I have to admit I have no idea what PROM stands for?

But: "By the end of today, I will have given birth - so someone fetch me a towel and a bucket of hot water!" made me smile because 'in my world' PROM stands for premature rupture of membranes and therefore your giving birth analogy (metaphor?) is rather apt! :-)

Anyway, I'm glad it's going well! (up)

Ah, your Gordon Brown story reminded me of what we did after the 1992 elections ... Once it became apparent that the tories had, yet again, won, my then boyfriend (now husband) decided it was his civic duty to try and do something about it. Well, as the Queen is the head of state, there was only one thing to do. He phoned directory enquiries and asked for the phone number for Elizabeth Windsor, Buckingham Palace. Amazingly he was given a number. A woman answered - sadly not the Queen. But he left a message for her, asking her to please do something and not let the tories in again for another 5 years. The woman promised to pass the message on and then the rest of us (4 or 5 not exactly sober students) repeated the phone call. Sadly the Queen didn't act on our advice. :-(

Thanks for all your comments. :-) I might try and get some of the most important papers through the library document supply services, but I don't get too many as it'll get quite expensive! I think for most of the papers I have enough information though. :-)

Hi Jill,

I've had a 15 year break since finishing my MSc, though I have done some other studying in the meantime (diploma in higher ed and OU courses) - both my first degree and MSc were in a totally different discipline. So it's definitely feasibible! At my uni there is wide range of age in PhD students. Some are similar to me and some have come in straight from an undergrad or masters degree. I like this mix of ages, though it made me feel rather old when I realised that some of my fellow PhD students were young toddlers when I started my undergraduate degree! :-)

I would say that if you have relevant experience there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to do a PhD. What really helped me were some relevant courses I had done with the Open University, as this (together with relevant work experience) showed that I had a good grounding in the field I'm now studying in.

Good luck! :)

My guess is that it means that next time you're in the pub you should check your pint before you drink it. Just in case there is a fish in there. But I could be wrong.

Last week I dreamt that I had been invited to play golf with Terry Wogan. What the heck does that mean? :-)

Ha, I finished my first degree in 1993, my Masters in 1994. Both in a completely different subject. :-) I have done some studying since though, and worked in the area I'm doing my PhD in. But yes, it does take a while to get into it. I wonder if it's very different if you've just finished and undergrad or Masters? Or is a PhD so different that it takes a lot of adjusting anyway?

Hi Max,

I think what you are feeling is very normal! I have also started recently (last Oct) and I've often felt a bit like that. It's all a bit overwhelming at times! I have done a lot of reading around my subject, but it's only now that I've started to look more closely at theoretical aspect that I feel it's all coming together and I'm getting closer to formulating some sort of research question.

You'll be fine!

:-)

Thanks, Keenbean. :-) That's what I thought - not quite the done thing but everybody does it... As you suggest, I do have some more info from other papers.

This might be a really dumb question :$ ... but what do you do if you only have the abstract of a paper and can't get hold of the whole paper? Is it ok to quote from it anyway, provided you have enough information? Or would this be a big no-no?

:-)

Welcome, L_E. :-) I think at times we all have niggling fears at the back of our minds - more than just niggling fears sometimes!

:-)

Happy New Year, everybody. :-)

======= Date Modified 30 Dec 2009 23:34:29 =======
Hmmm, this is going to make me feel really old. :-)

In chronological order:

ship's captain
archaeologist
ship's captain
psychologist
doctor (chose A-levels accordingly)
anthropologist
development worker (my first degree - trying to save the world ... oops, never quite managed it)
agronomist (masters, played a few years at working in agronomy research, now feels a bit like wasted years!)
long period of no-idea-what-I-want-to-be (& concentrating on being a mother)
midwife
psychologist

Am now heading towards a PhD in (sort of) psychology with a touch of midwifery thrown in. :-)

Life is definitely strange. 8-)

Congratulations! :-) What a great Christmas present. (tree) (gift) I'm only a few months into my PhD and at the moment I can't imagine ever getting as far as the Viva! It must be a great feeling to have completed your PhD. :-)

Excellent result! ;-) Don't spend the £4.50 all at once though!

Merry Christmas to you too. (tree)

Hi Roro,

in 'How to get a PhD' Phillips and Pugh list nine definitions of what it means to be original:

1 doing empirically based work that has not been done before
2 using already known ideas, practices or approaches but with a new interpretation
3 bringing new evidence to bear on an old issue or problem
4 creating a new synthesis that has not been done before
5 applying something done in another country to one's own country
6 applying a technique usually associated with one area to another
7 being cross-disciplinary by using different methodologies
8 looking at areas that people in the discipline have not looked at before
9 adding to knowledge in a way that has not previously been done before

It sounds like number 6 would apply to your proposed idea!  Remember, you don't have to come up with something as groundbreaking as the equivalent of the Theory of Relativity! Smaller original contributions to knowledge are still suitable for PhDs.

Good luck with your PhD. :-)