Hi Heifer

Congratulations! Thank you for your detailed description of the viva, really useful! Best of luck in whatever you move on to next. Well done you!

Hello All

I would like to hear about your experiences with planning/carrying out fieldwork. I have to travel abroad and do some interviews and I can't seem to get past the planning stages. Booking the flights seems very scary!! Without wanting to be too 'doom and gloom' (you all already had to deal with me being very down a few months ago!!) I'm getting very anxious. I want to want to go (if you know what I mean!) but when it comes down to it, I really don't want to go half way across the world, by myself, to a place where I don't speak the language, to interview people I've never met. I would have to go for a month I think. Is this all very silly of me? I know I should be thrilled by the prospect of travel but I'm simply not!

So, I thought that if I could hear some of your fieldwork experiences it might perk me up and give me the confidence to just do it....maybe....:-)

Hi buttercup1984 - I know you already have the papers but this is just a general point for all those struggling to find something! I discovered that e-mailing the authors is absolutely the best way to go. They are mostly thrilled that someone wants to read their work! After all, they don't get paid (at least, not in my field!) for journal articles but the more they are cited the better they look. Ask your supervisor if you can use his/her name if you want a bit more clout.

Hi all. I'm new to this forum so I hope you don't mind me launching in with my own 'problems'. It's just that no one else will listen to me and I need to get it out somehow.

I'm 6 months into my PhD but I haven't done anything since April. I'm really struggling with my own standards - nothing I write is good enough - and I'm too embarrassed to show anything to my supervisor. I can't handle any criticism. I feel really guilty though because he is a great guy and really supportive. He's set up research work for me, organised for me to speak at his conference and he's now asked me to write a paper with him but I just can't see me managing to do any of these things.

I'm so worried I just spend hours staring at my computer screen or looking on facebook at all the amazing things other people are doing with their lives! The thought of speaking at this conference makes me feel sick. It's a major, but relatively small, conference with some really high ranking scholars and the programme has my name on it - looking all pathetic and pointless beside some of the biggest names in my field. I can't tell my supervisor that I don't want to do it but I also know that I can't possibly go - I'm completely stuck. It's in 6 weeks time and I just don't know what to do!

My friends and family say I'm being silly but I think this is part of a bigger problem - if I can't see myself presenting at conferences, networking or having the guts to send something for publication then I can never be an academic can I? I'm also petrified by my looming fieldwork, which will involve overseas travel. I'm a homebody - the idea of being in a strange city with no one I know is petrifying. Perhaps I'd be best to cut my losses and get out before i've wasted too much time?

The worst thing is that I know the personal development literature back to front 'feel the fear and do it anyway' and all of that. I also feel like I know the answers to my problems "be more positive" "be less of a perfectionist" "speak to someone" but I just can't implement them. Argh!! It's so annoying! I just really really hope someone out there has had a similar experience and can offer some new words of wisdom. HELP!

...and thank you for reading my rant.