Hi All,

I couldn't sleep for ages last night either. BUt I'm up and about now. Not a good start to the morning - took the dog out for a walk and she rolled in fox poo, so came home ASAP and then had the council cleaner bloke outside say "that was a bit of a short walk wasn't it" :-s it was still 30 mins! and who wants a dog stinking and jumping over everyone she meets? :-s so washed the dog, made some tea and ready to start work now.

I really need to do something on the discussion today, so maybe my first goal should be doing the overviews of each study.

I want to go to bed, but I really should get my intro chapter finished so it doesn't spill in to tomorrow. I can't decide whether I should end it with a 'structure of the thesis' section, including info about lit review, method and the studies etc or just have a brief bullet point list of the studies I have.

ok, so I've sorted out the reference to reserach questions in my lit review and method. I really should start the discussion but I can't face it, so I'm going to go back to look at the intro so I can tick it off as done :-)

well its kind of in a hedge (which is also out of control) so they probably wouldn't notice. I live in a 3-bed semi detatched and we all have a row of gardens at the back (if that makes sense) - their hedge is about 20ft high now and they have one tree that is higher, and this new tree, I'm worried its going to get the same. Dad reckons to cut off some bark, put the nails in, stick the bark back on hehehe. Note to all those who see trees growing in neighbours gardens: remove them before the neighbours notice they are growing!

ANyway, I HATE HATE HATE research questions grrrrrrr! Stupid things. I think I've worked out what they are and explained how each study addresses them in the lit review. I now have to go back into the method and explain why I chose each method to suit the research questions :-s and then presumably I have to go into each study and state at the beginning which research question it relates to? what a faff.

thanks for the advice - I hate these kind of 'this is what I'm doing/done and why' sections. bleugh! For some reason I'm really good at them with other peoples work, but not my own.

Another question:

Can you have an 'over arching research question' that doesn't really specifically get answered and then more specific ones tackled by each study?

ah I'm SO stealing all of your ice cream ideas!

Yes that would work - Its kind of like what i have, but probably is a bit stronger - at the moment mine's like 'study 1 looks at xyz, study 2 looks at abc and study 3 looks at some of the things from study 1' = a bit lame!

So yes, I maybe need to strenghten it - I'm about to write out my reserach questions and then I guess I need to sit down and write sections for the lit review, method, each chapter and then the discussion related to them

======= Date Modified 26 Jul 2011 13:19:19 =======
I have 3 studies....

Study 1 = fine
Study 2 = fine
Study 3 picks up on an idea found in Study 1, but because of this idea I went ferreting about in the literature and it also tests a key hypothesis from existing literature.

I've kind of tried to introduce these studies like 'and study 3 builds on an idea from study 1' - I wanted it to be a bit of a 'reveal' - so it looks like study 3 was decided upon AFTER study 1 if that makes sense, so it wasn't pre-decided when I started the research.

Now my sup reckons I need a research q for each study. So I'm now confused - if I put the researchq for the last study in my intro, then it will look like it hasn't built on the ideas of study 1 but it was all decided upon before I'd even started my first bit of data collection. :-(

So I'm not sure how to introduce study 3 and when/where to do it and in how much detail - should I be upfront about what it is about from the beginning (and therefore telling the reader the findings of study 1 before introducing study 1?)

If you're following any of this and can help, please do.

well I've done goal 1 - yesterday's efforts were obviously better than they seemed at the time! and now the end of my lit review is a lot stronger. I kind of wish I had a nice little model to demonstrate what my thesis is looking at, but its exploratory (well the first half) so I can't really say 'I'm concentrating on xyz variables'.

ANyway on to goal 2 - the method and walminski's comments.

I now have one research question! (I've just looked at someone elses thesis and they only had one as well :-) )

Today's plan...

1. read through new lit review and try and work out what I was trying to do yesterday and if it worked!
2. make changes to method
3. add to discussion notes.

the tv show's different from the books - its gone off on a bit of a tangent with some of the characters e.g. tara is a peripheral character in the books and Jessica (Bill's vampire) doesn't exist. The books are really good though - well they're easy to read trashy fiction, which is great for my PhD fuzzled brain.

well I've finished 'a' lit review - I need to print it out and read it through really though. Will print it out now, then off to read a bit of sookie stackhouse :$ and will read the lit review through 1st thing tomorrow morning.

I also watched harry potter, I wanted to watch bridesmaids but apparently hubby's generosity was stretched with harry potter so that was a no go.

not sure these really count

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2LpeA3jcEU&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awUHtbUE0q8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4zV4pJ8MwM

Ah, procrastination at its best :-)

This week I have seen (yes i know I'm supposed to be submitting the draft, but had to keep hubby entertained while he was off work)...

Transformers 3 - verdict: ok, but there was a lot of faffing about at the beginning trying to set up the plot, presumably because they had to shoe horn in 'big lippy' (can't remember her real name) at the last minute and desparately had to have an excuse for her to be in the film. To quote hubby "the beginning was way too long, where were the f***ing robots?" - it got better towards the end, although I can't for the life of me work out how the leading lady managed to slide down a glass building in 6 inch laboutins and still have them on, in tact at the end, and wearing white (wtf?). Leading man also lacked any inspiration. Again to quote husband "would have been much better if it was all robots, no humans"

I'd say noting on pdfs is better in mendeley than one note natassia - it means its there when you open up the program and you're not switching screens etc.

I just wish Mendeley was a little further on in development - I'm using it, but its bugs seriously annoy me and I'm having to do lots of work arounds. I'm also assuming that it will go absolutely mental when I combine all my chapters.