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PhD Writing up Tips ?
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Quote From Nead:
Hi All,
Just wondering if anyone has any helpful tips on writing up?
I've been officially out of the lab and writing since June. I've two papers published (Two chapter completed) but now I'm struggling. Does anyone have any tips on how to stay focused and motivated? How do you write that dreaded chapter (One chapter I’ve started on five different occasions but can't get passed the methods)?
I am writing my thesis in paper format, it going to have 6 working chapters, alongside introduction and discussion. Two chapters are done, two are submitted to my main supervisor awaiting feedback, but the last two I just can't be bothered with.

Any tips, tricks or ideas to stay motivated would be greatly appreciated!

Nead


I am not sure there are any really good tricks or tips that anyone can offer to be honest. Some people believe things like picturing yourself with the certificate or roaring "I am a tiger grrrr" into a mirror will help but I think that causes people to panic and lose hope more often that not and I reckon in all cases they become ineffective eventually anyway because they deal with symptoms and not the root causes of lack of motivation. That tiger one just scared my neighbours.

Motivation has to come from inside you. Once you have it you need to break the remaining tasks down into manageable chunks of work which you can tick off and that might stop the motivation leaving you but you need to be motivated yourself first.

This is a crevice we all have to span though so don't feel it's just you who is struggling.
Find someone to make you laugh and share some gallows humour.

Mphil scenario
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I am actually quite surprised you are still unsure what to do here.
Have you had any advice from anyone who genuinely thinks downgrading is a good idea with all the considerable downsides listed on this thread?

Have you listed pros and cons for both decisions?

Am I screwed? :( A year in, still zero motivation, not happy with progression...
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Cad,
You can probably resolve this quite quickly.
Meet with your supervisor and ask them to be brutally blunt about how they see your progress. By definition you are not best placed to judge. You supervisor is. Let their answer guide your next move.

Oh and NEVER compare yourself to other students. It is pointless and it's the road to madness. Take it from someone who learned this the hard way. You probably won't be competing with them for jobs.

If you have completely lost interest in everything it might be time to walk away with an Mphil and try elsewhere.

Dealing with "sexism" in the lab
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I know life can be made very difficult for people but I can't agree that the response to that would be to accept you have no control at all over your situation. I have two daughters and if anyone made their lives difficult my instinct would drop everything and visit that person. However I believe it is my job to ensure my kids are educated about how unfair life is and to fight for personal control themselves regardless of the consequences. They need tto do it for themselves.

What I would be telling them is this:-
You can always get a new job. Always.
You can always get a new PhD position. Always.
Don't accept crap from people. Ever. It never ends well.

Learning to cope with difficulty in general and difficult people specifically is a core life skill.

I think it's fairly simple. If you don't learn these skills you will be shafted again and again. The earlier you learn to tackle these people and regain control over your future the better in my opinion. It doesn't help to soft soap people. Bad people aren't suddenly going to go away and people need to learn to protect themselves instead of relying on others to do it for them (police, courts etc). I think it is idealistic to think otherwise.

I don't think MyWorld has a choice. It's eat or be eaten. The next time her supervisor makes an innappropriate comment about her appearance she should not look at him, carry on her work in a nonchalent fashion and in a very assertive voice say "If my husband heard you saying that he would beat the shit out of you" and then ignore him. He would have to be a real dumb ass to then start punishing her. He may not be scared of her but he will be scared of what her husband might do!

Dealing with "sexism" in the lab
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Yes, it's a blurry area and because of that, the OP has an obligation to be absolutely certain that sexual harassment is taking place before making any sort of formal complaint. A person's career is on the line here.

Men hit on women all the time even if the women is married or working for them. Although I personally wouldn't do either it's a long way from there to sexual harassment and I think we devalue the problem if we fail to distinguish between them. The examples you gove above are clearly examples of sexual harassment but I am not sure this is what MyWorld is actually having to deal with.
There are many examples of supervisors and subordinates hooking up so in my opinion, this is not the issue. Harassment for me requires the harasser to be in no doubt that what they are doing is unwanted. I am not sure whether that is the case or not with MyWorld. It's clear she is not happy but does HE know that? A strong verbal response is a cast iron guaranteed way of getting the message across. Non verbal clues really aren't enough. I don't think the point about being "powerless" to speak up is good enough for grown adults to be relying on. An accusation of sexual harassment will destroy this man's life so if he is making you uncomfortable you either need to tell him or leave.

Actually another bit of advice might be to ask HR to have a word and tell him he is making her uncomfortable without directly accusing him of harassment. Now she would have a log of that chat and an email trail. It would then be tough for him to punish her. She could also ask for all meetings to be attended by a 3rd party to ensure no foul play. I have seen that tactic used twice to good effect.

Mphil scenario
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Quote From TreeofLife:


I'm interested in learning for learning's sake. I wanted the Dr title, but it would be meaningless to me if I didn't feel like I had earned it.

My point about faking it, is about impostor syndrome, but also about being realistic. Do I think I'm as knowledge as my former PhD supervisors? No. Do my students think I am? Yes. So I have to fake it to some extent. Also, many senior academics are so arrogant (and many technicians are very condescending), so I often feel like people are trying to catch me out, show up my gaps in knowledge if you like. Academia is a dog eat dog world and showing weakness is not advantageous.


Your sentence about the entire thing feeling meaningless unless you felt you had earned it is exactly where I am coming from as well. My understanding is that this is the precise dilemma TQ is facing.

Secondly, your second paragraph sounds horrendous. I could never work amongst such people. By the way, as regards you talking about a gap between how knowledgable you are compared to how knowledgable your students THINK you are, I would say the following. When I started delivering tutorials I felt a huge pressure to hide that gap as well until I realised that I was not there to prove myself to the students. I had my first class degree and I was well on the way to a PhD. My gaps came from not scoring 100% but everyone is in that boat. I stopped worrying about trying to hide any gaps and it became much less stressful. Students dont lose respect for a tutor with gaps in their knowledge. They lose respect for a tutor trying to bullshit their way through it using time honoured nonsense like asking the students to research it for the following week. Being afraid to be found out as less than 100% perfect is a great way to end up hating your job and burning out. Not a great way to build a career.

Mphil scenario
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TQ, when I say a conversation is needed about the purpose of a PhD, I was talking more generally from society's point of view rather than the student's perspective (which as you say will differ from person to person).

As a society, with limited funding available to hand out to people, what do we want a PhD to be for? Why bother with them at all? Should it be about creating an intellectual elite to solve the most pressing problems facing society? Or is it something else? It is obvious what we get from it as students. What should society expect in return for that investment?

Dealing with "sexism" in the lab
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You really must tell your husband. This is not something you should be keeping to yourself. If this was my wife, I would be pretty annoyed at not being told especially when the situation has ground you down to this extent. Sharing problems is what a marriage is all about.

Mphil scenario
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Quote From Tudor_Queen:
I was surprised by that too - but I think ToL was just referring to imposter syndrome.

I agree - what is the point if a certain level of academic attainment wasn't achieved. Exactly why I am spinning around in this dilemma :-/


I am completely with you on that. It's the reason why I argue so strongly about who should be allowed to undertake one in the first place and also about who writes up papers, whether people should graduate without papers, who contributes to ideas etc.
It is my opinion that nobody should be "faking it" on any level but I am aware that many people are awarded PhD who should really not be getting one at all and this, again in my opinion, completely undermines the award. With dumbing down of exams at school and in university itself, the PhD is the last bastion of academic integrity. If we are now starting to allow pretty much anyone to undertake one (and we are allowing those with 2:2's to take them) and we are handing them to people with either no papers or those who have not even written their own papers (and I have seen a ton of evidence of both) then there is a serious problem of eroding credibility. Those of us who value the system should be deeply concerned.

Maybe there needs to be an honest conversation regarding what people believe a PhD should be for.

Dealing with "sexism" in the lab
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Depending on how bad things are you could consider using your husband here.
For example, you could try talking to your supervisor about your husband on a regular basis and particularly when he talks about something you feel uncomfortable about. That is a tactic I have used a few times down the years to get a very clear message across before any misunderstandings can be allowed to gain any ground.

A technique a friend of mine once used was to tell the "target" man about a situation where someone had hit on her in the past and her husband had responded violently towards that person.

I am not sure about accusations of sexual harassment here. Harassment for me is not just about unwanted attention. It requires a clear message from the targetted person that they are not interested and then continued attention despite that message. Is that the case here?

Where to do my PhD Studies?
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Yeah I think my uni charged students a reduced fee for write up years as well. I seem to remember people talking about £200 or thereabouts but I might be wrong.

Also, I seem to remember reading somewhere that a PhD used to take only 2 years. Changed days.

Mphil scenario
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Quote From Tudor_Queen:
If I'm entirely honest, I think my confidence has been affected by the fact that it hasn't been great, which probably DOES make me think it has been "even worse" than it has been / I've developed "even less" than I have in reality. If that makes sense.

I think there IS a genuine issue (there really has been little scope for development), but this is compounded / amplified because I am the way I am (I know what I want from a given thing - from a PhD - and I have high expectations).

I guess the bottom line is: I could accept that it was a very poor experience, be proud of what I DID manage to get out of it, and move on fingers crossed to better things...

Thank you for helping me get more of a balanced view of things. One idea is to get going on tying the thesis together and seeing how I feel about it then. There is definitely enough work/data to merit a PhD, so maybe that is the logical thing to do - WHATEVER I feel about how the process has been.


Be prepared to swing from one position to another on this as the months go by. You might well feel better about it when you start putting the story together. At that point you really start to nail down the bigger picture. Also, dont underplay the learning experience of successfully dealing with a terrible situation and difficult people. That is one very common interview question should should now be able to deal with.

Mphil scenario
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Quote From TreeofLife:
Quote From Tudor_Queen:
But if on the other hand, the PhD hasn't afforded me the development (and thus confidence) I need to pursue an academic career...


Yeah but who's has? We are all just faking it. At least, I hope everyone else is!


I dont know if you are saying this to be self deprecating but I can honestly say that this description of "just faking" it doesnt cover my experience at all. I undertook my PhD because it represents the pinnacle of academic achievement. I had no real imtention of using it to get an academic job. If I had come through the entire process without having done anything which made me feel I had earned it I would have considered the entire thing a complete waste of 3 years of my life, It was never about getting the certificate. It was always about the process itself.

Mphil scenario
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Quote From Tudor_Queen:
Quote From pm133:
[quote] Can't express how great it feels to be understood! :)

I think other people are seeking validation for their life choices. When you choose such a radically different pathway, some people interpret that as a rejection of their choices which provokes a defensive response.


I've definitely known this to happen before. I think that is a really good explanation/theory for why what happens happens. It's almost like being different is an offense and can even lose you friends. But I still can't conform! :-D


Quote From pm133:
[quote]
When you get to the very end of your PhD as you have and then start talking the way you have described above, it is inevitable that some people are going to think you are a self indulgent arsehole with ideas above your station.


If this is so, then I hope people on this forum can make a judgement of me based on my posts over the years, and come to the conclusion that even if they don't understand me in my present conundrum, what I'm going through doesn't arise from arrogance. And I'm happy to say that none of my seemingly crazy decisions have ever closed doors for me [quote]

Oh it definitely doesn't come from arrogance I completely agree there. It's almost the opposite if you are being pulled in a direction which is against societal expectations and norms. It feels like there is no viable alternative. It's doesn't feel so much like a choice but an obligation to yourself.

It will be interesting to see how you get on.
ETA: ah the editing capability of this forum is rubbish on an iPad. Good luck following the discussion :-D

Mphil scenario
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Some other notable examples of people sacrificing status and steady income in the pursuit of activities meaningful to them personally would be:

The busker on the subway.
The sculptor who needs probably a decade to master what they do before they can hope to seek a commission.
Musicians who live as squatters or sofa surfers whilst trying to create a hit. The list for this includes Blondie, Bob Dylan, The Cult, Guns n Roses and a stream of others too numerous to mention.
Poets.
Actors.
Novellists.
Film and screen writers.
Playwrights.
Ironmongers.
Knitting and textiles enthusiasts.
Inventors.
Self Employed people.
Entrepeneurs.

If the only thing that matters to you is success then these areas are not going to be for you because they require years and years of undiluted effort with absolutely no guarantee of success or perhaps only fleeting success. It has to be about the journey because there may be no destinations at all.

TQ, if you find one of these types of people you will probably have found a kindred "the journey is everything" spirit. I think everyone else is likely to be problemmatic unless they genuinely accept you for who you are.