Oh lol! I didn't notice the date of the original poster, only the follow up comment! Arghh... thanks for the heads up.

Best things to do are:
- compare it to other already published papers
- ask supervisors if they think it is ready
- if yes to (preferably both) the above, submit and see (aim to where you / your supervisors think it would fit perfectly, or else aim higher and get amazing feedback!)

I'd never try any online service unless I'd been told that my writing wasn't good enough (presumably that's what they're for?) or something similar to warrant the need to do that.

Good luck!

Thanks for sharing - titbits of info like this are just what I need - it may end up that I can wrangle something like this.

I'm just 're posting this with a more meaningful thread name. Does anyone know about ways of getting funding from say a UK research council or other organisation to do a fellowship abroad? I'll be looking into this and will report what I find, but if anyone has any experience / insight it'd be great to hear it. Thanks!

I asked. She's open to continue working with me but doesn't have funds / an upcoming grant that needs a postdoc. She has suggests me trying to get funding / a grant as a possibility. The thing is... US grants are for US citizens (which I am not). Does anyone know about UK grants that would allow you to postdoc abroad? Also, is this going to become so much harder once I finish my phD and am no longer a current student at a UK university?
It seems pretty complicated.

I think you should do it. Try get funding and go for it. You know exactly what doing a PhD entails, and you want to do one. Surely those are the two most important things apart from having the ability.

If you can meet with a few people or discuss over email - and get their take on your thesis - that'll really help. It would have to be someone in your research area of course. But there are helpful people out there. If you just explained your situation and asked if they could offer some advice. You could make your supervisor aware that you intend to do it. I'd be trying to find a few people in the hopes that one is willing to lend a bit of their time to give their thoughts on it. If someone could help you in that way - by validating your thesis / story as worthwhile and worthy of the award in some small way, you will feel a lot more confident about writing it up.

This is a really difficult situation to be in. Can you get some second opinions on your thesis by showing a summary of it to other academics? It would be especially useful to have this since you don't sound 100% confident in your supervisor's experience / ability to advise you on the do-ability of your project. The thing is - you are so far in - have you actually carried out the research and got some results (whether the ones you were expecting or not). Do you have something that you can shape in to a coherent thesis / a story? I am wondering if that needs to be the priority now - plan thoroughly / figure out how you will shape your thesis into something coherent - so that you then have the confidence to write it.

I would pay absolutely no attention to Crions!

lol, yeh, that would sorta be helpful...

Why is your supervisor willing to help you if he says it won't pass? Shouldn't he be forcing you to go to the panel for an MPhil downgrade if that is the case? Are you sure he is not trying this tactic called negative motivation? Also, why did he wait till now to tell you this? It sounds more like something has gone wrong with the project, he has become aware of it, and is now putting the buck on you. Maybe?

Sadly this is true. They can't by law (at least I don't think) but they can in practice. I think the advice you've got on this thread is really good. I think the main thing is to have the past firmly behind you - get comfortable with the narrative you decide to share (e.g., about new found passion) and just go for it. Also I wouldn't put all eggs in one basket - apply for a few (I give that same advice to anyone who is applying for PhD funding - it just makes sense).

That sounds pretty mad! I mean, you'd think your supervisor would be thrilled to have the extra hands and be giving them stuff to do herself rather than expecting you to have a bunch of stuff to give them. I'm not in your research area, but in mine I would probably be inclined to give them some reliability coding to do (that would genuinely be very helpful) or let them pilot run some of my experiments (again genuinely very helpful). Not sure if either of those things would be applicable to your area / project.

Are there any other tasks you could do with help on? Even perhaps reviewing the literature in a given area and providing a summary of the relevant studies?

Also you could ask colleagues if they need assistance. That wouldn't be palming them off... it would be more exciting and interesting for them if they were able to do some work that really needed doing for someone.

Hello, I have no clue about your subject area (although I must say that it sounds interesting), so this is just a general bit of encouragement / advice.

Who is rejecting your ideas on the grounds that they are not deep enough? Can they give you some ideas about what you could do to make it deep enough? Can you think out those possibilities and present them again, get feedback, and see if it fits the bill? It can be "well stressful" thinking you have to come up with an idea...I've been there before - I know what you mean about hitting a brick wall and empty mind. But reach out to your supervisors and get more specific input if you're struggling. That's what they're there for.

Oh and I don't think you have to worry about it being 15k. It is more about quality than amount.

If you decided to turn this job down another would come up if you waited till you felt more ready to make a decision. In the meantime, you could see uni counselling. I only suggest this because of what you said here: