ooh that's a good one. thank you I will use that.

Anyone got any idea about how to refernce a symposium in which I am one of the speakers??

What would you call a publication that wasn't academic i.e. in a magazine or something - but was about your research. I need to put a list of these publications on a presentation slide, but don't want to put "non-academic publications", or maybe I should??

I was thinking "dissemination" - but not sure!

the only aggressive questioners I've seen tend to be (most often male) practitioners in my field - our conferences are always academics and practitioners - and they tend to think they know a lot more than they do know. So they will tell you that your research is not applicable to the real world because they have 90 years of experience blah blah,so my answer to that is..

"well of course my research is an important building block for providing an evidence base for practitioners to interpret themselves, after all that's what practitioners are supposed to be doing, translating academic findings to the real world" which usually shuts them up.

some cocky people like to attack statistics as well, but I find mumbling something about power, or sample size, or "I consulted an eminent statistician" usually works ;-)

Good luck - you will be fine, it'll be over in a flash. And in a years time you will walk in to your next one all nonchalant

If you think its appropriate you can ask THEM questions. I probably wouldn't do this at a conference, but I do in my departmental presentations - I ask how they think they'd get round methodological problems - it uses up the question time nicely!

Have a reference that is very broad that most people won't have read so if you get confused by a question just say "there is a researcher that has looked into that, I think it was Smith, 2007, but if you come to me at the end I can pass on the reference to you" - and then when they come to you at the end say "oh I must have got confused, if you give me your contact details I can email you the relevent ref" and then never email hehe.

If you really don't know the answer, then there is nothing wrong with saying "I really don't know the answer to that" and the flattery "but that's a very good question"

Tbh most people are kind to PhD students. YOu might get an arsey one making life difficult, but the whole crowd will agree he/she's an arse anwyay.

Firstly, well done for getting onto the PhD.

Secondly, you sound like every other PhD student in their first 6 months. I know this is EXACTLY how I felt! My sup was NEVER there. From what I've noticed though in my department, supervisors tend to ignore their supervisees until there is some tangible outputs. I'm in my 3rd year and getting together a publication and this is the first time where sup has shown any real interest. She is now excited by what I'm doing. So I think that maybe you need to go back to your sups and ask for a bullet point plan of what tangible outputs they want to see in the next few months e.g. lit review? data collection etc etc.

In terms of the plan you are doing, its always good to take a step back, try explaining it to someone who has no knowledge of the area. this might help you understand what the key issues are, what needs expanding and what doesn't. To see what kinds of things make a good PhD and the kind of detail and quanitity of work you need for a PhD have a search on ethos.bl.uk - its a database full of peoples theses, so you should be able to find ones relevant to your topic. this can really help you understand what you are aiming for at the end of the 3 years. I know this was one major factor in my first 2 years - I was never made aware of what the final thing should actually look like!

Of course there are always people on this forum who can help you out. IMO I think you should persist - it sounds like you love research, you've just hit a sticky patch.

I tend to listen to Heart fm on the way to dropping hubby off at the station, so anything poppy and catchy :p this morning, it was mainly lady gaga

Just had the email I have been dreading all week - to say whether the moderator thought my marking was ok, and overall yes, there were a few she changed and I will go in on Monday to have a look at those. I'm quite relieved and I was unknowingly stressing about this if that makes sense.

I also had news of our uni postdoc fellowship scheme today which I've forwarded onto my sup, so maybe things are looking up! Feeling positive for a change. (Cue angry sup email about something to bring me crashing down!)

Woo - I have finished Goal 1! well in so far as I have finished as much as I can be bothered to do and sent it to sup, based on the fact she will have probably forgotten what she asked me to do AND the paper is already 3k words over what any journal will take.

So going to walk my poorly dog once round a small field behind my house, and then onto TEA and then goal 2!

Well done all, sounds like we are very productive at the mo. I know I've got better since it got a bit colder, the election stuff finished and I got a load of my analysis out the way (up)

My sup wanted the writing to her this morning, so I have 2 hours to write a discussion to get to her! So todays goals

Goal 1: Write discussion

Goal 2: Put together presentation for Monday

I've recently been having days like this and I think it was just to do with the work I was doing. I couldn't wait to get on to doing something more exciting, rather than analysis. But rather than get the analysis done I began to procrastinate. I think I've learnt that its ok to go onto something that is more interesting (related to your PhD) - because it all needs doing in the end, just because you don't do it in the order you or your sup originally wanted doesn't really matter at the end of it!

Thank you! that's made my life A LOT easier!!

presents all round (gift)(gift)(gift)(gift)(gift)

Can you help me find........

Individual and enviornmental factors influencing the use of transfer strategies after diversity training. (2009) Group & Organization Management. Vol. 34, No. 1, 67-89

By Roberson & kulik?

My uni access won't go that modern :-(

(up)

hmm i've noticed that my work is always hampered (is that a word? - so tired) by lack of pens. I spend all my life looking for pens and refuse to buy any.

Mental Note: Steal pens from uni next time am in.