Well happy birthday for tomorrow, Bilbo. 21 again, I hope! I have 2.5 chapters left to write as first drafts - but it's fiendishly difficult stuff. The I have to put the whole thing together and cut, edit and correct it. I'm hoping to submit by Xmas.

Okay, another night of writing. I just need to tell myself that this will all be over sooner or later. And I'll make doubly, doubly sure that if I ever do end up with an academic job, I'll never work like this again. Bloody research. Choo Choo.

*fare* - I have no edit post function.

Interesting question. I think that you'll learn by trial and error, reading papers and taking note of elements of style that you like, taking in feedback from others and just generally seeing your writing style mature. It's not fare to compare yourself with someone who has been writing and getting published for many years; it's like eating a ripe banana and then an unripe one and calling it crap.

A new song, hopefully to soon be played by Steve Wright on BBC Radio 2. This one's a real disco dance floor filler, called Gimme Gimme Gimme a Break After Midnight.

Half past twelve,
And I'm sat at my laptop in my flat all alone,
How I hate to spend the evening writing on my own,
Full waste paper bins,
Spilling on the floor as I look around the room,
And it makes me so depressed to see my doom.

There's not a soul out there,
no one to hear my prayer.

Gimme gimme gimme a break after midnight,
Won't somebody help me chase my papers away,
Gimme gimme gimme a break after midnight,
Help me sleep through the darkness so I can do it all again the next day.

Movie stars,
Find the end of the rainbow, with a fortune to win,
It's so different from the world I'm living in.
Loads of work,
I open my window to escape into the night,
But instead a load of moths come flying in.

There's not a soul out there,
no one to hear my prayer.

Gimme gimme gimme a break after midnight,
Won't somebody help me chase my papers away,
Gimme gimme gimme a break after midnight,
Help me sleep through the darkness so I can do it all again the next day.

Gimme gimme gimme a break after midnight,
Won't somebody help me chase my papers away,
Gimme gimme gimme a break after midnight,
Help me sleep through the darkness so I can do it all again the next day.

There's not a soul out there,
no one to hear my prayer.

Gimme gimme gimme a break after midnight,
Won't somebody help me chase my papers away,
Gimme gimme gimme a break after midnight,
Help me sleep through the darkness so I can do it all again the next day.

Gimme gimme gimme a break after midnight,
Won't somebody help me chase my papers away,
Gimme gimme gimme a break after midnight,
Help me sleep through the darkness so I can do it all again the next day.

A new song, hopefully to soon be played by Steve Wright on BBC Radio 2. This one's a real disco dance floor filler, called Gimme Gimme Gimme a Break After Midnight.

Half past twelve,
And I'm sat at my laptop in my flat all alone,
How I hate to spend the evening writing on my own,
Full waste paper bins,
Spilling on the floor as I look around the room,
And it makes me so depressed to see my doom.

There's not a soul out there,
no one to hear my prayer.

Gimme gimme gimme a break after midnight,
Won't somebody help me chase my papers away,
Gimme gimme gimme a break after midnight,
Help me sleep through the darkness so I can do it all again the next day.

Movie stars,
Find the end of the rainbow, with a fortune to win,
It's so different from the world I'm living in.
Loads of work,
I open my window to escape into the night,
But instead a load of moths come flying in.

There's not a soul out there,
no one to hear my prayer.

Gimme gimme gimme a break after midnight,
Won't somebody help me chase my papers away,
Gimme gimme gimme a break after midnight,
Help me sleep through the darkness so I can do it all again the next day.

Gimme gimme gimme a break after midnight,
Won't somebody help me chase my papers away,
Gimme gimme gimme a break after midnight,
Help me sleep through the darkness so I can do it all again the next day.

There's not a soul out there,
no one to hear my prayer.

Gimme gimme gimme a break after midnight,
Won't somebody help me chase my papers away,
Gimme gimme gimme a break after midnight,
Help me sleep through the darkness so I can do it all again the next day.

Gimme gimme gimme a break after midnight,
Won't somebody help me chase my papers away,
Gimme gimme gimme a break after midnight,
Help me sleep through the darkness so I can do it all again the next day.

Too tired to continue tonight. I'll be up early to continue tomorrow. I have to post again because my last reply was number 666!

Congrats, Algaequeen. I still have my discussion to write yet and a stoopid reflection chapter where I reflect on how I've developed as a researcher - yawn.

I'll be working till quite late tonight, but I have a new secret weapon - Abba! Thank God this forum's anonymous! I've found if I play Abba as I work, it keeps me awake and smiling at the same time. It's so bad, it's good. Knowing me and knowing you - ahhhhaaaaaa!

Rish1306, it's not true what everyone's saying about Benedix is it?

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=980864

Absolutely Teek! All I can say is thank god for the existence of my SPAM box because I'm probably the luckiest PhD student alive. I've won a Rolex watch, laser eye surgery (I'll see if there's a cash alternative for that one), been offered a £75 same day loan with Purple Loans, I'm involved with an oil barron in laundering $8 million via my account (I get to keep 20%) and 6 people on the 'Facebook of dating site' are, erm, looking for me. And now Simon Dixon is going to get me a high powered job with Price-Waterhouse Coopers. My supervisor is going to be devastated when I let her know I won't be publishing work because I'm becoming a banker.

And can you ask Simon if he knows John Morrison? He has a winning betting formula that means he earns $12, 000 dollars a day for just 10 minutes work. See:

My name is John Morrison and I make over $12,000 a week betting on sports. In less time than it takes for you to eat dinner, you, The Average Joe, can discover the secrets of my sports betting system and catapult yourself to untold winnings for life!

I can easily show you how to WIN BIG betting on NBA, MLB, NFL, and college basketball and football games. Once you learn my winning formula, you might even win more than me.


Please can you ask Simon if, being a financial wizard, he knows any easier ways of making money. It sounds like too much hard work, having to do a PhD and all...

WOW! Thanks for posting this four times, Rish1306! Seems quite the financial Messiah, does our Simon Dixon. And the video series you've arranged as a gift for everyone...? Doesn't Simon know we're only in September and still quite a few months away from Chrimbo?

Well, I'm back again for another late night of working. I've made little progress today since I'm working on the hardest bits of my thesis. My sentences are like those of a 5 year old. So, anybody else going to be on the midnight express tonight?

'Particularly, my problem is that, unlike other open projects, it is being done by a for-profit company that utilises a revenue scheme that fundamentally changes who the customer of the publisher is - the author, instead of the readers, becomes the audience who must be satisfied by the journal.'

How do you arrive at this conclusion, Slizor? Take Nature. Everybody (well, scientists) wants to get an article in Nature because they perceive it to be the best journal - and that's why they get offered all the best research and turn over 75% of it away. So, one of the customers of the publisher in this case is the author. It's probably different in humanities, but when I publish an article, I look at the most 'suitable' journal and I then approach them. So, effectively, I have to be satisfied by the journal. Of course, the journal could then say, sorry, it's not for our readers. But then, so could an open-access journal. There's no shortage of research studies trying to find a home, as evidenced by the burgeoning number of journals online.
Did you know that subscription-only academic publishing is proportionately more profitable than Microsoft? That the better the access a university has to subscription only journals, the more successful research proposals they end up with? It's hardly fair. I'm waxing lyrical now, but if Open Access is doing anything, it's helping to create a more level playing field for universities. Just because someone goes to a former polytechnic or a poorer university shouldn't mean that they end up with restricted access to journals, having to spend money for photocopies from the British Library every time they want an article. :-)