hi all

I'm wondering if you can provide some advice on writing a thesis synopsis. I've completed my sociology thesis and have summarized the 68,000 word beast into 4,000 words. My aim is to provide a summary of the project for my interviewees, friends, family and, most importantly, potential employers (both in the academy and in the private sector). Right now it's divided in the following way - 'the problem', where I put the thesis questions and provide some back ground info, a definition of the two case study objects (I analyzed two consumer goods) and why they're interesting sociologically, a brief overview of some of the key features of contemporary society, an elaboration on a key concept, and finally 4 key findings (each of which correspond to 1 chapter in the thesis). I also have a 2 paragraph 'conclusion'.

I've taken some effort to make it as jargon-free as possible and basically copied and pasted the best bits from each of the chapter's conclusions. I'm just wondering if I'm missing anything (aka the usual 'hard to see the wood for the trees' situation).

Also, I'm planning on sending it out to several corporations who helped with the case study objects and was wondering if I need to be wary of doing this in terms of plagiarism/intellectual property issues? I'm going to PDF if and insert a watermark with my name and 'do not quote without permission'. Anything else I should consider? Thanks a lot.

Tell her to take the job. In this market, she'd be crazy not to. My partner and I have just graduated with our doctorates (both sociologists) and are not impressed with the number of potential jobs out there. Twelve months is short enough that she can stick it out if she has to. In terms of maternity leave she definitely won't receive it as you have to be F-T member of staff. I would expect that she might be doing odds and ends on the project after the official end date but not enough to ask for a contract extension. Long story short: your friend is VERY lucky to have any job prospects right now so please encourage her to get it whilst she can.

i'm not sure about your university but at mine (lancaster) the first panel review is a very relaxed one. basically the supervisors simply want to see what work you've done your first year and what you want to accomplish in your second. Hopefully your supervisor is giving you some very specific advice as to what you should submit. All in all, i wouldn't worry about it at all. One thing you can do is be prepared to feel silly for not talking/writing about some glaringly obvious point which your supervisors (esp. the visiting one) will identify. But that's to be expected afterall since you can't see the forest for the trees some times, right?