Hi,
I'm in the UK not Australia so maybe things are different but it doesn't sound as if your approach is unreasonable. My meetings with my supervisor last about an hour and usually we discuss something ive written. Maybe you should ask her how she wants to approach the meetings or just start work on your lit review and send it to her. Good luck.

Hi Lizzie,

I agree with Chickpea. I think you should assume your reader is someone who knows about research but is not necessarily familiar with your field, so 'set the scene' and avoid or explain jargon.

Congratulations, Dr littleowl! And thanks to TheGoodShip for the blog. It was very informative.

Could you get together with two or three students who are working on fairly related topics and present your work to each other. I did this because I really lack confidence in public speaking so I realised I needed to practise talking about my work. We don't do very formal presentations but one person talks about an aspect of their work and the others comment. A friend of mine said she had a simular group when she was writing up and they used to read drafts of each other's chapters. If you're feeling isolated then probably others are too and they might welcome a chance to get together

I can send it to you if you pm me your email address

1. What is the single most stressful or frustrating thing about doing a PhD?

I have found two things very stressful. One is having to send drafts of work which I feel are nowhere near perfect to my supervisor and then deal with all the critical feedback, some of which I feel is overly picky. I really enjoyed writing on my master's degree but it is one thing to hand in a carefully crafted 4,000 word essay and get it back with a nice grade along with a few suggestions that you can use to improve the next assignment; quite another thing to hand in 5000 words of literature review when you have no clear idea of where your research is going and then sit and listen to someone tell you everything that is wrong with it.

The second is having to present my work in seminars and conferences. I hate public speaking and find it extremely difficult.



2. What strategies or skills would you most like to learn or improve in order to make this process easier?

After a crisis which led to a change of supervisor I am getting used to the writing thing. My new supervisor is more positive and encouraging, and because I am now under pressure to finish I just accept that a first draft can't be perfect. I have also learned that sometimes it is better to just start writing rather than spending months reading and planning.

For the public speaking problem, I have managed to gather a few supportive colleagues who are working on related topics. We meet regularly and take it in turns to present our work. I also took a friend's advice to rehearse and rehearse and rehearse for conference presentations.

3. If you could improve or change anything about doing a PhD what would it be?

I really wish I had been prepared for how different it is from a master's degree. I didn't imagine it would be the same exactly, but I guess I'm not the only person to have embarked on a PhD because I was a successful and enthusiastic master's student, only to really struggle with the transition to PhD.

4. If you were starting over, which 2 or 3 things would you do differently?

I would write more in the early stages and try not to be so sensitive about criticism.

I would try to establish a support network with other students in the first year and I would be more willing to admit when I was struggling.

I would tell my supervisor when I didn't know how to tackle something instead of wasting weeks trying to work it out by myself.

Hi, it's normal to just take one of the tests. I never heard of any university asking for both. Good luck!

Hi explorer1,

I agree with enmaki. I would read lots of qualitative studies which have focussed on issues of race, gender and education. I would also do a pilot study and spend some time analysing the pilot data and reflecting on whether my interview/focus group questions could be improved before going for the main data collection. I changed my questions quite a lot after my pilot study. If it's qualitative it doesn't have to be large scale, so two sites should be fine - it might even be better to do a more in-depth ethnographic study of just one site.

Bevcha's idea is great - perfect solution :-)

TheEngineer - I just meant that the examiners and anyone else who reads the thesis will form an impression of the writer from the acknowledgements if they bother to read them. I have read my supervisor's thesis as well as those of other academics whose work I admire. If one of them had put 'for my mummy' in the dedication, I would think just a tiny bit less of them, and I would remember it every time I saw them or read one of their articles. It's a very small thing but I think it matters.

Hi,

Congrats on finishing your thesis and reaching the acknowledgements stage! This is just my opinion but I wouldn't put 'mummy' - it may not make the best impression on your examiners. What's wrong with 'For my mother'? I guess when you refer to her in formal situations, you probably don't say 'my mummy', and the thesis is a formal document.

I can get it.

Hi BevCha, Thanks for your support :-) Maybe we're all just a bit paranoid imagining other people disapproving of us for the hours we keep. In the end everyone knows who works and hard and who doesn't.

Fled - I'm full of admiration for your ability to start work at 3am but what time do you go to bed??

Sorry I can't offer any advice on this but I can give a lark's perspective - I often get to work at 8am or even earlier but I feel colleagues look at me disapprovingly if I leave before 5pm. They don't know that I'd already done half a day's work before some of them arrived. I often think owls are seen as hard working because they can be seen still hard at work when everyone else is leaving. No-one sees us larks being super-productive at 8am!

Good luck. I really hope you can sort something out.

When I feel blocked like that I make myself keep writing however bad I think the writing is because once you have something on the page you can go away, think about about, sleep on it, whatever and then gradually work it into something better. For me, one of the hardest things on the PhD has been getting used to sending work to my supervisor when I feel it's not ready, not perfect, but I'm slowly gettting used to it. It's your first chapter - even if your supervisor is really critical of it, it doesn't matter. You can learn from the criticism and do better next time. Just keep writing and good luck!