Hi Montezuma,

My supervisor and I chose my external together and quite early on in my research. The examiner is the one of the very few people who has done research like mine, within my area. I've quoted her extensively and have a HUGE respect for her and her research.

I also chose my internal with my Supervisor, who is someone who knows a lot about one area of my research, who I feel comfortable around, and doesn't scare me too much.

My supervisor contacted both with the examiner forms, etc. As far as I know, you're not meant to have personal contact with your examiners, so I'd leave it for your supervisor to do that. You might want to set upa meeting with him to discuss it, because I know in my uni, proceedings for the viva need to start at least 3 month before you plan on being examined.

Good luck!

Hey DrSeeker,

I have a preface and a context chapter.

The preface basically says, chapter by chapter what I'll be talking about. Its only a couple of pages long.

The context (which essentially is the intro) covers the main definitions related to the research subject, as well as any relevant legislation and critiques of this, and then goes on to look specifically at my research questions.

This chapter is then followed by my two lit review chapters.

Hope that helps :-)

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Sneaks, I went through this addiction in November. I was ashamed and told no-one. The good thing is that you have taken the first step to recovery - admitting you have a problem.

I assure you. Twilight is not worth it. It will only leave you disappointed and slightly sickened by the cheesy, gross, mushy and somewhat disturbing imagery you will encounter from New Moon onwards. Don't do it!!!

Step away from the books... pick up something more rewarding, like the True Blood series of books!

Sneaks, I've spent this week on non-PhD stuff, and will only be spending half of today on actual PhD-related stuff... so my goals for today:

- make changes to the infamous Chapter which I though I would never finish, but finally did on new years eve.
- meet with sup
- work on an assignment for my PGCE.

Then pub! :-)

Caz,
My bf got it from Firebox.com I think. They're awesome. I swear!!

Sneaks, when I was 19 my mom randomly bought me a tumble dryer for xmas (she's known for the randomness of her gifts). I was in uni a good 3 hours away, and it baffled me... how was I to get it to uni, where would I put it in my tiny house, and just why?? Not to seem ungrateful it went back with me and never got used, so ended up back with my mom. I think my brother now has it. I'm not sure. I might look into that.

My favourite present was this uber fantastic egg-shaped japanese cat which meows when you pet it, and says stuff in japanese, and when you play with it too much, it gets really angry. I love it. It's not practical, or useful, or anything really, but I love it. It has me in stitches!!

My most practical present was either money (which I spent on clothes), or a pastasaurus (dinosaur shaped pasta spoon), or the random dino-shaped sandwich moulds.

Strangest was a pair of leg-warmers from my mom... random.

I didn't get anything typically geeky, but my partner themed my presents so they all had some connection with dinosaurs or Super Mario. If that's not a sign of my utter geekiness, I don't know what is.:$

Hi Lawster,

I don't think you'll fail because of typos in your footnotes! If anything it'll just make up part of any corrections you need to do after your viva. Either way, make a list of the corrections you've picked up on and give it to your supervisor. You may be able to make the ammendments before your viva if they are small grammatical errors and typos. Try not to worry about it.

JK

I'm a good three months away, but am quite enjoying seeing what shape my thesis is taking. I've prematurely completed my title page, acknowledgements, abstract and have my contents table set up to update automatically. It's quite exciting seeing what the finished product potentially looks like 8-)

I'm quoting from a very, very well known childrens author, and his works are quite famous so think I'll just reference in the text. Thanks for your advice!

Hi guys,

Quick question...

I'm busy writing my acknowledgements, etc at the beginning of my thesis. If you quote from, for example, a poem, or in my case a children's story, at this point, do you need to reference that in your main references? Or do you just need to reference in the text the author/ poet, year, and story/ poem?

Any advice would be appreciated! :-)

when I had mine, I had to do a presentation about designing a research project. The interview part was pretty informal, with both my supervisors present. It was about getting to know why I wanted to do the research and my values surrounding the topis etc. Apparently, I was offered the place because of my enthusiasm for the topic, my presentation (although I thought it was terrible), and because I had a lot of relevant experience which I drew on in the interview.

Basically, I'd say, as cliche as it is, be yourself and let your knowledge, understanding and enthusiasm shine through.

Good luck!

======= Date Modified 06 Jan 2010 16:05:55 =======
I had undergrads do mine... my sup sorted out the funding though. Before I got the funding, my boyfriend helped me in his spare time. you could ask a close friend or family member if they wouldn't mind helping, and provide dinner and a beer as compensation?? cheaper than paying someone.

Oh the plus side for you though, if you do it yourself, at least you know it's done properly. Some of mine was pretty shocking and I had to go through and re-transcribe some as huge bits were missed out, or just made no sense.

50 hours is a lot so good luck!! Transcribing was the worst part of my research. I've pretty much repressed the pain of it now though...

I made my table of contents yesterday ... i was very, very excited about it. Someone is right, you can have different types of numerals and as long as your contents table is automatic, it should update it with the different page numbers automatically. If it's manual, just type it in.

Someone, to make the contents page using Word 2007, you have to assign each title and subtitle a heading... its all quite straightforward, but can be time consuming. here's the website i used.. it explains it better than I ever could!

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HP012253721033.aspx?pid=CH100626361033

Just a quick update... after a nice little break over christmas, I have finished the never-ending chapter and am in a much happier place. I know I have absolutely tonnes to do and may have to push my deadline back, but I'm ok with that :-)

I hope everyone else is doing well, and thanks so much for your support and concern!

Onwards and upwards!

When I was really little, I was determined I'd be either a singer, a pirate or a clown. I decided clown and pirate were not really possible so decided I'd be a singer, until my brother found my songs and took the mick for ages. That dream faded... after that it went something like this:

vet
mad scientist - *followed chemistry for a bit*
volcanologist - *this lasted very long... up to A-levels, but couldn't stand human geography so dropped that and chemistry*
*Took up sociology and psychology A-Levels*
Clinical psychologist or detective - went to uni to do criminology and psychology

Finished uni still kind of wanting to be a clinical psychologist, but got involved in education during undergrad which I carried on, and then applied for my PhD in Education, which has led me to where I am now, wanting to be an academic researcher in the same subject.

I'd still love to go back and go down the volcanology route, or do something with animals though.

The website says this:

Christmas applications
Please note that the online ATAS application form will be closed from 12:00 Wednesday 23rd December 2009 until 09:00 Monday 4th January 2010 for the Christmas and New Year period. All ATAS applications submitted before or after these dates will be processed in the normal way. From January 2010 the processing times for applications will be increasing to 20 working days.