Even if he's not a co-author, if you acknowledge him as your supervisor then there may be an assumption that he at least proofread it; if the paper isn't good then it's bad for your supervisor's reputation.

How about a phone call to explain your plan? Perhaps he'll be happy to read it through. Then you could say 'The author is grateful to Dr X for the critical reading of this manuscript'.

You're working in a literature dept. and feel like you don't know how to write any more. Vacation time methinks!

It's a part of the work he is supervising yet he hasn't read it? Seems odd.

Generally you look at the faculty webpage, see which faculty member's research interests you, then write them an e-mail with your CV attached. Just explain how their research interests you and why you want to join their group as a PhD student.

Ok £5 seems like a much more reasonable figure! I'm now quite tempted by the self-printing route as the savings would probably pay for the cost of the printer.

And yeah it's great to be at this stage (even if I did think it would be submitted back in March :$)!

Yes, what Delta said.

I've not a clue as far as mortgages go, but £30k is the kind of sum you could potentially get from a Professional Studies Loan. HSBC offers up to £25k per person and repayments don't start until 6 months after your PhD registration period finishes. I was able to get one a few years ago just by showing proof of my £12k stipend and explaining a bit about how it would be spent (e.g. travelling, car, books, conferences, furniture, etc.), and how employable / high income the PhD would make me (big lol at that). You'd have to wing it a bit I guess but perhaps it's worth a try. Good luck both of you.

Ok I didn't realise printing/binding this bloody thing would be so expensive. Right now I need 3 soft bound copies and they're going to cost ~£70 including printing/binding. Later on, hard binding / printing 3 copies will be ~£130. Total cost ~£200. That's without delivery (pick-up locally).

How have others gone about this? I'm somewhat tempted to buy a colour laser printer (there's some decent ones for <£100).

You chose this PhD topic, you chose this supervisor, and I'm sure you had good reasons for both. Next time something like that happens share your own perspective; if your PhD topic / supervisor are not as bad as someone is making out, persuade them of that. Letting the moment pass, then mulling over it, becoming annoyed, and venting online is an unhealthy pattern. Learn to speak your mind or you'll be back here again and again and again!

Thanks for your reply. Yeah I'm male so really it's a choice between full suit/jacket/tie or just a shirt. Totally agree with the PJ bottom-half sentiment, lol (up)

There's not much online about this type of interview and even less about it for academia. I guess one advantage is that one could take notes/papers in to the interview =)

Any more thoughts on the dress side?

I have a Skype video interview coming up for a postdoc. Does anyone have experience of this?

I'm not sure what to wear: a suit seems OTT in my bedroom but I wouldn't want to underdress either.

I'd be grateful for any advice!

walminskipeas wrote:
"What really brought that home for me was seeing the break up of Jordan and Andre (2009) discussed on the national 10 o'clock news!"

Nicely cited. LOL!

Eueu, what an interesting post. My views on this are inseparable from a belief that we are ultimately spiritual beings, created by a loving God to know Him and to worship Him. Acquiring a high proficiency in an art or profession is a form of worship if it's done selflessly and contributes, in however small a degree, to the moving forward of an ever-advancing world civilization. Why show any affection for perishable things when each day we are hastening towards our tombs? "Put away all covetousness and seek contentment; for the covetous hath ever been deprived, and the contented hath ever been loved and praised."

You mean personal or work-wise? In principle it should be a good thing to share work-challenges with one's supervisor, as it can help address them. Sometimes supervisors can punish students for being too open about something that was overlooked, didn't work, etc. Ultimately though that's what honesty is all about, revealing important facts irrespective of consequences.

On a personal level, I had a very bad experience with sharing personal difficulties with a supervisor. I'd never do it again, as professionally competent supervisors can be extremely incompetent and discompassionate when it comes to advising or dealing with a student's personal issues.

I don't know of any schools/courses to recommend, but in the meantime Pimsleur CD's are very highly regarded for teaching spoken language, including Mandarin. Good luck =)

Yes, we pH HEPES using NaOH (preferably 10M, added dripwise with a pasteur pipette); if you go over the target pH (try not to) then use HCl. Different buffers may use different chemicals for this purpose, like NaH2PO4, sulfuric acid, citric acid, etc.

As Tydra says there should be protocols laying around. You shouldn't worry about asking questions like this in the lab if you're a student.