my flatmate last year did an MSc in information system management (or suchlike) at LSE. she was working really hard all the time. because of that i didn't get to talk to her much, so can't tell you more. except general things about the LSE, if you want - if you have any specific questions, do ask!

heehee... sounds like a "classical" play/drama in five acts. i mean, "good" writing, be it poetic or belletristic, used to have these norms of how many acts/lines/whatever are appropriate, incuding in which act what is to happen.

pea, i don't know any official lines, but this is what i think about it:
brackets - avoid if possible. if the thing you want to put into brackets is important, then don't put it into brackets. if it isn't important, leave it out altogether.
footnotes - anything that is not strictly helpful for the point i am trying to make in a section/chapter, but is still an important overall input. it's important but if left in the main text it would distract from the point i'm making and would make the text difficult to read.

however i've much more experience writing in german than in english, and styles/conventions might be different.

gamba, btw, thanks for starting this thread! i am taking all the advice in it as if it were directed to me

it is hard to say what i am going to do, because i don't know about the ESRC yet. however, i got a teaching job next year, so i guess i will keep going. my "plan" is to manage by earning some money through teaching, going a bit into debt to make up the difference, and keep applying for funding. i would stay FT. if i don't get the fees paid by the ESRC however i will perhaps apply for a research assistant job that just came in, and put my PhD on hold for a while without leaving academia completely (still teaching, RA job). i suppose i would officially go PT thus reducing the amount of fees to be paid.

i do hope you find a way to keep going! i have my fingers crossed for your AHRC results. do you have nightmares about them? i do!

oh yes, this is your day! enjoy!

any plans for the future yet?

i heard the original crocs are extremely comfortable. me being who i am, i like to mismatch and provoke by not looking adapted - comfort is a high priority, however. that's why i think crocs are cool: ugly, bright colours, comfortable! - they are way too expensive for me, though (the original ones, anyway)

the reason why i am writing all this is because it seems to me that it is similar for you. that's why everybody is saying that PT is usually no good: if you just want a PhD (no academic career) then, if necessary, you can get it by PT. if you want an academic career however, then, often, PT studies is no real solution, as it lets you get a PhD, but at the same time may well hinder your career chances (by making you old, by turning you off from research after years of misery...)
that said, some people obviously manage to do a PhD parttime in reasonable time. i have an inspiring colleague at my research centre. i suppose that kind of life is not for everyone, though.

originally i thought i'd give it a year - until my savings are gone - and if i hadn't managed to get any funding by then i'd give up the project of doing a PhD. now the savings are gone and no funding has come so it's time for a decision... and these are my thoughts:
i really want to do a PhD, but not for its own sake, but because i want to pursue a career in research/academia. if the only way i can achieve a PhD is by dropping that goal (for example, by doing it PT - which would make me too old by the time i finish to have good chances for that career; or by going into heavy debt - which would oblige me to get a job outside of academia afterwards, to repay the debts) then i see little point in doing it.

gamba - i feel for you, it's a nasty situation. i find myself in quite a similar one. i'm not PT, but worked double shifts last year and funded my first year through savings from that. now the money is gone and a large number of funding applications have been turned down. like you i am still hoping for ESRC - the decision is due any time now - but it would be "fees only". i got a "summa cum laude" (i suppose that's about comparable to a distinction) in my previous studies, my topic is highly relevant (i've been told) and timely, but somehow no money is coming my way.
i decided against parttiming early on, due to my age (i'm 31 now) mainly but also because i parttimed since i started university and really don't want to anymore.

check this out, it's kind of fun!
http://www.quietbay.net/Science/astronomy/nightsky/

you spend about 20 minutes here and next time you look at the sky at night, you'll know three constellations, two stars, and where north is.

could be quite handy on a date - more romantic to talk about stars than about your research work...

oz, don't worry! you know, it is just the angels' bodies in the angel cake. only those angels who've had enough of their worn-out, old bodies, go into the food processor. their spirits, finally released from the bodily weight, return to the heavens where they rest and only take on a new body once they are ready to come do some more good deeds amongst us.

it's all about reusing and recycling! angels are, after all, mainly spiritual beings. why should their bodies go to waste when the spirits have no use of them anymore? isn't it a grand last use for an angel's body to make the delight of angel cake for you, even if you will eat it with gnocchi?
i'm sure all that cake is making you very angelic! or is it the round belly?

i suppose some gay people would pose the question a bit differently: why oh why are all the good ones straight AND married?

sourapple - i suppose it makes some things easier, other things harder. the positive side, i guess, is that you identify less with your project, thus making it easier to let something be good enough, and you get less full blown crises when you are critizised. the negative side, perhaps, is that in times of struggling it is harder to find the motivation to go ahead.

i get 1'790'000 for my username. for my first name i get only 725, the first 8 are me, out of the first 30, 20 are me. my family name is much more common, it gets 19'200'000.

i always thought my name was unique, as it is basically a mistaken transcription from a different alphabet. i only ever used to find others of the same name when googling for the correct transcription. but not anymore! there are others around sharing my name including the "mistake"! saw one from japan, one from brazil

this is really hard, a difficult situation.
i would say, no matter what you decide, make sure she knows what you are doing. don't just dissappear not letting her know that you are keeping away specifically because she needs space.
maybe a break is not the worst way to go. you are worried that afterwards it will be too late to mend things. well perhaps it would be too late to mend things if you don't have a break now - sticking together just for the sake of it during her last stages of PhD could kill the relationship.
maybe you could strike a bargain: a break now, but after submitting you go on holiday together. or: yes to the break, but you meet once a week for lunch. something like that. shows her you are not just letting go but are ready to give her the space she needs.