Overview of barnaby

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Holiday, anyone? [filling to comply with the rules of the forum which require more than three but less than 25 words in the Topic Title
B

What's it got to do with supervisors?
Are you all lab-based?

TEFL qualification- good for the CV?
B

Not worth it to be honest. Most places will employ someone with a CELTA or Trinity over someone with another qualification. Shame, cos some of the others are just as good in terms of training, they just don't have the reputation.

Are you in the UK? Try a Further Ed college, they can often be cheaper.

TEFL qualification- good for the CV?
B

Worth doing a course though. Jobs you get without are lower-paid, and you do actually get some good advice on a course, even though it is lightweight. Go for CELTA or Trinity, some countries will only accept these two.

TEFL qualification- good for the CV?
B

tefl is good. I did it as a career for 10 years, with a Dip and Masters on the way, and ended up in teacher training (still do some TT part time). It's one of those things you can do for a few months for a bit of sunshine, money and experience, or stay at it longer and get some quite good jobs.

It's good experience though, especially as more and more UK Uni students are from overseas. Showing you have experience of teaching non-native speakers is a good thing.

Does anyone enjoy their PhD?
B

Love it. Almost every element of it.

Formulating a PhD question?
B

What would you say if I met you in a pub and asked 'So what exactly are you trying to find out with this research of yours' Imagine I am reasonably intelligent, but have no specific knowledge of your area.

Literature review underway
B

15,818. Done :)

Obviously this is now going to get ripped to shreds by my supervisor, but *surely* I have just finished the basis of my literature review!

Looks like beer o'clock to me.

How old were you - starting the phd?
B

Started at 35. Totally right for me. Perhaps a few years earlier would have been okay, but I got a lot of useful experience in those few years. The flexibility also means I get to see my 3 kids loads.

Repeating conference papers
B

I'm doing the same in a few weeks. I've decided to give pretty much the same paper, but with a different title, as shani said, for cv purposes.

learning to touch type aged 30
B

I use this http://www.nuance.co.uk/naturallyspeaking/preferred/

and it's great.
Yes, it takes a bit of getting used to, and you do have to proof-read carefully to avoid silly mis-hearings, but it works extermely well IMO, and it learns! I've had it for a while, but have just given it a proper test now that I'm 12,00 words into my literature review, but I'm very impressed.

As for having to speak clear, BBC English, it claims you don't, but that happens to be my natural accent anyway!

learning to touch type aged 30
B

I type quickly, but it's not strictly touch-typing. However, my PhD is being written with speech recognition software. I just sit back, put my feet up and dictate :)

same abstract to two different conferences
B

To be honest, the changing title thing is also to do with my CV. Looks better I think?

same abstract to two different conferences
B

Update: I went ahead and submitted the same abstract to both, and have been accepted at both. Unfortunately, I didn't change the title after all (schoolboy error) so they are identical.

My thoughts now are to ask to change the title of one, and try to alter the focus of the content a bit, one to methods, one to results.

Like someone said PG confs are usually attended by that uni's students and some presenters from others, so the chances of the same people being there are quite small.

Good idea? Or should I just do one and try the other again next year?

Literature review underway
B

Can't help there joyce, might be a question for your supervisor.

Meanwhile though, 5000 words, 1 of 5 sections done. Finally getting somewhere :)

i miised you all!!!!
B

I like the ambiguity of 'miised'.