Hi,

OK, so here is the situation. I did a masters degree at another university, supposedly using the qualitative approach which I am now specialising in for my PhD. However my masters supervisor at the time doesn't really know much about the approach, so although I got an excellent mark, from the perspective of anyone in my field I now realise that the analysis was terrible. He insisted that I focus on a specific thing, and I understand now that doing that really didn't make much sense. I submitted a paper for publication based on my dissertation and the revieiwer within my field absolutely ripped it apart, and quite rightly too. I managed to salvage it though by redoing the entire analysis, and I actually managed to find something novel and interesting to say, although it was far removed from anything my supervisor had suggested.

I have a conference presentation coming up. It is part of a symposium and my supervisor submitted the papers. I'm not sure if he submitted abstracts- I certainly didn't write one specifically but he could have submitted the abstract from the original (terrible) paper I wrote. The title of the presentation is the same title as the paper, which relates to the original analysis.

I hope this all makes sense. Anyway, unless I present findings from my new analysis, I am going to feel really uncomfortable doing the presentation. And I'm nervous enough anyway so I really don't need that. But the new analysis doesn't really relate to the title of the presentation, and possibly the abstract. Most of the introduction and some of the discussion will be pretty much the same though, so it's not like it'll be a new, completely unrelated presentation altogether. Should I just go ahead and write the presentation how I want? I haven't asked my supervisor because he has been unco-operative in the past, doesnt really understand the method used and I'm worried he'll insist I focus on the old main theme anyway.

I think you must have this discussion with your supervisor regardless of how uncomfortable it is.

Hi,

I think there are two issues here. One is whether the conference organisers will mind if you present something a bit different to the abstract submitted, and I think the answer is no. Often you have to submit abstracts months before the conference and results might not be available at the time. In the past I have submitted some very vague abstracts and no one seems to mind if the final presentation is a little different. The second issue though is what your supervisor will think if you stand up there and present something totally different to what he is expecting. This is trickier - even if you go ahead and write the presentation as you want, you should run it past him beforehand.

Good luck!

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. I emailed him in the end and he said I can focus on whatever I want. Phew! It would have been awful otherwise!