just to add - if you do have non-normal data you can look into bootstrapping. SPSS 18 can do this, but it has to be a separate add-on which can be bought. Pm me if you need to do that.

you're looking at logistic regression.

Your residuals have to be normally distributed - and if asked for SPSS will provide details on this.

Have you got multiple observations for each thing (fish thing?) if so you could look at multilevel modelling.

hmmm yes, I think I'm understanding what I have to do more of now. I'll re-write the intro chapter over the weekend and see if I can add stuff in. REally wish she'd flagged this when I gave her the chapters 7 months ago, rather than 3 weeks before the deadline :-s

ok I've been havign a think about this. I think I need to do things like rahter than "it is important that x is included in the analysis" to "it was *considered* important that x was included in the analysis"

hmm will have a go at redoing a chapter and see how it goes.

I have a feeling that I will be using the word considered and deemed a lot :p

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I'm not sure I mean 'authoratative' - just more overviewy, rather than reporting what other people say, I need to say it I guess.

I think at the moment my writing is

"xyz theory states that T is P, which is important to consider in this study"

Whereas she wants me to say

"I think there's a really important issue here, with this old xyz theory, cos its got this whole thing going on with T and P, which is really interesting"

But less like that arrrgh! I don't know! I need someone to write it for me - where are those websites who write for you when you need them!?

Oh and its just my sup - another prof read a chapter recently and said it was "very clear writing style" but what sup wants, sup gets, otherwise she gets angry (you wouldn't like her when she's angry) SUPERVISOR SMASH! (ok no one will get that if they're not a Hulk fan)

Just a frankly demoralising chat with sup. It appears as though I have all the content ok in my writing, but not enough of 'me' in there.

I'm from a discipline where "I" is frowned upon and I'm struggling to get to how I can signpost and have that "I am a godly researcher and I see all of this research from upon my researher hilltop and these are the isses" kind of voice in my writing.

Any tips/advice? (given that i have 3 weeks to add this in!)

Well I now have a 15,000 word restructured lit review. Sent it to sup earlier and have received an email saying "it looks a lot better", I'm now wandering what the 'but' will be i.e. but it needs to be restructured again :-(

Going to see her tomorrow so fingers crossed I don't kill myself in response to horrific amounts of restructuring.

Not totally sure, but we've left old ovens etc out the back for a few nights and they're taken anyway (we've also had the lead nicked off our roof :-s ) so I guess they'll take anything! My inlaws were cleaning out their garage the other day and had all their stuff out on the side of the road, thinking they'd have to hire a van to get rid of it all and the scrap metal people came and took the lot, wood, old junk, the lot. Although I suspect that some of it would be fly tipped (although that's only an assumption).

metal - just leave it outside, guaranteed it will be gone within the hour, taken by scrap metal dealers.

You can look on your council website - around my way we have a charity who do house clearences (we actually used to buy furniture off them when we used to rent our house - we'd get solid wood double wardrobes for £5 each etc.) They should pick it up free.

I was going to suggest freecycle, ebay or gumtree otherwise.

my husband has awful A level results but has a 1st at undergrad, a disctinction at MSc and a PhD and he did have trouble getting into more private sector roles, where they don't look past the A level results. However, he got a fantastic job, has held it for 2 years now, I doubt his A levels will be a problem now he's got some experience under his belt. Plus he's employed by a group who actually value his PhD, rather than assuming it was just a waste of time (which is the feeling he got from a lot of employers).

I've been trying to get my lit review done (well re-done) this weekend. I have until saturday lunchtime to get it done really. I need to spend the rest of tonight doing all the bits i've highlighted and thought 'I'll do that later' urgh! and then I'm going to print it off, and add the important bits about why I'm doing my research tomorrow, when I have a clear head.

agree with Delta, sounds like they were being stupidly picky and nasty! Perhaps they had an internal candidate lined up and they were just looking for any old excuse - when you asked for feedback its probably the only bits they remembered.