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http://www.amazon.co.uk/PhD-Application-Handbook-Peter-Bentley/dp/0335219527/ref=pd_sim_b_1

Hi Lou

1. It needs to be interesting and relevant - something that suggests to a supervisor why they might want to work with you. See if target institutions have guidelines for initial proposals - some do.

2. Yes, it's hard, particularly for social sciences/humanities subjects like history - you'd need a very good proposal to have any chance of funding.

3. Self-funding at my institution for UK students is around £1800 pa part-time, £3600 full-time for social sciences.

4. Not sure what you mean... you can expect to work hard for a long time... so make sure you're interested in what you want to follow. Read the forum, you'll get plenty idea of what it's like to do a PhD - use 'history' as a key word for a search and you might get something relevant to you.

Get yourself a good book about Doing a PhD - that'll answer all your questions. I recommend "The Postgraduate Research Handbook" or "How to Get a PhD". Other than that, just do a google search for 'doing a phd' and you'll find plenty of fodder for the imagination. Good luck.:p

Hi JoJo

Hope you're feeling better after your break. I'm not doing a comparative thesis myself but I did read one last month. The way it was written was around a problem... so Intro chapter sets up the problem - boundary structures in literary texts and puts forward two authors - Bakhtin and Lotman as examples of people who have theories about these, together with a rationale about why they're useful to look at. The thesis then used alternative chapters to separate and compare different themes around the notion of boundary... so ch1 - dialogic boundaries - M thinks this (key thrust of chapter), L thinks this... some examples to show similarities/differences to M's thinking. ch2 - L thinks this (his substantive theories)... some examples to show how same/different from M... and so on. I think there were 2 or 3 paired chapters like this, then a discussion and conclusions. Not sure if that helps at all.

Hi Sarah

That's great news. Well done. It's helpful to hear about your experience and especially about reporting positively on your results, even if they don't always turn out 'successfully' - I think it's so easy to forget, in research, that a negative result can also be a positive finding... after all it informs others of what works, what didn't and why... and so clarifies an approach for others taking a similar or related path in future. (up)

Hi Cupcake

What is your first chapter? Is it a lit review? You say you have sketched out the 'basic problems'... usually the lit review helps you to frame your research question more tightly. Without that focus and more work on it, it's kind of difficult to see "the whole picture". If it makes you feel any better, I only really got a clearer view through preparing for upgrade (but we had to have written 3 chapters for that to happen) and I'm only now (close to finishing) able to really "envisage the whole". You can, at your stage, though, envisage a loose structure, something along the lines of:

Here's an interesting problem... here's what others say about it, these are the things I think they're not saying, taking this angle/gap as a starting point, this thesis investigates this... in order to investigate these things, I have done/plan to do this... all of this relates to this/these question(s). This is an important thing to study because... this is a suitable way to pursue the study because... In doing this, I expect to find these things...

You should think of the outline as a "these are the things I've been thinking about" that will help your upgrade panel see what you've been doing and where you're headed and whether what you think you can do is feasible. The outline should also relate to the work you've already done - the chapter you're handing in and show how that has contributed to your thinking. Another thing you could think about doing is writing a separate, brief (maybe a page)... report outlining how and why things have changed over the year, how your initial proposal was developed and changed and why... what was wrong with it, how has what you have done instead changed things and so on. This shows the development of your thinking over time - and that's all part of the process. Understanding what works and what doesn't, rather than 'having to get things right' is what matters... At PhD level, things are not 'right' until they're done (well, except maybe experimental scientific work)... and even then, the 'rightness' is as tenuous as the next person who comes along to challenge it and find the 'gap' in your work, which, when all is done and dusted becomes part of the new wave of literature and some future student's lit review. :p

Hi Bobby

Don't panic! *grin* You may not have teaching experience, but you do have experience... I'm assuming you have more than these 2nd years at least. Are they undergrads? So... get yourself a plan - how many weeks have you got, what essays will you give them (topics, titles) or if they come from elsewhere, what will they be? Then, target the seminars to the essays. If you feel you can mark an essay, then you can teach someone how to write one... just think structure, tips, etc. If you're still scared - try this site for some ideas: http://www.ioe.ac.uk/caplits/writingcentre/ Another option is to brainstorm with students what they might like to learn (although that may get a bit clunky). One thing to remember - you probably won't get through too much in a one hour session - so sessions on essay writing could take 3-4 sessions and you could chunk them... e.g. Getting started (and ways of brainstorming ideas, arguments, structure, etc.), finding a structure (intro, background, problem, debate, discussion, conclusion), illustrating concepts (using graphs, diagrams, pictographs, etc.). Here's an example of a study guide: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/dcs/teaching/movingon/7.pdf Other than that, you might consider getting a couple of good books if you want to teach research/writing/presenting skills... Another good tactic is to set a topic and get students to do the work... get them to work in groups problematising a topic and present back at the end of the session. If you're really smart, build this kind of activity across a couple of sessions and finish with a student presentation session or two. As you appear to have free rein... choose something that interests you and may be useful to them.

Feel free to PM me if you'd like some more specific advice. :-)

Hi Ruby

Glad you're feeling better today. Yeah, methodologies are soemtimes such a %$£%"$ - funnily enough, the first version I wrote was good enough to get me through my upgrade but I'm quite a bit wiser now and realise I'd thrown everything and the kitchen sink in there. Happily, my new revised methodology will be a lot more focused. I did the same as you and switched to an easier chapter as the first one I was trying to revise was getting me bogged down. Pleased to say things are going much better today - am now around the 3,000 word mark for this chapter... so should finish it by tonight and, as you say, it'll be nice to have ticked something off on my list! Yay! Ups and downs abound, yes, and there are times when I ask myself - why are you shifting your perspective this late in the day... *grin* but then I just own up and say, well, because the darned thesis needs it! ;-)

I'm just glad I'm on holiday from work for the next two weeks which gives me a good opportunity to really concentrate and try to find some flow in all of this.

Liminal - hope you feel better soon.(up)

Hi BB

I agree, in part, with what the others have said - in that publication prior to submission shouldn't be too much of a problem, provided the thesis is more than just the novel. However.... the *self-publishing* route is generally not a peer-reviewed process and whilst this is done more and more and it is notoriously difficult to get creative work published... I would say it is better to wait until the thesis is submitted and the viva over. If the creative work is worthy of publication, examiners may be able to help find a publisher, if the thesis is publishable, it may help to extend the audience for the book. There is no hurry with self-publishing. It rarely garners a large audience for your work (although there are, of course, exceptions... like "The Shack" by William P. Young, for example). You have to do all the hard publicity and selling work yourself... and so on, and so forth. On the other questions... publishing the work beforehand wouldn't affect copyright... that exists as soon as a work is written - although if research is funded, often the written work will belong to the funder... so that needs to be checked. A creative work may be original but the question is... will is it sufficient, in combination with the thesis, to offer an original contribution to the field... that's the difference... research is about a contribution to 'the body of knowledge' and not necessarily about the originality of creative content.

That said, if the novel is only a support for the research into the creative writing process and self-publishing is an element your friend wishes to bring into the thesis... then that could legitimise the process, I guess. I'd discuss something like this with the supervisor before going ahead - not for permission, but for some friendly advice as to whether it is a worthwhile path to take, now, or at any time.

Hi Ruby

Well, I wish I was where you're at... even if it means gritting my teeth! LOL Last time I had a crying fit over my thesis was when I was first confronted with the methodology chapter and hadn't a clue how to go about it (mind you, that was a long time ago already). I think as you near the end you seem to hit some kind of apathy field... that said, having decided to get down and get on with it today, I'm finding that if you just sit and write and rewrite and force yourself to keep going (yes, through gritted teeth)... eventually you end up kind of enjoying the path you're on. Good luck with getting your motivation going again.(up)

Hi Sleepyhead

I know what you mean about the supervisor thing. ;-) I think it has to do with respect and admiration. I've managed to get over the awestruck element since the upgrade at least and it's much easier now that I'm driving the thesis myself. LOL I might not say so in so many words, but he knows I think he's cool and that he's a good supervisor.

Hi Chrisolinski,

Looks like we're at a very similar stage with similar goals... good on you for taking up the baton - will watch with interest to see how we go. I'm also teaching at the moment (if not yet marking)... but I kind of welcome that as a break from the thesis at the moment. 1,000 words down and a restructure in place since my post this morning... so think I may just have earned this momentary procrastination and lunch-break. :p

Good luck with that, Sleepyhead... sounds like your on course! (up)

Know what you mean about the supervisor... well, except my supervisor is actually absolutely lovely and not at all threatening - it just feels that way when I feel like I don't know what I'm talking about. ;-)

The 40,000 words is only the first half of the thesis, of course. :-)

Hi Liminalp.

Yes, I'm kind of in the same boat at the moment... albeit part-time and in fourth year but hoping to finish around October time. I just brought myself overseas to write for 3 weeks... one week down and ... where's that writing? Lots of thinking but not a lot on paper. Most of this writing has been done, actually, and I'm really re-writing at this stage, updating the literature, the analytical framework and methods (I'm doing a theoretical thesis the bulk of which relates to a methodological framework), so these things take up half the word count. I've completed my fieldwork and done some analysis, even had a book chapter accepted out of it but can't get to writing that up in detail until I sort out this theoretical frame. So, yesterday, I set myself some targets... 12 days to go and 40,000 words to revise/complete. I want to have a first full draft of my thesis by end of April (not to submit - just to be complete). OMG - what a target!

Today I'm revising chapter 3 - the one with the most changes, maybe 3-4,000 words. Let's see how it goes! What are your plans for today? :p

Whoa, PhDBug...

Slow down... *chuckle* Sounds to me like you've managed to do plenty over the break. One thing to bear in mind is that the things you do on your other 'research' are also helpful for the PhD. The PhD isn't just about the thesis at the end of the day, it's about learning how to be a researcher too. So, writing for publication, seeking funding, etc... that's all good experience (just think - post-doc time). It's important to have 'me' time too - so all of those other things, sandwiched between PhD and work demands are good for you - they help you keep balance and a sense of perspective. :-) So, something to keep in mind as you journey along with your PhD - time away from the work isn't always 'wasted' time... and time spent producing other things is also productive time... and not really 'zilch'. :-) Wishing you a fun and fruitful 2009... with the joys of alternativity...