I tried to do your survey, your questions don't take account of the fact that not everyone is doing their PhD in the US. In Europe, and in the UK in particular PhD students don't attend classes. Your questionnaire design therefore limits you to the US - I suggest that you make this clear in your request for help,

I don't have any first-hand advice to offer, but the things other people have suggested seem sensible. I just wanted to say how nice you are for taking the trouble to come to a forum like this seeking ideas to support him. He's lucky!:-)

I'm with the others - you can justify it on grounds of ease of access.

I agree with previous comments - the survey looks unprofessional. Agree-disagree clines should accompany statements, not questions. I suggest you rethink the design of your survey.

I think this will be found and will be viewed as plagiarism. If I were you, I would contact your supervisor and explain what's happened. They'll probably be understanding, but it would look better if you broach the subject first rather than waiting till they come to you.

Thank you for your tips!:-)

I'm writing a 100+ page document, which contains 12 tables. Some of the tables are currently spilt over two pages - is it preferable to avoid splitting tables over 2 pages (and thus, have instead occasional empty half pages)? I don't know which is the lesser of 2 evils. Any advice? Thanks in advance! :$

15k not much for London and you won't be able to eat out and go drinking much, but it's do-able. There are a lot of museums, galleries, churches and parks in London that are all free.

Your bursary should be tax-free (I think all PhD bursaries are) and you won't pay council tax if you're in full-time education. My bursary is only 11,000 and I manage OK (but I live in the North, where rent is much cheaper and I cycle or walk everywhere). If you can share a house, you shouldn't have to spend too much on rent, and you can cycle if you live near the university, but buy a cheap bike and an expensive lock!

I'd say that in general what will help your career is:

1.) having published articles in as high-profile journals as possible. As you know, not just the process of writing an article, but usually the process of peer review to actual publication takes a long time, so the sooner you start on that the better.

2.) having experience of presenting at conferences. If you're not that confident, you can start by presenting to research seminars at your own university, presenting at post-grad conference, and doing joint presentations. By the end, you should have a couple of international conference presentations under your belt. Even if you don't stay in academia, employers will value good presentation skills.

3.) having some experience of doing research. If you can get some work on a project other than your own thesis work, this could stand you in good stead, especially if it's working with someone well established in your field. Just acting as research assistant, coding data or whatever might be useful if it's with the right kind of people, because it will show that people other than your own supervisor are willing to trust your work, and that you're well-organised enough to take on external projects.

4.) having experience of having run or organised something. You could volunteer to help organise your department's post-grad conference, for example, or set up a research group. As a second best, volunteer to review abstracts for a conference in the field or something like that. This will show initiative, drive, and some evidence of networking ability.

5.) teaching. This is less important if you're not planning to stay in academia, but it still shows good communication skills, confidence in front of large groups, ability to present info clearly to novices, etc. as well as indicating that your department trusts your knowledge enough to let you loose on undergraduates.

That's my tuppence worth.

It depends on your area and what approach you take. I've read thesis in the social sciences that take an ethnographic or case study approach with just 4 or 5 participants but perhaps are longitudinal or use very in-depth analysis.

Lancaster University has a strong record in CDA and pragmatics. Ruth Wodak, the queen bee of CDA, works there and Norman Fairclough is emeritus professor. They also have good lecturers/potential supervisors in pragmatics - Mick Short, (he's a national teaching fellow, I think), Elena Semino and Jonathan Culpeper.

Lancaster University does not seem to advertise itself very well, but it has a great reputation in this area of Linguistics.

Lancaster is in the north west of England and quite small, so it would be cheaper to live in than London, but it's on the main train line so is well connected for getting to London, Manchester and Scotland.

I'm not sure how much reading I should be doing or what's "normal" in the early stages of a PhD, and wondering how much reading other people usually get through. This week I've read and made notes on around 8 journal articles and I'm wondering how that compares to other people. I feel as if I'm working really slowly sometimes. I'm full-time, but I do teach part-time and have other commitments as well as the PhD. My field is linguistics/education. How about you?

What's your experience with getting your thesis proofread? Do you do it yourself? Ask a friend? Pay someone? If you are not a native speaker of English, is it considered ethical to pay a native speaker to proofread? What are your departments attitudes to this?

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Hull itself is not a very attractive place to live. However, it is cheap and this will count in its favour if you're living on a bursary. It might also mean that you could afford to live in a nicer part of town (the nicer areas being relatively inexpensive compared to bad areas in nicer cities). I think the quality of the department is more important for a PhD than the quality of the town itself, and as far as I know Hull has a reasonable reputation for politics. In my opinion, the ranking of the institution at which you do your PhD is far less important than it might be at MA or undergraduate level, because you do all the research yourself anyway, so many of the factors that affect rankings (such as staff-student ratios, quality of curriculum etc.) are irrelevant at PhD level.

An MA in EFL/TESOL will enable you to get a job teaching English as a foreign language at university level. That seems obvious, so I'm not sure what else you wanted to know. Obviously, there are far more jobs overseas than in the UK or USA, but you could teach on pre-sessionals in the UK. That said, many universities are looking for an MA in TESOL plus some experience of teaching EAP. Pre-sessionals are not permanent positions - just two months in the summer.

If you're looking for something full-time or permanent, you would have a better chance in Asia or the Middle East than in Europe, although many universities ask for 3 publications and/or a PhD. That said, an MA alone would probably get you work in less desirable/lucrative locations. Much of the work is part-time. You will almost certainly not get a full-time teaching post in the UK or USA without a PhD.

If it's commercial EFL schools you're looking at, you should not need an MA, but a post-graduate diploma in TESOL would be helpful to get a better-paid or more secure job.

If you want to work in a high school overseas, a PGCE or equivalent teaching license would be more useful than an MA.

I hope this helps.