Almost got away with it there Coastman!

We know what you're doing!

can I phone a friend?

compromise...comprise, an easy mistake to make, but perhaps a freudian slip! I left my vocabulary at home this morning.

I think for most academics, large parts of July compromise finishing marking, doing graduations, admin work and perhaps some research. September is likely to be prep time for the year ahead. On that basis, if I was betting man I'd say August was most likely.

Why do you want to know? Are you booking your holidays?

To his/her credit, we were all thanked on an alternative post (the hypocrisy one). I suspect we are referred to as the Postgrad Forum team.

Well done, Anniv21. Two months to get organised now!

Ditto DanB. As a more general point, if writer's block is really getting to you, one way to kick start your writing is just to write something no matter how rubbish, how informal the language etc. The two benefits of this are that it gets the brain into action and the ideas will begin to come and also because it is easier to edit a crudely worded document and make it into an academic prose than to write that academic prose from the start.

So essentially you're just concentraing on ideas for now, not getting bogged down in finding the best words to use in each sentence.

E.g., your dissertaion may well be publishable.

It's a good point Richmond makes. We're not saying you're not enthusiatic or motivated, but in the light of having many very capable students (like yourself) to choose from, they often go for the one who appears hungriest and, to be blunt, the one they think they can work with best.

You could try and get a head start on other students by getting to know your potential supervisor ahead of the selection process. This is what I did such that my potential supervisor went to the panel and argued the case for me. Thankfully he succeeded.

The main thing I can suggest is to think what can you do to stand out from other students both on paper and in the interview.

Treating Our Society’s Sensitive Environment Responsibly

Dear Dodgi Flangita

Thank you very much for kind of offer. I think $2 million would greatly enhance my educational opportunities. In fact I am having the most amazing day. Apparently, I have just won the Eurofake Lottery and just need to send a small fee of $500 to an address in Amsterdam as an admin fee so I can claim my $100 million prize. So you see your offer is very timely.

In fact, I'm feeling so lucky today I'm thinking of having a go on ITV's late night quiz show although admittedly a might be pushing my luck of winning anything on there.

Sounds very exclusive. How long will it take me to complete the order form (sorry, I meant the PhD)?

Richmond, I thought you were like me - an alumnus of Instantdegrees.com because we weren't good enough to make it into Belford?

I actually agree with you, although I'd insert SUVs higher up the list. It's just that it the convenience society I don't have to faff around with predicting the weather, or putting all my clothes on radiators when I all I need to do is pull the big damp pile of clothes out of the washing machine and shove them on mass into the tumble drier and set the dial to one hour. Faster in fact, that it took me to write this post.

Eeeek, just read back my post. What is the matter with my English today?

My tumble dryer is a god send, especially in the winter. I don't it ruins clothes, not in my experience anyway although it does beg the question where all the fluff that accumulates in the trap comes from.

I did have a problem with my washing machine a few years ago - it was wearing out the cuffs and collars on my shirts and was putting holes in my T shirt. I realised it was the 1600 RPM spin speed I had it set to. Reduced it to 1200, problem solved.

You see, the FindaPhd.com forum is full of essential to get you through your PhD and washing machine spin speeds are central to that.

What shall we talk about next? Big box powders vs tablets vs liquid. What do you prefer?