Hi ShinyPilot, sorry to hear about your induction experience. I don't think I have any advise to give except to let you know that I have a partner but I can say that I still feel alone with the PhD. So I really sympathise if you are feeling like this from the start. I didn't have the same experience as you but its very difficult to know how you will feel in a week's time or even a months time but maybe just to give yourself a few weeks to settle in and see how it goes. Sometimes you just know if it going to work out from the beginning. But if you are on campus most days it may be easier to give yourself time to see if you will find something in common with the other students.

Welcome to the forum Fryda (up)

Hydi, I am also not sure of the difference between framework and thematic approach. You probably know the the national centre for social research uses framework
http://www.natcen.ac.uk/natcen/pages/hw_framework.htm#
My understanding of framework is that you bring together all the themes into a matrix - This can be organised by for example putting all the responses for a particular questions together. I understand its a good way to organise and get familiar with your data.

Just posted a congrats to you Lara on your viva page. It's really great to read how well Lara has done after all the hard work and effort. I can't ever imagine getting a thesis to first draft never mind getting to the viva stage. Like Emmie I would like to get into the habit of Lara's trick on writing done when things are done! How far on are you Emmie. I am coming to the end of my third year very little writing done but planning to write at least the methodology and findings chapters in the next 3-4 months.

Big congratulations to Dr Lara, it's really motivating and inspirational to read your story.

Sorry didn't get to say this earlier but sending best of wishes to Lara.

Hi Sue, I think you are right it is difficult to know what will be important when the interviews are finished. I found the whole transcription process so tedious and this made getting the raw data out even longer. I asked my interviewees would they be happy for me to come back but I feel if I attempted to return now it would be too long after the event, its just over one year now since I last saw most of my participants. I think they will not remember me!! When I am writing up my findings my supervisor will ask a question about the data and when I see his comments I will think yes, wish I had thought to ask that one!

I went to a workshop on analysing qualitative interviews and the tutors recommended going back to check your interview findings not with the same participants but with new participants to check if your interpretations have some resonance with them. I am not sure but this would depend on what your qualitative standpoint is, I personally agree with member checking but its always the time factor plus what happens if new things come up or do you work the new findings into your existing data set. I was thinking about doing up a summary paper with a couple of points, and to use this as a feedback to participants before finishing the data analysis. As you say the good thing is we are still learning and this is the nature of the interview. It is an inexact science that's what makes it all the more difficult!

Hi Rick, thanks for your reply. Although I am coming to the end of my 3rd year I am planning to do a couple more interviews. My interviews have not been carried out in the style of grounded theory but hopefully these last few interviews will fill in any gaps that I am finding. Thanks again.

Just wondering if anyone has any advise or tips for reading through transcripts. My problem is that each time I read through the transcripts I see so many missed opportunities. I have the participant telling me their story, I ask myself - why didn't I explore that further instead of coming in with a really mediocre question! I am using nvivo to code the transcripts any advise or thoughts on the coding process to how to deal with negativity while going over the interviews would really be appreciated.

Managed to complete my task that I posted to the accountability thread, so goal for yesterday code on transcript [DONE]. Hope you don't mind Lara if I use your strategy of writing DONE! It's motivating to write this word in caps!! Goal for today is the same, code one transcript. I have other things which I could be adding to the list but for now I am just going to write down what I know I must and can achieve for the day. It took the whole of the day yesterday to do this piece of work that I would say could be done in 4 hours. I was struggling to finish last night, thinking I will finish this last piece in the morning but it feels a bit more motivating coming to the computer today to start on a new transcript. OK I am clocked in!

PS Lara well done you for being ahead of your schedule (up)

My plan for today and for each day over the next couple of weeks is to code one transcript. I have more aims that are written down in my notebook and its usually the case that only one or two major things get done. At least if I write down one major aim which I think I will achieve by the end of the day then it will be progress! Phew everything seems to takes ages to do!

Today I am just going to get some admin tasks done, minutes of a sup meeting, draft up some questions for sending by email and draft outline for my methodology chapter. I took a day off yesterday to catch up on some cleaning, hadn't done any for a couple of weeks! I remember in one of Bolker's chapters she says to drop the cleaning standards in the dissertation year! I am trying to clean less, just the essentials! Sometimes its hard to look at things in a mess! Hi Emmie, I am also reading another book on writing up qualitative studies the author recommends not sticking to amount of pages done but time spent, in one hour you can write five page very quickly or spend the whole day trying to get one page done. He said that time spent was more motivating. I am not sure yet what works for me as I haven't done enough to know!! I suppose its good to know the tips and then take what works for you. Rubyw I remember attending a seminar and one of the presenters had finished her PhD and was talking about how difficult it was to motivate herself to return to the thesis and start working on what the examiners wanted, she said she felt she has lost ownership of the thesis. She got through it using the the do list and also clocking in and out each day using small cards to record her progress. I can only relate to how tedious it is to edit, I don't know about the end stages of the PhD but I am hoping to soon have some chapters to edit! Have a good day everyone, I am planning to not spend too long at the computer today.

Hi Sue, many thanks for your reply. I also used to work as an RA and I understand what you say about the post-doc.

Hi, I am also in the same position but not the same field. I am about to start my 4th year, have no publications and starting to write up. My funding runs out as well. I haven't started to look for post-docs, not sure where to start. I am looking to see what is out there but mostly looking at Research Assistant type posts where some ask for a PhD as desirable. Are post-docs clearly marked as post-docs, what is the difference in applying for a post-doc and a RA type post? Sorry for really basic question and good luck with your search. Personally I would go for the post-docs where I can fulfill most of the essential criteria, you may have something else you can offer which is transferable to other essential requirements.