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Hello folks. Apologies for the silence lately, been busy doing interviews and collecting chunky chunky data.

I'm currently researching architectural education towards a PhD at Queen's University Belfast. My friend, Anna Holder, is working on a PhD at the University of Sheffield. Together, we've taken our respective experiences of having zero formal training in research methodologies and decided to host a student-led colloquium in January.

The blog is here: http://exploringcommongrounds.wordpress.com/

If you want to join us, the instructions are on the website. Just email us directly, it's not formal, no peer review etc. Here's the formal call we launched on Friday:

Common Grounds: exploring methodologies for research within or research about architecture and the built environment

St. Deiniol's Library, Clwyd, Friday 14 & Saturday 15 January 2011

Call for participation

A winter colloquium for post-graduate students and early career researchers on methodologies for researching architecture and the built environment.

Doing research on or in the field of architecture can feel like a methodological free-for-all, borrowing from the arts, humanities, physical sciences, social sciences etc. Conscious of the difficulties facing early career researchers in the built environment (who may not feel they have received adequate training in this area) Common Grounds proposes a weekend away from the university to present, discuss and constructively critique research-in- progress. This event will focus on developing thematic clusters and working relationships to support research in the field of architecture.

Early-career researchers in any discipline with an interest in architectural research are invited to submit:

- a 100 word introduction to your topic and key questions
- a 200 word abstract describing your current / proposed research methodologies
- a brief statement of what you would like to get out of this event

Timeline

Call for papers: 22 October 2010
Deadline for submissions: 26 November 2010
Programme announced: 10 December 2010

Outline programme

On the Friday: attendees will be invited to present an informal 20 minute paper specifically discussing their research approach and methodology. Time will be allocated for detailed discussion and feedback. Submissions are particularly invited from researchers who have are still developing their research questions and approaches. Informal conversations may continue over dinner.

On the Saturday: based on the outcomes of the previous day's presentations, we will collectively design structured workshops to consolidate and develop methodological themes.

Organisers

Anna Holder, University of Sheffield James Benedict Brown, Queen's University Belfast
We are two PhD candidates in architecture who have identified a shared concern and interest in our methodological approaches.

Reminds of me of the recent spat between the humanist and religious groups that paid for adverts on the sides of London buses. The humanists kicked things off with a great advert that read "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." This inspired a response from a religious group along the lines of "There definitely is a God."

There was some mention of the Advertising Standards Authority getting involved (for deceptive advertising) but I think it was thrown out before it far because it would have necessitated the Christian group going before an ASA panel and proving the existence of God.

Good afternoon folks.

It's a rainy day here in Glasgow, and I'm ploughing through some articles from unrelated disciplines to mine but which have a certain crossover of content (I'm examining a certain kind of pedagogical activity).

I've just been reading a paper published in an American management journal in which the author not only quotes the Bible, but ends with a quote by Pope John Paul II with regards to morality and economic prosperity.

Being an atheist / humanist who has, through progressive stages of education, completely abandoned Christianity, I was wondering what others here think about quoting Biblical passages or the words of a religious leader in an academic paper...

Ta!

Hello. I recently entered the second year of my PhD studies, and am looking to use a kind of Delphi Technique to structure my two phases of interviews with academics working in my area of study. Has anyone else used the Delphi or similar techniques as a form of building consensus while respecting individual voices?

Thanks!

Thanks for all of the above... and sorry for taking so long to get back here. I think I can source most of the above but I may return for more help if I have trouble getting hold of them. (up)(up)

Hello again. I'm considering using online questionnaires (perhaps using surveymonkey or similar) to collect data from a group of people associated with my field of study. While there is plenty of information in the usual textbooks and guides for conducting social research, most of this relates to paper and/or posted questionnaires and maximising response rates that way.

I was wondering whether anyone might be able to help me locate recent published writing, perhaps in the journals or elsewhere in print, that might give some guidance about online questionnaires, and how to maximise response rates etc., in specific consideration of the advantages and disadvantages offered by doing them online.

Many thanks!

Thank you everyone, your input is greatly appreciated. I've emailed off the document now; the review itself is a week on Monday.

I did indeed get the chance to discuss the report with my supervisors, however (as sod's law would dictate) one is now abroad for the summer and the other is on annual leave. However before she left she contributed to my first draft on Google Docs (forget Microsoft Word, my friends, this is the way to write documents!) so I was able to build on her recommendations.

I've realised that I've begun to treat this forum like I use my membership on another (Allotment gardening) forum, only showing up to ask for help when I need it. I promise to be a more conscientious contributor :)

Thanks again!

Lit. Review - definitely. I think I have to have that for differentiation from Mphil to Phd after 9 months.

As for a plan for Y2, yes. I suppose they want to see that I'm planning ahead and marking key dates etc. I'm just reluctant to commit to anything on paper beyond what would realistically help me achieve the project, without yet knowing what that might be :D

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Hello. For my (slightly late) three month review I'm preparing a report to be circulated to the review panel of my tutor and two other faculty members. The report structure asks me to detail my "Projected deliverables at the end of first year" ...

I have no idea what I can project to deliver at the end of the first year... so how do I answer this question without looking clueless?

I'm studying a certain aspect of architectural education, so I'm definitely more humanities than sciences. I'm building an impressive array of secondary research, but at this stage I'm only just beginning to think about first steps....

Yikes. Can't answer your question, but I would technically be in the same boat.

The rule is that you only start to make repayments once you are earning more than £15,000 p/a. However, I don't know if that is gross income or net income, and I don't know whether - as a non-taxable stipend - your funding counts as taxable income. It doesn't count as taxable for income tax, so I would have thought/hoped not.

However, the standard UK stipend for PhD students is £12,940 p/a, rising to £13,xxx in September. Unless you're getting extra funding from somewhere else and are receiving more than £15,000 p/a, I doubt very much whether you have any reason to worry.

Thanks for all the tips, will follow them up (up)

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Hello. Mrs Ontheroad and I have had almost enough with our hand-me-down HP Photosmart All-in-one inket printer. It scans badly, prints badly and copies badly, all-in-one. It drinks ink like an American car, and it chews paper up like a combine harvester chews crops, only nothing edible or useful comes out of it.

So we're looking to replace it with a budget (< £100) mono laser printer. It must be able to print duplex (double sided). Amazon and a few other retails have some tempting machines, but few seem able to do duplex, and there are far too many all-in-ones that are inkjet rather than laser.

Any suggestions from home working PhDs? Built in wireless networking would be handy, and it must be Mac compatible.

Thanks!

I use a piece of online software called RefWorks that my university's IT department subscribes to. Because it's online I can access my references from anywhere with an internet connection, and it's mostly compatible with the library catalogue system that we use. Perhaps contact your postgraduate support office or IT department to see if they have a recommended piece of software for the job (they may also be able to sell you a student license of EndNote or similar for much less than the full whack).

Definitely keep a water pistol or a plant spray bottle handy. Repeated target practice on the cheeky mog won't hurt or harm her, and she'll soon learn to leave you in peace.

We have two indoor cats ourselves - beautifully polite house trained girls who moved to the UK from the USA with my partner. However in our 'close' (Scottish term for the shared hallway and stairs that serve tenement apartments) there are a number of very friendly outdoor mogs. That means they're clustered around my feet when I come home and am letting myself in... I usually have to distract them to get in without causing an encounter between them and our flee-less indoor girls.

Hi Java,

I started just four weeks ago - I'm an architect, looking more at the humanities / social sciences / pedagogy end of things.

The first month has left me a bit frazzled, but only because I've started reading with a vengeance and have succeeded in filling my brain with a vast number of distinct ideas and themes. Perhaps as time progresses I'll be reading one area or subject more closely, but for now I'm just trying to build up a field of knowledge that plugs some of my gaps. It's enjoyable to say the least, however. I'm not sure I'm hitting 7 or 8 hours a day, because the allotment calls during the day time and I can't yet guarantee a few hours every night. However I think I'm rolling along nicely at about thirty concerted hours of reading and noting a week.

Based on my experiences as a taught postgraduate doing my dissertation while in Europe on an Erasmus exchange, I've started a blog about the project. I'm hoping to produce a couple of posts a week and to use it to collate my bibliography, references, links and general project ephemera. There are some very good PhD bloggers out there in the humanities, because if you enjoy writing it's a good format and forum in which to bash out ideas, test some thinking and create a very personal journal of your life and work.

Feel free to drop by, although I can't promise the content will be interesting...!

http://learningarchitecture.wordpress.com/