular field... I feel somewhat silly to add another chapter of "how we do research"... so my thesis at the moment is:

ch1 - intro, discribing the problem
ch2 - how data is collected in my sort of study
ch3 - how data is analysed
ch4 & 5 - adapting how data is collected for a special group of participants
ch 6 - new way to analyse the data
ch 7 - automating the analysis
ch 8 - what I found from doing all that (actual data analaysis rather than how-to-do-analysis)
ch 9 - conclusion

morning troops :)

Another week, another chapter to write. I wish I was as far ahead as you guys! I'm going to try and write my second lit review chapter. I've written this chapter twice already, and it feels ok for a while, but then I see big gaping holes, irrelevant material, etc, and I just have to write it all over again. Am I the only one that has problems like this with the literature review?

I also have an issue with how many literature review chapters to have. My supervisor's thesis was three lit review chapter and a research method chapter. Counting the intro chapter as well, that's five chapters before the reader gets into the meat of the thesis. I would prefer to have two lit review chapters with the research methods woven into it, but I'm not sure if that is ok... what does everyone else think?

Have a good day :)

putting the ethics of already collected data aside...

It's no joke when people say PhD is the hardest thing they've ever done. Many people will get physically and/or mentally ill at some point in the process, and you still have to battle through regardless. (please don't say "oh but it won't happen to me!", because if you do, it WILL happen). It takes every single cell of your will power to get a PhD completed. Far too many late nights to care to remember, horrendous set backs, run ins with other researchers, run ins with your supervisor, etc.

So the question I would be asking is whether the topic you are being offered is something that is important enough to you that you can put up with all that and still pull yourself through it, or not. It doesn't have to be THE most important thing, it just has to be important enough that you will sacrifice almost everything to do it.

can you not convert the file to PDF, and send the PDF to your supervisor? Or will you be wanting them to make corrections for you?

Morning peeps :)

I took a day and a half off, and I am back in working mode. I had all sorts of issues with my laptop and yesterday it all came to a head. So I caved and bought a new one. Sooooo glad I have, it's just sooooo much faster than my previous one :)

Anyway, back on topic, I think the main thing I struggle with is not knowing what I do each day is going to be enough in the end or not... does that make sense? Did I write enough words today to make it to completion on time? Did I do enough analysis for a PhD? Did I cover enough literature? etc. All those unknowns!

I got feedback on my chapter that I wrote most recently, and my sup is happy with it. She said it'll turn into a nice little journal paper :) Gave me loads of additions to make, but I'm not quite sure how I am going to go about doing them. One thing I realised when I saw it on paper, that none of my diagrams make any real sense to anyone but me! ooops. So that'll be 22 figures to redraw...

Hope everyone's weekend is going well.

wow Dunni, you are light years ahead of me! You sound absolutely ready for an April finish :)

I would personally think that 105 refs is enough for an under-researched area. besides, we all know it's "quality not quantity" ;)

Hello girls, thank you so much for joining in!

I absolutely know the feeling "am I ever going to get this done", I go through it every day. My dear husband keeps reminding me to just take small chunks at a time and forget about the rest.

I'm glad I'm not the only one with loads of analysis still to do. I've done about 400 participants, but I need more, about a 100 more. Then I need to do analysis on all 500 too. It would also be easier if I didn't struggle so much with the statistics of it all :(