Hi, thanks very much for the advice/sharing your experience. So when you organise around the themes, then how do you mange if one paper has two themes for instance space/resistance?

Hi, I am having this problem that I am to begin writing a paper that I left unfinished a few months back. I am done with grasping the efiles that I downloaded at that time. Now I am left with the heap of articles (more than 100). Can anyone guide me the best way of filing these articles that I physically have so that I am able to locate then when need to check a reference for instance?
Kindly note that I am one of those people who highlight and take notes in the margins and have a sense of ownership of the written notes taken on the actual article.
I will be grateful for any guidance wrt filing
many thanks iman

I understand your situation and hope that this phase of life will be over and you will be back on track soon!

Though I am not from hard sciences back ground. But I would advise you to see your supervisors. Tell them the hardships that you have been going through with more recently (both financial and personal). Get a GP note and see the uni counselling services too. Try to convince your supervisor that you need extra time to finish your work. Once (hopefully) time is given to you then you can proceed with applying for writing up year grants. I applied on three grants Charles Wwallace, Hammond Trust and the Glasgow Association one and go an extra 4500 pound from these which was a heaven for me. I was an international student in Glasgow so couldn't apply for many other grants that are open for home students. Try making an effort along these lines and I wish you my very best!
Take care iman

Hi all,
I need advice about buying an ipad. I am looking for it for the following purposes. To use it as a smart phone, chat with friends on face time, able to take notes with pen and read pdf documents, and also to make power point presentations. I would like to know if ipad comes with these features already installed in it, that is, I don’t want to pay extra money to install softwares? Also which version/model would be economical (inclusive of all these features). I wish to buy it for all the practical reasons and have no issues with an older version either.
I will appreciate if someone shares their personal experience with me!
Best iman

In my uni its 12 weeks within which viva is supposed to be held. Mine was on the last day of that 12 week time period as my external was in africa and had to wait for him

Then in that case, I think you should check with the potential employers first that what is it that they are actually looking for in the reference letter and if that can be provided by your other referees? Then just fill in the whole thing and write on the cover page that how your other referees are also appropriate to fulfill the employer query/things s/he is looking for about your skills, expertise etcetra. If you are afraid that there is a danger that your application would be rejected right away by doing this then in that scenario if I were you, I would have told them honestly that I am more at ease with the other referees that I am proposing and if that can kindly be accepted. Be as honest as possible so that in future you don’t feel any pressures; because what I can see is already the ex-supervisor is nasty, he is not going to change and you can’t change him in your favor. So take a fresh start from the very beginning, and you’ll be there!!!

This is my personal advice to you but I am sure that others might have more experiential solutions to this?

Best of luck and keep trying, and keep us informed!!!

Dear PhD Default
I can really feel how helpless you might be feeling about the whole situation. I had a Scottish friend who was in the same boat as you are. She also eventually came to know that it wasn’t any lapse in her qualification that she wasn’t getting the job but her ex-supervisor. She immediately got the first job that she applied for one she changed her referees. She asked her external supervisor and a senior PhD friend who graduate from her department in the same field and who knew her work very well. May be you should try that if you feel like it

Best wish and don’t worry, your time will come soon!

Thanks DocInsanity. I feel confident to write an email now!

regards iman

Thanks marasp for your response. Its certainly helpful!

Hi, I need an advice if anybody can kindly help me with it. About 2 years back I wrote a chapter in an edited collection. Working in close contact with the editor was a learning experience for me. She checked my draft twice before sending it off to the peer reviewers. In a sense I developed a good academic relationship with the editor as she offered that I can freely ask her for any information or guidance if I need any help regarding my work. On and off I have been in touch with her. About 6 months back I emailed her and asked her about possible publication venues. She shared with me about a conference that she was organizing and offered if I also wanted to send a paper. Before working on it, I checked with the funding organizations in my country (in a developing world) if they could finance my travel costs. But in vein, the answer was a straight 'no' since social sciences is not really encouraged here. I wrote back to her and declined therefore. Now after all this time, I was just looking at my abstract and few of the sub sections that I wrote in it. It seems that this work has the potential to go in a journal. I am done with 2100 words (mostly narratives from my field data). I wish to contact her if she can help me in terms of guidance as to how to frame my paper within the literature on ageing (since the paper is on the role of caring for the elderly population). I need this help from her because her core area of expertise is in ageing, and my work on the other hand frames and approaches this aspect from the post colonial perspective. What I am unable to make sense of is: is it okay to contact her for guidance on literature on ageing that I can specifically use? Or shall I ask her if she is interested in becoming a co-author? Which is also just fine with me as she is a Reader and very generous in terms of sharing her work. I also think that do you think I shouldn't approach her as she might think of me as a parasite on her? I really wish to work with her but I don’t know if it’s right and if it’s okay then how should I approach her in the email?

Looking forward to any piece of advice coming from your experience
Thanks

Here you go. Congratulations!!!

I can read it for you as well if you have still got time

Don’t worry. It’s certainly doable. 14 days is a lot if you work for about 8-10 hours on these corrections. Take half a day and make a list of where the revisions are to be made. When you have that in front of you, then go one by one and take about half and hour to do the easy ones and about 2 hours at maximum to do the conceptual ones. If you feel stuck at any change, leave it for discussion with the supervisor (make a list of queries for the supervisor), and then after that do these in a day as that would be much quicker. A friend of mine followed this pattern and was able to do the 6 months revisions in 10 days. I also helped her with spelling corrections and a few minor things so if you have that kind of support mechanism use that. Also another suggestion is to control your nerves and just think that you have to spend productive hours in the library and then you will be there.
Best of luck with submission! You’ll definitely do it in time!

Hi sorry for my rather delayed reply to you. There are two possibilities here. One scenario that I am writing is of my best friend, doing PhD in the same dept as myself. Her supervisor gave her a real hard time in the final three months of PhD submission. For instance, the supervisor would criticize her work which was earlier on approved by the supervisor. My friend lost confidence in her supervisor completely, and wanted to have examiners of her own choice. In this regard, in our dept the point of contact was our postgrad officer. When she spoke with him about the possibility of having the supervisors that she wanted (note that she never bad mouthed her supervisor in front of anyone), he took the list of her choice examiners. In the end however, the examiners chosen were those that were suggested by her supervisor. Later this was also found out that the post grad officer and the supervisor were best of friends and all was decided amongst them before hand. Her viva went alright in the end and she got 6 months of changes. It was a very tough time for us as she would have sleepless nights before the viva; lacking in confidence and thinking what if the supervisor and the external examiner are also friends? And what if she gets a fail in the viva? However nothing of the sort happened. I would only kindly like to advise that just try once and discuss with your supervisor or post grad office with a reason that why you want a specific examiner and why not the one chose by your supervisor. If your voice is still unheard then remain silent on the issue and just hope for the best. You have been very brave so far, so just continue with that, go to the viva room with confidence and give you maximum. Fingers crossed!!!

First evaluate the relationship that you have with your supervisor. Is he sympathetic towards your research? keen on seeing you finishing it off at your earliest? supportive of helping you with the viva tips? understands that by this stage of the degree you are hard up on money and don’t want too many changes to make. If the answers are yes then I would say that go with your supervisor’s advise since it is his way of taking responsibility of making sure that he saves you from a tough external who has no work ethics and calls someone who is tough yet honest in his approach towards evaluating your work, and your performance in the viva. I am saying these things from my own experience. I was in the similar boat as you are. I also wanted a person whom a friend knew since she worked with him as a PhD student. But my supervisor wanted someone (who became my external as well) whom I hadn’t referenced in my work, with whose work I was unfamiliar and who was known to be tough. My viva went very well with a straight A grade. Later on I came to know that this other person in whom I was interested as an external was though very kind towards his own PhD students yet he had a reputation of giving atleast major revisions on the theory chapter and a minimum of 6 months of changes. I hope and wish that things go great for you! But just contemplate on from all the angles and then push your choice forward. All the best and do share with us how your viva goes!