Hi again,

Now that I'm out of the office, I just wanted to say thanks again to everyone who has posted here.

Every reply has been thoughtful and informative (although come to think of it that's what you would expect, given the forum).

Before I posted here I really wasn't even certain how to go about exploring whether this was a realistic option, and now I am.

By the way, I hope my first post didn't sound flippant. I do not, of course, plan to knock up a research proposal without going near a library. I just felt daunted by the prospect of starting something without a clear idea of what I was doing.

Thanks again,

Chris

Wow, thank you all for your generous and helpful replies. This is all very useful, and much more than I had hoped for. Will reply more fully later, but have to go now as I'm paranoid that the news editor will spot what I'm reading about.

Thanks again,

Chris

Hi,

Let me start with an apology - I'm not a current PhD student, I'm selfishly gatecrashing your forum in search of helpful advice.

I'm 30 years old. I've got an MA (Distinction) in International Relations and a BA (2.1) in Philosophy. I finished my MA in 2002 and I've been out of academia since then. For the past three years I've been working full-time as a journalist. I'm now a senior reporter writing for a respected social policy magazine, and I'm doing well. But I'm bored. The subject matter is interesting, but it's not something I'm passionate about, and I am anyway pining for something more intellectually demanding than news reporting.

I want to do a PhD. As far as I'm aware my qualifications are good enough, at least to not preclude me from getting funding. And I'm sure my professional background can be played to my advantage in some way - I won a national award for my reporting this year, and was shortlisted for others. But beyond that, I literally don't know where (or when) to start. I've been out of academia for so long, I've got no idea where to start with developing a research proposal, looking for a supervisor, applying for funding, etc.

I do, of course, have questions I'm interested in, but I've got no idea how they would fit in with work that's already been done, much less how well they would tessellate with the priorities of people dishing out grants.

On top of that, I don't have weeks to sit in libraries mulling possible research ideas - I'm working full time? What should I do? Where can I go for advice? Am I being hopelessly ignorant?

All advice greatfully received...