Only if what you are going to play it on can read DVDs. Most PCs these days can read DVD or CD, but not all CD players in stereo systems or in cars can - some of them can't read CD-RW or CD-R formats either.

8-)

Although, talking about Dropbox and backup has reminded me that I should probably copy my dissertation draft up to it... oops...

Try Dropbox - http://www.dropbox.com

I think you get 2Gb of space first off. It's a file sharing utility - so you can set up a folder which you can then give someone else access to - then they can login and download the file you've uploaded (if that makes sense!). No need to email...

Good for handy online backup of important files too...

I think in some ways it depends where you want to go as a journalist.

Back in the day, when I trained - around about the time of the ark, when there were no such things as degrees in journalism :-) you couldn't work as a newspaper journalist without the NCTJ cert - most newspapers took on trainees and you got to do the cert on block release over a year (or two). But that was before Wapping, the breaking of the unions, and the arrival of DTP - at lot has changed since then 8-)

I didn't want to be a newspaper hack, so I opted for the only other way in at the time, which was to do the euphemistically-named 'Pre-entry Course in Periodical Journalism' at the London College of Printing (now London College of Communication) and I became a magazine editor. That was a year's course, and I had originally intended to head off to Canterbury and do a BA in Politics after I'd finished, but the lure of money and a job was overwhelming, so I didn't go back to uni.

I think my point is - being able to demonstrate that you're a good reporter/writer/editor/whatever is more important (in my view) than academic qualifications. That's not to say don't do the MA, because it is a much more competitive world out there than it was when I started, and subject-specific knowledge may be important to you, depending on the kind of work you want to do - but I would say get some experience during the next year - and do the cert, if that's where you want to go. Get some work published any which way you can. When I was an editor, I worked for a small specialist publisher, and all our writers were freelance - we used to get articles sent in on spec all the time - the good ones got published (up)

Yay - best of luck to all the PhD newbies starting in the next couple of months :-x

I've just had my final interview (and rejection!) today to start this year - so that's me for now :-( I may well be back again next year for another go - we shall see!

In the meantime, I have an MSc dissertation to finish :p - onwards and upwards!

The OU has a nominal requirement that their full-time PhD students are based within 15 miles of Milton Keynes (which is where the campus is), but some faculties are more flexible in this regard - and they are much more flexible for part-time students. I was offered a full-time studentship with them (which I didn't take up for a variety of reasons), and they were initially very reluctant to allow me to be based remotely (I'm about 400 miles away from MK), but said they were willing to give it a go as long as I was prepared to travel to MK relatively regularly.

Anyone who's been to MK will probably appreciate why I didn't want to move there ;-)

If you're going to have a user name, you might as well have a memorable one
:-)

I'm with Slizor - it's more to do with the relationship between the ideas. 'Which' generally does follow a comma in this sense, which begins a new clause (see what I did there? ;-)) The general rule I use is that if you read the sentence out loud and you feel there should be a pause before the 'which' or 'that', then it should be 'which', cos chances are it's a new clause. If you don't pause, then it's 'that'...

Sneaks - in your example, I'd use 'who'.... but that's another one that's open to interpretation...

PS - first post here - hi everyone 8-) Crumbs, first post and I'm going to get a reputation as a grammar nazi.....