This diagram was created to make sense of the themes that emerged from the semi-structured interviews conducted as part of my PhD research. It Illustrates the rhizomatic nature of those themes.
The darker side of PhD life.
There is no doubting that something happens when people find out you are a PhD researcher. Most people anyway. There is an instant respect offered. You become elevated in thier estimations and they seem to trust you to have half a clue about things. It feels good. No doubt about that. Actually it feels flipping great. But this post isn’t about that. Sorry. This is a reality check. This is where shit gets real.
Let me highlight something first. This is not a post written in anger or vexation. I am not on the verge of quitting. I am not upset with my supervisors. But i do want to warn people of what they are letting themselves in for. Especially self-funders who tend to be part-time too.
The one bit of advice you hear lots pre registrations is about how you need to love the subject. It will take over your life for 3-7 years. Yup. This is absolutly true. Follow it. No point banging on about it. It’s right. But it’s not the whole picture.
Did you think about taking holidays? What a dream that would be. In fact the only time I get away is to conferences and training events. Evenings or Weekends. Pick one you will loose the other. Which means many friends will drop off, new friendships will be tough to nurture. What you get now, instead is contacts. You get to network. You get to seek possible colaborators. The funders love colaborators.
These are the big things. It’s not always the big things. Sometimes the little things mount up. Weekends become a juggling act of life admin and thesis writing. Gigs. Money and time would be nice. No festivals. A date is difficult to fit in most of the time. When meeting a nice guy the first reaction is to panic about how to fit him in to the schedule.
Did you consider the impact on your relationships now you have no time and money? It’s ok because your new ‘freinds’ will be impressed by your status.
Did you realise that birthdays are something you can’t celebrate anymore; and as a result no one celebrates yours. But it’s for a higher purpose. You will need to keep telling yourself that. It’s for a higher purpose.
Brought a nice dress and shoes. Where you wearing those to. That’s right you have a date with your possessive husband Mr PhD. Well you do want to take his name.
The truth is that this journey sucks. It’s hard graft. You have to really use your head and face the worst criticisms from intellects and idiots alike. Things go wrong all the time. Your Gannt chart is obsolete the minute it’s printed. It’s flipping expensive too.
Why does anyone bother? If you can answer that then go for it. That there is the key to your motivation. Only 2% of the population get PhDs apparently. There’s a reason. They are tough!!! They suck!!! Are any of us in this for an easy ride? No didn’t think so.
I have 18 months to go and I’m gagging for the end. Not for the better job or letters after my name. I’m hungry for the freedom i once had. Maybe I’ll take up crafting, or play my guitar more. Maybe, just maybe I will be able to go out. Shhhhh don’t say H to the oliday don’t want to jinx it. Oh to see the sea and smell the salted air. One day. One post doc day.
Such sweet, beautiful mess.
Every researcher is told to write a research journal. It seems to be a pretty important part of the process. In fact this very blog began as a form of research journal, despite it functioning more as a guide to others planning to embark, or already on the PhD journey.
I will admit that my research journaling has been as messy as my methodology. There really isn’t much guidance out there. What to capture, when to capture it, how often etc. I guess it is too individualistic. You have to do what works for you. But it is important to realise that PhD’s take a long time and your attention is pulled in many directions. With the pressure of writing up at the end, it is unrealistic to think you will remember everything you need to. What about capturing all of the feelings and thoughts you had three years ago? In fact I have been told of PhDs taking up to ten years in some cases. Jotting it down as you go will take the pressure off.
The majority of my thoughts have been written with a pen in various notebooks. They are not chronological and are mixed in with lecture notes etc. But I do know where they all are. If I were to do this again I would probably use Word, or One Note. Simply because I could run it through something like Atlas.Ti afterwards. It would make the process of sifting through the notes much more efficient. Plus I have no doubt that a lot of what I have written could be simply cut and pasted into the thesis. If only I had typed it up. But then again I do like to have a good excuse to write by hand.
Below is today’s offering. I thought it was a particularly good example as you can see all of the places my head wonders, and how I am picking apart what I am doing, I am currently working through my interviews to find themes between them. They were conducted about between a year and two years ago.
26.07.14
I am working through case study one. This interview was with a good friend and it shows. The way at the beginning, when she starts talking seriously about very left field subjects and I laugh nervously. It is highlighted throughout in the shared laughs and the general tone of the conversation.
At one point I start asking her to define what is happening. I don’t say these words but I mean in terms of a social construct. I give her words like ‘religion’, ‘cult’, and ‘sub-culture’. I attempt to keep it broad so as not to influence her. Now, listening back, I find myself asking ‘why?’ why so much emphasis? – I go over the matter twice. Is it necessary to define it? Why is a definition important? And isn’t it my job to do the defining? I supposed in response to the last question I could argue that it is an attempt to give voice and power to the community.
My focus more recently has been less on social constructivism and more on trying to encapsulate what it is that I want to say with this thesis. What is the message? It feels so bloody messy. There is so much to say how do I boil it all down? Although on some days I wonder if I really do have anything new and interesting to say at all. It this my own fear of commitment? Part of me feels that it will be career defining to surmise in a sentence or two what this work is about. Maybe I am scared of missing my own point. What if there is something so ridiculously interesting, useful or beneficent in my own material and I miss it?
The rhizoanalysis is also occupying a lot of my thought. Again I have fears about this. Can I justify it’s use? Going through the interviews again I have noticed that interconnectivity isn’t mentioned as much as I first thought. Yet I know – as a pseudo-insider – that it would be rare to find someone with either an interest in shamanism or whom has experienced ayahuasca that doesn’t believe that everything or everyone is connected. Furthermore I fear that I cannot do the methodology justice – since it is such a complicated and abstract concept,
To me now, social constructivism, dare I say it, was an idea born of naivety on my part. In truth I didn’t even know it was called social constructivism until roughly this time last year. The field I am studying is relatively new. The community is sparse, separated and ununiformed. Everything both is and yet isn’t – what I am calling the Schrodinger syndrome. [Don’t get me wrong. I know that Schrodinger’s theory is largely misunderstood – but I don’t fully understand how. It does however illustrate my point here. It also explains (if you are interested in quantum physics) a fundamental difference between qualitative and quantitative research. With qualitative methods I can illustrate quite nicely the transient, difficult to define nature of human behaviour, but if I had taken a quantitative approach, by definition I would implement measuring tools. To measure is to capture what state Schrodinger’s cat is in. No one knows until the box is open. Had I used surveys for instance that box would have been open and I would have to say ‘more people said x so x must be true’. It’s a bit like voting. The party with the most votes gets in – but in fact it is usually the case that more people vote against the winning party. But I digress*.] I wonder if this is and isn’t-ness is just inherent in human nature, or could it be the plants’ intelligence avoiding capture. Is it playing games? Maybe it is the collective consciousness of the community?
On a positive note it is good to be able to see my own growth since the interviews. There is no doubt that my thoughts have become more sophisticated. Before I was more ‘I have to explain this so that everyone gets it’ or ‘I have to define this in one easy to understand word’. Of course I hope that most people will get it. But it’s insulting to think that most people need such a degree of reductionism. Sorry for any offence I may have caused in the past.
For more about Schrodinger’s experiment and how it has been misunderstood try this link: http://www.informationphilosopher.com/solutions/experiments/schrodingerscat/
There is far too much technical information for me to translate. What I think I can see is that most people think that Schrodinger’s experiment demonstrates that electron or particles exist in two states at once (wave and beam). But really it’s saying that – well the cat – is either dead or alive, not both, and then something about the probability depending on the half-life of the radioactive matter and so one. But the point being it is not defined until measures. I think. Ooh cookies.
If you understand the misunderstanding and truth behind the experiment please feel free to explain it to me.
Comments, likes and shares, as ever received with gratitude.
*Word in square brackets were added for the benefit of the blog.
Finding the balance
Being a part-time, self-funded researcher sometimes feels like you are the poor cousin. Unless you are already comfortable in your career trajectory, in which case you are probably doing a PhD simply to prove you can, you are likely to be both cash and time poor for the love of your subject. Maybe not just for the love of your subject. The hope of one day earning enough to have a nice little semi and a decent car is also a driver. But trust me, to work day and night, have only the shadow of a social life and to barely be able to put electric in the meter, for anywhere between five and eight years – you better LOVE your subject.
One thing I am often asked when I reveal my secret part-time life as a keeper of wisdom and further of human knowledge (I like to put it that way. It makes me feel like I have a secret Super Hero identity) is how do I manage it around a full-time job? My answers vary. I think the variance correlates directly with how close to pay day I am. Sometimes I laugh as if to say ‘what a stupid question, one doesn’t manage, one simply drags herself by the scruff of the neck through life and hopes for the best’. At other times I can be quite nonchalant and say ‘it’s easy, I love my subject so much it barely feels like work’. Did a little burp of vomit just enter your mouth then? I know sickening isn’t it? The point of this blog post today is to give your some tips and tricks about exactly how to manage. It’s not all as obvious as you might think either. Nor as pretty.
Don’t get jealous
Being a distance learner I am expected to attend a two week summer school each year, on campus. For me, last year’s really did make me feel like that poor cousin. Of around 20 researchers I was the only one there who was part-time and self-funding. Everyone else had been sponsored by their employer and most of these were full-time researchers. Knowing that they had begun their journey after me, and that they would finish well before, did pang just slightly. Knowing that at the end of the day they still had energy and time for the things they loved, family, art, music, rescuing stranded Muppets from mountainsides, this panged a little.
If you are looking to do a PhD and would like funding then this is a fantastic choice and findaphd.com or prospects.ac.uk list all the available scholarships. This has the obvious advantages that you will work full time and thus complete sooner, have your fees paid and in most cases be provided with modest living expenses. But let’s face it you can squeeze in a part-time job to top that up. The downside is that you have to study what you are told to study. If it is research based then the project is set out for you. You have no freedom to set your own question or to investigate areas that you really want to. Now you might be lucky and you might find a set project that matches your exact wishes. In that case, brilliant, go for it. Yet remember there is a lot of competition for these opportunities.
My subject area was very niche and as such not something that universities were willing to pay for. So I had to pay for it myself. The freedom I get by doing this feels amazing and I have good control over the trajectory of my work. They say you have to marry your PhD so for me, miss independent, I couldn’t see myself marrying a pre-designed box. Mine had to be bespoke. For that I couldn’t be more willing to make the sacrifice.
So, when looking at the situation of others it pays a lot more to put energy into thinking about what is great about your own situation, than to be envious of what everyone else has. You never know the trials and tribulations of others. However, if you are self-funding and part-time, you can always say to yourself ‘I did it my way.’
Select your friends wisely
The cold harsh truth here is that you really need to be selective about who you share your time with now. Your time is precious and valuable. You need to spend enough of it relaxing and socialising so as not to go stir crazy, but you also need to hold enough of it back so that you can get into your research zone often enough. You are a part-time student. By rights you should be spending around 16 hours on your research every week. Let’s break that down. Five hours Saturday and Sunday, yeah right, and at least two hours for three evening a week, mmm okaaay. What’s more this is ‘supposed’ to happen none stop for five to eight years. It will never happen. Not even the most disciplined of us will be able to manage that after a 9-5. It is massively unrealistic to think that you will, and it is important to cut yourself some slack if you don’t. I aim for an hour a day. This includes emails, reading, looking for sources, planning etc. Then with any luck I can also dedicate two weekends per month too. Naturally if I have a conference to prepare for, or a paper to complete then I will use all of the time available to me, but we will cover this more later. The point I am trying to make is that all down time is borrowed time.
Any time you take out of your study as a part-time, self-funding researcher, will detract from your work. Sometimes this is vital due to circumstance, or in protection of our health. But if you agree to go to every party, or to drink every coffee, with everyone on your Facebook friends list then you are simply a mug. Your time is precious and valuable. Treat it as such. While there is no need to be rude, or to make others feel like they don’t deserve your time there is no need to give it out like it’s confetti either. You don’t have to be there for everyone. You will notice a number of new friends taking an interest in your work. You don’t HAVE to meet them to discuss it. You can forward them a few links or direct them to some interesting papers or books. This will suffice.
It is also fair to say that if friends don’t value your time, don’t give it. You might agree to that coffee. You need a break after all. Did you enjoy it? Did your friend value that you came out to see them or was it seen as an obligation and an opportunity for them to blah blah on about something that you really didn’t care to hear. You know what. Don’t put yourself through it twice. You could be cleaning the bath, or playing your guitar, or working out.
In the attempt to stay on track with my research I have narrowed my ‘close’ friends down to a handful. Some of these I see weekly or fortnightly and some I see every month or so. Others I only see a few times a year, but they always know I love them and look forward to seeing them again. The rest are people I know and like. They can stay in touch through social media. I appreciate them and find great entertainment in them (which I hope is reciprocated) but can’t visit them all, or have every chat they invite online.
Keep work at work and research at home
This tip is definitely easier said than done, yet it is important to maintain the boundaries. Work will always pull up something to stress about, be it your workload or the office sniper. There is always one!! The thing is you don’t want your work stresses taking up valuable mind space. Do you really have to stress about them? Ask yourself is my job on the line? If not then no, you don’t have to worry. It’s not in your job description. If yes, then you might want to allow yourself to put some homework in and protect yourself. Perhaps you might want to divert some energy into finding a new job. After all you won’t be able to do your research if you can’t pay your fees.
Likewise it is very easy to let your research slip into your day to day. You might want to just quickly email your supervisor, 1000 words later. Or you might find yourself doing a little Googling. Don’t, it’s not worth it. It is much better to have an employer that supports your ambitions than one that resents you for wasting company time. Keep the boundaries clear.
Of course if your job is repetitive, or unchallenging, no one can control what you think about. You might want to ponder on a little theory, or day dream about the structure of your thesis. This is fine. But if you get into the habit of doing all your best thinking at work, you might lose the opportunity to get it down in writing. What a waste.
Be well organised
You knew this one was coming didn’t you. Of course it was. It is difficult to manage anything without being in some way well organised. Managing a project the scale of a PhD in your spare time would be impossible if you were a complete mucky pup. OK maybe not impossible but you will definitely make things harder for yourself.
Here are my key tools of the trade.
Electronic diary: Outlook at work, for work things and my phone’s for me and my own things. Not just research related but everything. When I have to pay bills; when I am meeting a friend; everything. The more that’s in your diary the less you have to carry in your head, and the more focused you will be when you have to read or write.
Sticky Notes: I have collected sticky notes (Post- it’s if you will) in as many different colours as I can. No I am not an obsessive or anything (maybe a little). There is a genuine method in my multi-coloured sticky note madness. Each time I read a book I use a specific colour note for that book. As I read through if there is anything poignant or if I have any thoughts that link to my work I jot it on a sticky and pop it on that page. When I am done I run through and add the page numbers to the sticky. Et voilà I never have to remember where I read what again. When I am ready to write up that material I just have to pull the stickies out and arrange them into some sort of usable order. Absolute stress free writing and referencing. Most people use stickies as a memory aid, like in Memento. I find this is not as useful as it seems. You tend to lose the sticky, or shove it in a pile of other stickies never to be read again. If you need to remember something, put it in your electronic diary.
Highlighters: Oh yes, glamorous isn’t it this PhD lark. Every PhD Researcher has a stationery village, not all have elbow patches (although they should). Highlighters are pretty useful when you are filtering through a ton of research papers that you have printed off. It’s not as easy to keep track of notes from papers as it is with my handy sticky system that I use with books. With papers I tend to read them through and make notes in a good old fashioned note pad. I can then read through the notes, pick out a few themes and assign the theme a highlighter colour. Then I use that colour and deface all of the papers accordingly.
Concertina files: Yup getting geekier.What did you expect? Nail varnish and spray tan? Concertina files are a God send to the busy researcher. Don’t make the mistake that I did and label up all your little pouches before you really know what’s going in them, because it will no doubt change, as every thesis does. Then you have the annoyance of labelling them all again only to find out that you don’t have enough stickers left, or worse you can see the previous label through the new label. Nightmare. Best leave the labelling. If you put a paper in the front of each section that will tell you right away what you have grouped that will be much better. It doesn’t take a moment to finger through the sections in any case. Still awake?
It is a good idea to get yourself two files at the very least. One for your actual research. For all the papers you print and notes you take. The second for all the training notes and hand outs you will get. You will also get a shed load of careers guidance stuff as you go through. You can put that in your training folder too, or why not go wild and get yourself a third concertina file. Crazy.
Project note books: These are the refill pads with the plastic dividers in. They are a little more expensive but they are handy. For a start they all seem to have perforated pages. This is really useful, as every now and then you will want to tear out your pages and decant them into your categorised concertina files. But also they are brilliant ways to divide your notes up easily as you go. It is likely you will have a huge pile of these books by the time you are done. Some torn up and divvied into your files and some still full of supervision notes or training notes. Using the dividers wisely you can always find what you need in a hurry. This is nothing to be scoffed at when you have spent three weeks trying to get an hour with your supervisor. You really don’t want to spend 20 minutes searching for a note you made months previously.
Manage expectations
It is pointless dreaming of a holiday on an exotic beach if you know you are neither going to have time nor money for such activities. Why put yourself through such agony. Instead focus on what you love locally and cheaply. For me it is my guitar, and despite my stage nerves, the occasional opportunity I have to perform in public. Also I have some great friends nearby with awesome kids. It is important for me to make the most of all the time I have with these activities. I like to think that I do.
But this is not just about managing your own expectations. It is also important to manage the expectations of others. If you have a deadline and a paper to write, don’t wait until you are being called to come and drive 100 miles to visit your aunt Flo. Let people know way in advance what you are doing. Before you even start reading for a paper, or preparing for a conference, let anyone that needs to know, know. ‘Mum for the next three months my focus will be…’, ‘Guys I can’t come for drinks after work until… ‘.That way they won’t or shouldn’t ask, and it is always easier to not do something you were never asked to do than to have to say no to something you know you would like to do. If they do ask, they have no cause to be upset when you do say no too.
Well there you have it. My best advice for managing a full-time job and part-time PhD research. Always make time for yourself, always make time for those you love, sort your mess out, get organised and get on with it.
If life gives you melons….
…you might be dyslexic.
All through my school life I was told that my spelling could be better. I never thought it was so bad. It was better than my Mum’s. I remember my GCSE English classes being a joke, literally. Myself and my bestie at the time used to trade insults with two guys in the class. The teacher would keep score. Every now and then we turned our sarcasm to him. He had a mole on his forehead that we affectionately called his radio dial. Every now and then we would break for a bit of teaching. I don’t recall any formal training on what an adverb was, or how you used a semi colon. Still to this day I couldn’t give you a confident answer if you asked what a subjective clause was. Despite all this I have always know that I want a career writing.
I applied for university twice. For the same BA/Hons in Journalism and Editorial Design. The first time I was made to sit a test to assess my English skills. I knew as soon as looking at the paper that I had failed. Pick the right spelling out of four possibilities. No chance. I tended to spell words phonetically. Don’t get me wrong I had managed to remember the odd irregular word, but over all I relied on sounding it out in my head. Not such a great fall back plan when you have a broad black country accent and you were raised in a council estate. The next time I applied the test was gone, and I thanked my lucky stars too.
The first few written assignments went well. The rules were relaxed and we weren’t expected to properly reference anything. We were also spoon fed the material. Then the rules changed; but no one really explained what to. I mean, I gathered we now had to reference information we found elsewhere. But it wasn’t so clear what was supposed to go in the paper. For the first time in my life I had failed. I hit the roof. It wasn’t right. How could it be? I immediately asked for my work to be reassessed. Nope, I had definitely failed. What was I supposed to do? Even with the feedback given I had no idea where I had gone wrong. It felt like a switched must have gone off in my head; something had short circuited. My brain, my most treasured body part, had gone wrong.
There was little choice for me at this time. I needed help. I needed a miracle if I was going to get through my degree, let alone make a living out of writing. I was advised to see an academic councillor. She was a nice lady who took me through a variety of tests. Some of them were obvious, such as spelling and reading. Some of the tests seemed a little more on the bizarre side. Draw this squiggle, now draw it backwards, do it with your left hand, now do it backwards, now both hands. It seemed a little crazy at the time, but hey I like crazy. When all the squiggles were scrawled she looked at me and said;
‘You definitely have traits of dyslexia, but I can’t diagnose you. These are the same tests that would be done to diagnose but I can’t write you a statement. You are going to have to go for an assessment with a psychologist.’ So, an assessment was booked.
It was the big day. I woke up and all was not well. I felt terrible. I attempted to go down stairs and almost fell the full length. This was not good. To make it worse, I had no credit on my phone enabling me to call anyone and let them know. I missed my assessment. A few days later when I was able to sort myself out I was distraught to discover that there would not be a second appointment. It turns out that the University had paid through the nose for the assessment and would not pay for another. I was in pieces. What could I have done?
The University did allow me to get my work proof read, but that was all the help I could access given the lack of formal diagnosis. I enquired into getting another test and am disgusted that still today, over 10 years later the NHS will not cover the expense of this assessment. A valid dyslexia test costs in the region of £450 pounds. No organisation is obliged to cover this expense but sometimes educational establishments and employers can be convinced to cover or help with the cost. In 2004 I completed my degree with a 2.1, only missing out on a first by a fraction.
So given my lack of formal diagnosis I gave up on my dreams of becoming a journalists. Most interview processes require a spelling test and I would never get through it. I turned to telly sales and eventually floated into health and social care. A few years, redundancy and workplace bullying later I had to leave this industry. It seemed to me that my greatest assets, my intelligence was my greatest enemy in that world. In the meantime I did all I could to improve my writing, but not much stuck. I had little reason to write. Even with the upsurge of blogging, I felt hurt my English skills. My brain really was my worst enemy.
Despondent and losing the will to live I needed to find a way of using my degree before it was a complete write off. I also needed to show the world I was better than my employment history suggested. I decided it was time for me to go back into higher education. Long story short, here I am, a confirmed PhD researcher. You are reading the accompanying blog. But so what? I am sure you might be asking. Well within a week of being confirmed as a PhD researcher, I also finally got that diagnosis. 33 and 3 quarters and finally I get it confirmed that there is a genuine reason that I spell like a Muppet.
What might not be obvious to anyone is the denial I have been going through all these years. At some points it has been painfully obvious to me that I have dyslexia. But really my spelling was never THAT bad. Part of me thought it might all just be when I am tired, that I used to smoke too much weed, or I was having an off day. But no here I am, well slept, fed, feeling pretty good and not having touched cannabis for at least two years. The report says I have average English skills, as well as problems with my short term and working memory but ‘superior’ general cognative ability. So there you have it. If I wasn’t insecure before, I am now. It’s lovely to know I have a ‘superior’ general cognitive ability, but you can’t talk about these things can you. No one likes a smart arse. Plus, what’s the point if my working memory is shot anyway (I really did mean to write that and not the other). Plus my writing skills are average. I have never been told I am average at anything before.
There is a lot of buzz around academic blogs and PhD discussion groups at the moment about imposter syndrome. It seems incredibly poignant to me at this time. It doesn’t matter how good a researcher you are if you can’t adequately present your work in a high quality written thesis. So the daunting task of producing a dazzling well-articulated 80,000 words just got that much more frightening. The good news is however, is that now I have back-up, complete with a set of recommendations. The support will be there for me and if I want it I can claim an extra 25% of time to complete, not that the seven years I already have won’t be enough. I don’t think I could cope if my PhD took almost nine years to complete.
So has my diagnosis helped? This remains to be seen. It is very early days yet. It hasn’t helped my feeling of imposter syndrome that is for sure. There is little doubt in my mind that the additional support and facilities available to me now will go far. I have written to my previous University to see if I can be re-graded. Maybe i will get that first after-all. It will certainly help my confidence and see that my abilities are appropriately represented on my CV and in job applications. There is no guarantee of this though, nor is there guarantee of a free computer. But hey it’s worth trying.
So what do you do if life hands you melons? Go get yourself assessed.
Getting over the hump
At some point in your PhD journey you will need to attend a transfer panel. This might be your transfer from Masters to PhD or from probationary to confirmed PhD. If you are a full-time researcher you can expect this to be after around a year of study, or two if you are part-time. Some call it the mini viva. It is most definitely a hump; it will undoubtedly slow you down and it will take all your strength to get over it (I’ve recently started cycling, if this explains the metaphor) Expect it to be frightening, valuable and hard work.
Having just attended my transfer from probationary to confirmed PhD (pending submission of a new chapter plan) please allow me this opportunity to share with you what I have learned through this experience.
Preparation
You will be expected to present a transfer paper to explain the panel what your research is about, what you have done so far, and what you intend to do further. This will be your opportunity to defend your work, claim its validity and value and also to justify your decision making throughout. The parameters of this paper will be set out by your university. Before you set about writing your paper be sure to read through the guidance offered by your university about the transfer process. You will need to give yourself three months (if full time) or six months (if part time) to get yourself ready for the event.
Make this guidance your best friend. Raise any questions you may have about it as soon as possible with your supervisor. It is really important to be sure you know what is expected before you get stuck in.
Questions you might want to ask include:
- What referencing system should I use?
- Is there a preferred formatting style?
- Does the word count include extracts, quotes and bibliography?
Make sure you have scheduled enough time to write the paper (mine was 7,000 words), run the first draft past your supervisor(s), make amendments, reference everything neatly, run it past your supervisor again, proof read and submit on time.
Always give your supervisor a few weeks to respond to you. They are busy people and are often schedules very tight amounts of time to allocate to their post graduate researchers.
Organisation
It is unlikely you will be given more than a month’s notice of exactly when your panel will be. The Graduate Office will have the difficult task of coordinating your supervisor, a chair and an internal examiner who will be equipped to assess your research progression. Sadly until you know the date of your panel you won’t know when you need to submit your paper, which your Graduate Office should inform you of at the same time. This is why it is important that you plan in plenty of time ahead to ensure you have your paper ready. It is far better to be sat with a completed paper waiting for the submission date, then to be rushed, panicked and stressed. You are far more likely to make silly little mistakes if you are working under pressure. Don’t do it to yourself (or your friends and family).
The transfer paper
Depending on your discipline your transfer paper may differ. Ask your supervisor before you start writing if you can have a look at a successful paper for a study similar to your own. Also double check that it matched the guidelines offered by your university.
My own transfer paper can be viewed here:
Here’s how I did it:
First draft
My first point of call was to create a ‘ghost paper’, or a list of headings and subheadings. I found it useful to set out my formatting styles here also. To ensure parity across the paper I set a title, heading, subtitle and sub-subtitle. You must do what is right for you in this instance. Try to stick to one font throughout the paper though. Use font size, bold, italic and underline for different emphasis. It is worth thinking about the fine detail here. Will you Capitalise Each Word of your headings, or just one? Will you place punctuation after headings?
After sketching out the relevant headings I just wrote. My aim was to fill in as many blanks as possible. I didn’t worry too much about citations and references at this point. The idea was to get it out of my head and onto the page. I left the abstract and introduction blank at this stage since they are best filled in at the end.
After I had a draft down I then went through and dropped a comment box on any claims I needed to validate. This would for the foundation of any citations, quotes or extracts I would include. Though important in the final version this shouldn’t really take precedence at this stage.
After skimming though and neatening up the English I submitted it for feedback. Do not expect your supervisor to act as a proof reader. They will feedback on the general quality of the paper, its content and the shape of your project. A good supervisor will point out areas that the panel might ask you about. It is unlikely that you will have put something together that is air tight. Although it can be difficult to take criticism, know that your supervisor is criticising you in order to assist you in presenting a more robust defence of your work.
You might want to simply have your feedback in writing (my supervisor and I make good use of Word’s comment feature), or if there are more contentious issues to have a supervision. This is perfectly acceptable and a good time to talk with your supervisor.
Second draft
Naturally the first thing that you want to do is to run through and respond to your supervisor’s feedback. Make any changed that are required and ensure that you have covered everything that you need to.
Once you are sure you have covered everything in terms of content you can then start to think about quality. Beware, there are down sides to free flow writing like I promote here. It can seem a bit daunting to have to go back through the paper and find the sources of the information you present. If it suits you to cite as you go then great, do this on your first draft. Personally I find that this way means you have lots of breaks in your flow and can sometimes forget where you are going. For me it is better to get it all down first and add credit where credit is due later. Also it means that I know that what is in my paper is all actually floating around in my head. It means that it is all concrete knowledge for me and if challenged about it I will be able to pull it out and speak confidently on the matter – well that’s the idea at least.
The second draft will undoubtedly take longer than the first. Mainly because you want this to pretty much be it. It’s ok to leave your bibliography until last but do make sure you use those comments bubbles to leave yourself enough information to return to find the source again later.
You might want to add that abstract and introduction now.The abstract should succinctly state what the paper is about and what its purpose is. The introduction is a chance to give a brief explanation and justification of the research. Keep them both clean, on point and short.
Once you are ready to start adding your bibliography be certain to that you have a clear idea of the referencing style that is expected of you and a resource to hand that sets out the different types of source material that you might have included. The University of Cumbria subscribe to Cite it Right which is a fantastic online resource. However, University have a duty to provide you with clear guidance about referencing. If you are really stuck finding this get in touch with the library.
Getting ready for the panel
If possible run your paper past your supervisor once more before submitting. You never know what might be picked up on a second run around. It will give you a chance to air your anxiety and prepare some defences of the things you feel might be picked out by the panel. Just like before it might seem like your supervisor is the enemy at this time. They really have to be critical; it is the best way to prepare you. The panel will not pussy foot around you or be worried about your sensitivity. Really your supervisor should be putting them self in the mind of the internal examiner. Hopefully they would have at some point been an internal assessor on someone else’s transfer panel too.
Now be sure to print the paper out and proof read it before anything else. It is important to try and get all those little type-os and make sure the sentences flow well. If you have a good friend or fairly member with particularly strong English skills give it to them to correct also.
Don’t forget to submit on time ya’ll.
Undoubtedly you will spot a type-o or two after submitting. Don’t sweat it, for some reason Sod has his law.
The night before be sure to have a read through the paper, and get yourself a good night’s rest. Be sure to have a good breakfast and give yourself plenty of time to arrive at the university at least thirty minutes before the panel meets. Given the trouble that your Graduate School has probably gone through to get the panel together for you it would be appalling for you to turn up late.
I live in Birmingham and my panel was at 10:00 in Lancaster. One of my fellow Post Grad Researchers kindly put me up and drove me in, failing that I would have had to pay for a bed and breakfast. With this in mind if you are a distance learner it is very worth having a contingency for an early meeting time. You don’t want to have to get up too early on the day of the panel either – this is likely to make you fuzzy and less likely to respond well to the questions you might face.
My supervisor and internal examiner were both ill and made it in for my panel. They clearly should have been tucked up and resting, but they put my progress before their health. I am not trying to suggest that they should have; but that they did, highlights to me that there are very few excuses for missing your panel meeting or tuning up late.
The Panel
So far I have made it seem like a horrendous and tortuous experience that you should be dreading. If you aren’t properly prepared and you have ignored your supervisor’s advice then maybe it will be. But providing you have heeded the advice from those that want you to succeed you can’t go much wrong.
This naturally leads to a very good realisation to help calm the nerves. Everyone on that panel, chair included, wants you to succeed. Keep this in the front of your mind. It will help in controlling your responses, preventing you from being offended and allowing you to see the intent behind the criticism. Be grateful for the expertise that is being offered to you and take note.
In my panel I found myself being agreeable but not really responding how I wanted. Throughout the course of the meeting I pieced everything together and presented back my defences later. You will be offered plenty of opportunity to ask for clarification on anything.
It is incredibly important that you defend without being defensive. The bottom line is that it is your research and you understand it better than anyone in the room. However, you must strike a balance between this knowledge and the fact that the people scrutinising it so have your future in their hands. BE POLITE!! They also have amassed a lot more years of experience of research and academia than you so respect it.
There will be one of the following outcomes to the panel meeting:
Proceed without condition, proceed with condition, may not proceed but may have an exit award (such as An MPhil) and may not proceed or receive an exit award.
Personally I was expecting and experienced the conclusion that I can continue with conditions, and I would imagine this is normal. Though it is worth noting that for a large portion of the meeting I was genuinely convinced that they were going to reject my application. The critiques were thick and fast and each one felt like my floppy hat was getting further and further away. At one point I myself though ‘is there really a project here?’ and ‘am I really cut out for this?’ The answer to both thankfully was a resounding yes, so it might just be that you have to remain calm until the end, where the praise will flow more freely. That’s the nice bit about taking on a hump, free-wheeling on the other side.
In the great words of Douglas Adams I leave you with the best bit of advice I could possibly offer.
DON’T PANIC!!!
(and always carry a towel, and always hit a hill standing and in the right gear)
Breaking Convention 2013: a review.
In a small moment I am going to break with convention. I am going to make every journalist out there wince. The flag is waving in the face of the ‘norm’. What I would like you to do dear reader is this; when I say so, stop reading for a moment. I told you! Take a depth cleansing breath and close your eyes. Not yet! What I want you to do is sit there for a moment and picture in your mind’s eye you perfect idea of what a university should be. Think about the lectures, the venue, the fellow students, and the weather. Can you do that? OK now!
The chances are you have come up with something pretty similar to what approximately 700 visitors to the 2nd Biennial Breaking Convention UK, experienced over the blistering weekend of the 12th to 14th of July. Hosted in the stunning grounds of The University of Greenwich (you know, the place where time was chopped up into measurable units) with its expansive rows of Romanesque columns, almost 60 invited speakers gathered to deliver talks on the therapeutic and spiritual potential of natural and man-made psychedelics. They were joined by a host of accepted speakers, performers, artists and musicians to bring together a most profound, intellectually stimulating event.
Simply walking up to the building was awe inspiring. Then as you followed the corridor around to collect the generous goodie bags offered to all delegates you were met with the glorious Technicolor of giant daises that were peppered around the event. A great touch only topped by the name badges actually being perforated blotting paper. I never did meet anyone brave enough to see if they had been dipped. In the searing heat so rarely experiences in London the building was lacking only one thing – air conditioning. In fact a few more windows would have been just fine. Still in the face of what was to be experienced, no one seemed to really mind.
Most noteworthy of our ‘lecturers’ in this jam packed intensive were founders of MAPS and The Beckley Foundation respectively, Dr. Rick Doblin and Countess Amanda Fielding; the man made famous by being ingloriously struck off by the UK Government after openly informing the public that MDMA is far less harmful than nicotine and tobacco, Professor David Nutt; Author of ‘The Cosmic Serpent; DNA and the Origins of Knowledge’ and anthropologist Dr. Jeremy Narby; One of the pioneering psychedelic researchers working alongside Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (aka Ram Dass), with over 40 years of experience, the amazing Ralph Metzner and the renegade researcher who appears to be single handily trying to re-write the history books, Graham Hancock. We were also honoured by Skype conferencing to time with Alex and Allyson Grey, founding board member of the Hefter Research Institute Dr. Charles Grob, a co-founding board member, and scientific brother of everyone’s favourite psychonaught Terrance McKenna, Dr. Dennis McKenna. Who wouldn’t give their last Peyote button to be supervised by any one of them?
The audience, made up of a friendly mix of academics, psychiatrists, shamanic practitioners, doctoral candidates and dreadlock wielding psychedelic trance fans that looked fresh from a season in Goa, were in for many more treats beside this prestigious list of luminaries. Other speakers included the five Breaking Convention founders, including medical anthropologist Dr. Anna Weldstein and her interesting perspective on sovereignty psychedelics. ‘The beating heart of psychedelic research’ The Johns Hopkins University was represented by the charming, pixie like Dr. Katherine Maclean. In telling us about her work with psilocybin in a therapeutic setting Dr Maclean delivered the most powerful sentiment of the whole event. ‘Be ambassadors.’ She said, urging us to take on voluntary work, do good deeds and generally show the public that users of psychedelics are worthy, caring and hardworking people.
At the other end of the speaker spectrum where the raconteurs; the story tellers. Here I found myself wincing, almost in pity, at the seemingly drunken diatribe from an obvious victim of drug and alcohol abuse. Part of me wished I had met this fierce speaker in the pub, where I could shake her hand and revel in her impassioned rants. Sadly, at the foot of the high ceilinged, high skirting boarded lecture hall she looked in need of a hug and a good meal. Still, it showed the liberal attitude and diverse nature of the conference. I was blown away by the description of pagan psychedelic rituals which were cleverly compared to MDMA fuelled raves by Julian Vayne. More so I was entranced by the wisdom of soma (pronounced somm) delivered by Matthew Clarke. He revealed that there is no likely chance for the mystical soma being a fungus, since the Vedic texts refer to a process of pressing using two large planks of wood. There would have been no perceivable benefit of doing this to a fungus since all you would end up with is mush – and this could be created using smaller, more precise instruments to planks of wood. What Clarke eloquently deduced was that soma is actually a mixture of the MAOI containing Syrian rue (Peganum harmala) and DMT rich phalaris grass, yes you got it – pharmahuasca.
Another great revelation came from Professor David Nutt and Dr. Robin Carhart-Harris’s team at Imperial College London and their currently unpublished work on how psilocybin acts inside the brain. Contrary to popular folk lore, psilocybin doesn’t activate dormant brain regions, or allow smoother transitioning of information. It actually reduces activity in the area of the brain known as the Default Mode Network. One can’t help but wonder of this is the seat of our ego. Or perhaps it is a guard to the gateway of other dimensions. It certainly offers food for thought. Though Dr. Carhart-Harris is not without his critics. Some felt that he spoke of the brain as if it exists in a vacuum. An insightful conversation with speaker Dr. Peter Yates brought up the fact that our brains form based on our experiences and these experiences are often led by our culture.
Amongst all this were some very uncomfortable and well needed lessons too. Psychedelics aren’t all pretty colours and Jimi Hendrix. There is a serious side to these potent and powerful compounds. It was noted that psychedelics are not known to cause mental health issues but will certainly compound existing ones. Also, there were many warnings told about the increase of ayahuasca tourism in the Amazonian jungle too. Rouge traders posing as shaman, cultural differences in the interpretation of a hug, leading to sexual assaults, and a demand outstripping any chance of a sustainable supply of ayahuasca. All upsetting, yet very important messages to behold.
This was by far the most shocking of presentations. No. that came in the form of invited speaker Kilindi Lyi as he stood in for a couple of no shows. Soon into Kilidi’s adlibbing I wondered if there was a pancontinental pissing contest that I was unaware of. Sentiments like ‘you guys only have 4 or five substances, whereas in Africa we have over 300’, ‘you guys think 5 grams is a heroes dose of mushrooms whereas in Africa we take 20-30 grams’ and ‘in Africa if you don’t take enough to kill you they say you haven’t taken enough.’ Well that’s one way of tackling over population I guess. I wondered what he was getting at and what the point was with these bold statements. If a substance has a beneficial effect then just enough is surely enough. To promote otherwise is unnecessary and dangerous. His diatribe fell apart form me more so upon the mention of David Icke’s alleged wisdom keeper friend Kredo Mutwa. A man who claims to have experienced psychedelic effects after feeding on the flesh of a grey alien. Because of course that’s exactly what will go through your mind when you find a grey dead at your feet ‘hey let’s see what it tastes like.’ But this wasn’t all. Kilindi had the audacity to continue with some of the most far-fetched claims I have ever been eye witness to. He alleged that in Africa there are plants, or plant mixtures that are capable of re-animating the dead. As his lips moved I faded out and wondered what the point of an animated corpse would be after its soul had passed on. Not a pretty sight I bet. Of course he was unable to tell us what plants these were. For fear of his life no less ‘The Black Panthers will want me’ he claimed. Funny, I thought they fought for racial equality rather than acting as the African, witchcraft protecting Mafia. I would imagine any sorcerer capable of reanimating the dead wouldn’t need the Black Panther’s to protect them. He soon changed track and claimed he had been sworn to secrecy and didn’t want to be outcast (from a community he has been physically apart from for years it seems). There was a big fat giant elephant in the room and we were all too polite to point it out.
It was soon evident that there were two camps being represented over the weekend. One trod carefully and would only claim what can be quantified by ‘pure’ science. This was made up of the post-doctoral researchers that protected tenure and research grants. This camp called only for the regulated use of psychedelics in a therapeutic setting and there appeared no preference as to whether they were natural or man-made. It almost broke my heart to hear Professor Nutt speak of a future where get our psilocybin from a pharmacy and not a field. The other was made up of the rest of us; anthropologists, shamanic practitioners, and the everyday psychonaught. We recognised both the therapeutic and spiritual benefits that could be found using ehtnogens. In this camp there felt to be a preference for natural resources, although not exclusively. ‘Why shouldn’t we use the gifts nature has given us?’ was the silent call. ‘It’s our human right. We are adults, and we don’t mind a bit of regulation if it means we are free to explore our minds, consciousness and spirit without persecution.’ Somewhere in the back row someone drew a mandala on their notebook.
Despite these two well defined schools of thought there appeared to be very little call for action. What can we do? This was the question constantly on the tip of my tongue. Especially after Charles Shaw’s presentation left us all feeling quite hopeless as he claimed that the Occupy movement was the biggest fact finding, surveillance operation ‘The Illuminati’ have ever put on. His answer was that ‘we need to unite based on our commonalities’. Well that’s quite obvious, isn’t that how freindships and communities are formed in the first place? It didn’t feel like it will turn any tables to me. Perhaps I missed the talks where plans were made. Word certainly didn’t get around.
However, it wasn’t all work. There was entertainment too. The enchanting Kymatica took us on a Macabre journey of ego death or transcendence. Incorporating the latest sensory technology, a white multi headed, pustule covered dancer comes out into a pool of fire. The double layered faces that look frozen in horror and freakish ecstasy were both edgy and enthralling. Bit by bit the story unfolded through the dance and the projected light show that interacted magically with the dancers movements. Bit by bit she took off a layer. With each item discarded so another phase of the ego death came in. First the fire, then angelic wings formed from the flapping of her arms. Off came the breast plate. She was reluctant to let go of a symbol of femininity and the journey turned dark once more. Finally, off with her head…dress. At this point the lights became dots and dispersed over her body symbolising the dissolve of the entire identity. What had begun a bizarre, eyebrow raising oddity had slightly drawn me in and overwhelmed me with its depth and beauty. The technology alone made me proud of human achievements.
There was opportunity for personal development too. A rebirth breathing session, for one of the most important thing we can feed our brain is a good supply of oxygen. Plus some substance free ‘core’ shamanic journeying with Zoë Brân. After traversing both the middle and lower shamanic realms each participant left safe in the knowledge that they have both a Golden Firebird and a Rainbow Snake spirit animal to call upon when needed. But perhaps you had to be there.
As awe inspiriting as this event was, being both highbrow and festival like all at the same time. As much as I look forward to watching the conference grow in years to come. As much as I found the event to be filled with intelligent, open minded and beautiful people. One thing does concern me. That is, could it be that the fight (i.e. the conference) becomes such a joyous experience that we actually, subconsciously, sabotage our own efforts to win? If the laws changed tomorrow there would still definitely be a need for such a conference, but would it be as fun? Would it still be visited by the rebels and devils that make up the psychedelic community or would it become a purely academic affair? Or is that just it, we don’t want to be rebels and devils anymore? It’s difficult to tell, but I for one look forward to finding out. Class dismissed.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathan_greet/sets/72157634672745700/page2/
http://breakingconvention.co.uk/
With many thanks to the founders and organisers of The Breaking Convention: Cameron Adams, Dave King, David Luke, Ben Sessa, and last but my no means least, Anna Waldstein
*added 12.11.13*
Follow this link to find videos of the talks delivered at the 2013 Breaking Convention: http://vimeo.com/ecologycosmos/videos
Further notes on presentations: Getting it just right.
Over the last two days I have pretty much sat in back to back presentations. I have also presented twice too. The first day consisted on other PhD researchers at varied stages of their journey to viva. The second was a research and enterprise festival that had presentations from other PhD researchers, but mainly established academics. So through this time I have not only learned a few key lessons through experience but I have made notes on the things I think make up a good presentation.
First however, I want to impress on the importance of getting presentations right and the bearing this has not only on your research but also on your career. It is important to realise that you never know who will be in the audience of a conference. You really never know when someone has read through the abstracts and attended just to see you. A colleague of mine today received three offers of work within an hour of his presentation being over. Dress the part. It also means that your research and your findings are reaching new ears and in such potentially entering the audience member’s conversations. You want to be sure that this is for the right reasons. It is this facet that gives your research life. That is the point. Unless you have been paid to research by your employer to look at a very specific section of your organisations the chances are that you want your research to have wings, to reach other professionals or the general public. This is going to happen in two ways – conferences and journals. The latter will be discussed in future posts.
Now we know why we have to do it – let’s make sure we do it properly.
Presentation one: the relaxed approach
I took to distinctively different approaches to my presentations yesterday and today. The first was among my fellow researchers only and as such I was able to relax the rules a little bit. I was offering a basic overview of my research and giving them a better understanding of what shamanism is and the rituals and treatments my research focuses on. The benefit for me is that this was all information I know very well.
This presentation allowed me to use PowerPoint as it should be used. I had short sentences to guide my talk and some lovely images to keep the audience’s attention. The freedom of being able to speak freely around the prompts relaxed me and allowed me to introduce personality in my presentation style. If I noticed the audience fading I was able to quickly insert a joke and grab at their attention once more.
I received a lot of praise from this talk and I was barely able to get away from people afterwards from the interest it generated. I must admit it, this felt great. However, I must explain that this is not to say that my presentation was perfect. It wasn’t at all. Listed below are the main lessons I took from this experience.
Don’t make verbal prompts too brief.
There is a likelihood that a lot will go on between your creating the PowerPoint and actually presenting it. If you have used very brief one or two word prompts you are going to have to remember exactly what you had in mind all that time ago. Under the glare of all those smart academics you are asking an awful lot of your brain. For me yesterday I had put the word ‘considerations’. Now I knew what I meant – kind of. The considerations I had had to think about in my research; what I couldn’t remember under the heat of the 20 min opportunity of a year-time was any examples from my research. In the end I fluffed something up and it went seemingly unnoticed.
Don’t simply read from the screen.
As one colleague kindly pointed out to me ‘we can read what is on the screen’.
Be careful of masking nerves with humour and giggles
Another kind researcher, nay friend, impressed on me that she felt my giggles were at times clearly hiding my nerves. She warned me that while it was nice that my personality shone through I needed to be aware that the point of the presentation was to be taken seriously as a researcher. She is right to say this of course and it is something I will definitely be giving some mind space to. However in my defence I purposefully raised roughly four laughs in the course of my 20 minute presentation. Each time was in reaction to the slightly frightening site of an audience full of blank faces. My intention was to change the eerie atmosphere in the room and I did so. I completely see and support her point. Where it not an audience of familiar faces I know I wouldn’t have donned my stand up comedienne persona. The other side of it too of course is that for me too giggle is a nervous reaction. It is a way of making my stress, and presenting in front of friend, foe or those in between is always a stressful situation to put oneself in. None the less, it is something to bear in mind.
Presentation two: formally does it
Today I didn’t receive any feedback about my presentation at all. This silence speaks volumes. I know. It was dreadful! This time I was presenting the same paper I presented in Spain. Yet, since last time I had been criticised for not having a power point. This time I had a power point. Since the paper was crammed with information, none of it particularly lending to eye catching, cool imagery I chose a classic design and worked through to highlight key points in the text. On my own copy of the paper I marked little asterisk where I needed to click onto each slide. This would do it. Or so I though.
Firstly as I got up I realised that there wasn’t a nifty hand help clicker to change the slides like I envisaged. I wouldn’t get to do that cocky side click with a little flick of the hand after all. No, I would have to locate the enter key each time on one of two very similar looking keyboards right next to each other. I had only been stood up a moment and already I was falling apart. As I was I knew I would already have to juggle my reading on 3,000 words and achieving plenty of eye contact and interesting inflection as I read. I really didn’t need this extra challenge. Every insecurity I can lay claim to flooded into my mind. To make it worse there was only even people in the audience and one of those was the head of our graduate research department.
Since the last time I presented this paper I had spoken way too fast for anyone to understand this time I slowed it down. It was going well. I got through the basics. It was going ok. Then I realised I had actually been forgetting to change the slide. I had to catch up. I realised that I was concentrating so much on reading the paper I was blanking out the asterisks. My nerves picked up again. I carried on reading. My pace quickened and I tripped over my words. The audience looked really uninterested. I was losing them. Sadly this paper wasn’t getting any more fun. I tripped again. Read a bit more and tripped again. The paper was in two parts and half way through the first I was given a 3 minute warning. I wasn’t even going to get to the end. I panicked and carried on reading. Apologising to the audience I explained that we wouldn’t be able to address matters relating to trust today. I just had to get to the end of this bit and I was done. I stumbled over my words once more just for prosperity. Finally it was over.
So where did I go wrong?
Make sure you know how much time you have
It turned out I was trying to present a fast passed 20 minute presentation in 15 minutes in a relaxed manner simply because I didn’t check and I liked the guy’s presentation earlier who had a nice slow pace.
Present a presentation and not a paper
Even though I had my PowerPoint now I still decided to read my paper verbatim. This was restrictive and since we don’t speak how we write, caused me to trip up on a number of occasions. I would have been better to have gone somewhere in between and have copies on the slides in front of me with some notes/prompts jotted around them.
Practice
In retrospect I am really disappointed at myself for not following this GOLDEN rule. We all know it. Practice makes perfect. In my arrogance I thought I would be all right. On both instances I was wrong. Had I have run through my presentation the night before I would have been better prepared and less nervous in the first place. I would have also been less reliant on the power point or paper to fill my mind with appropriate words.
What about the others?
There has been quite a variety of presentation styles these last two days and all I can say is wow!
Pace: In general I would always opt for a slightly faced paced, higher energy presentation; But only if it is done well. There is such a thing as too fast. Trying to cram too much in. Plus if you are using a lot of big words, big ideas or technical terms you need to give the audience a moment to digest what you are saying. Some presentations were so slow or monotone that it was painful to sit through. There was one presentation that seemed to break this rule. The concepts were simple, the information was clear and the delivery was slow and certain. This worked, but only because there was a confidence behind the delivery.
PowerPoint: Most of the PowerPoints I have seen today weren’t bad. For the best part they were structured, offered an overview of what to expect in the presentation and used nice clean designs. Some were a bit too plain. White background and black text! Come on guys, Windows offers quite a range of design sets for you to use. A bit of colour or style never hurts. Although I broke this rule too but I have realised that anything more than short sweet sentences don’t really get read. The best of the bunch had a nice title, an interesting image and a quote, a sentence or some sharp bullet points on each slide. This is where having a printed copy with added noted (keep them short and sweet) will help you to fill in the gaps with your dialogue. One presentation I saw had roughly 200 words on each slide. It made the text and effort completely redundant. I had absolutely no intention on trying to simultaneously listen and read all that, especially as the presenter had made no attempt to let us know why we should be listening.
So what? This is the big question that every audience member is asking. Why should I listen attentively to you instead of checking my email on my phone or tablet? What is important about your work? The presentations I saw that actually made me want to sit up and be attentive all address this question very early into the presentation. This could be the very introduction of your presentation or come after a quick rundown of the presentation’s components.
Key tips for the future:
1) Make the slides interesting with a nice balance of images and small amounts of text. Avoid nauseating animation on slides.
2) Know exactly how long your presentation needs to be and work to a pace that is natural for you. Being slower is ok but display confidence with it.
3) Have a clear structure to the presentation and present the running order at the start. It is often advised that you say what you are going to say (the intro) say it (the body) and say it again (the conclusion).
4) As early as possible justify your research.
5) Jokes are ok but keep them to a minimum of you want to be taken seriously.
6) Print out a copy of your slides and right snappy reminders on them about what you want to say.
7) Read through and practice your presentation the night before.
Hard learnt lessons on international conference presentations.
Last weekend (17th – 19th May 2013) I had my conference presentation debut. It was quite a learning experience let me tell you. Not only was a luck enough for it to be in Spain but I actually managed to get my work done with enough time to do some reading on the flight over. In truth I made a lot of rookie errors but I am here to give you the best of my experience and learning.
Planning
It is always better to send off abstracts for papers you have already written. This way you have one less thing to worry about beforehand. However, this is not always a luxury one can afford when trying to build their profile as a researcher. As I am still only a probationary PhD I didn’t have any existing chapters to work with and I wrote my first in order to fit in with the calls for abstracts that were open at the time. It is always a good idea to try and re-work something from your thesis rather than write a completely new piece of work for the sake of presenting. Maybe if you are a full time researcher you can afford the time for this, but anyone like me who also has a full time job, forget it. It is taking valuable attention away from your more important work.
Schedule your work efficiently – and use my guide to writing papers when shot on time. Don’t forget to schedule in planning your actual trip too. You might spend a few days shopping around for the cheapest travel and accommodation. Don’t leave this until last minute. Don’t slave over it either. If the conference recommends a hotel then go with it. Many of the other conference guests will also be staying there, and this is a great way to make friends and build up contacts. Plus you never know what you might get elsewhere. If you leave booking the recommended hotel till too late (say four weeks before) you can guarantee it will be fully booked.
Write yourself out a travel itinerary and make sure you leave yourself a comfortable hour between connections. Seriously this is vital. One minor slip in the chain of events and you could be sleeping rough overnight in a foreign train station. Do not plan to reach your hotel on the day of the conference. Always arrive the day before. That way you can introduce yourself as a nice, calm, well organised individual rather than a frazzled, smelly, stress bomb. The same also applies for travelling home also. You don’t want to rush the good byes and would you really want to put yourself through any unnecessary bother either.
Budgeting
Speak to your university the moment you have confirmation you are presenting. Many have a little cash put aside to help PGRs attend overseas conferences. It helps you and raises the profile of the University too. Remember this on your application form too. They may or may not pay for your accommodation so plan for them not just in case. They will also expect you to pay for the travel in advance and reimburse you once they have the receipt. It’s only fair – you might be hiding a super bargain flight up your sleeve. But be mindful of this well in advance as it might catch you out.
In Europe I spent just under £100 per day. You will be eating a lot of restaurant food, and if the fellow conference goers are warm and friendly they are going to want you to join them for drinks in nice places. Many of them will be lecturers and professors and not consider how expensive this might be to a PGR. Also, when you are in a city you don’t know and only have a basic grasp of the language you are not going to find it easy negotiating directions or public transport. You will spend a lot on taxis. Taxis also seem to have a special Tourist Tariff which errs on the edge of unreasonable. But hey you don’t have enough language to argue it out so you pay up and be grateful you reached your destination alive. Don’t forget gifts too!!
Some basic tips about travelling learnt the hard way:
European and American airport security has some seemingly silly rules. As I was only going for four days I opted out of putting any luggage in the hold as I could fit what I needed into a smallish ruck sac and take it on as free cabin luggage. However, what I didn’t realise was there are some very strict rules on liquids. Basically apart from make-up – which seems to go unchecked – every cosmetic you have is considered a liquid. Even that really thick, expensive apricot face scrub you (I) love. None of them can be over 100ml. So that’s your newly purchased £7 sunscreen gone. They must not have been over 100ml when purchased, so that’s your half used luxury face scrub gone. They must all fit into one pretty tiny resalable sandwich bag, which is kindly provided by the security people free of charge. What a wonderful gesture. A moisturiser gone. No bottled drinks are allowed, even if they are unopened since the smallest bottle of water you are going to get is around 700ml. undoubtedly to ensure you purchase an overpriced coffee on the flight. All of this for me was incredibly frustrating and cost me more that the initial charge of £20 it would have taken to check my bags in as hold luggage. Sadly as my flight was boarding I didn’t want to risk running back through the airport to check it in. Next time I will pay the extra for hold luggage and travel with a bit of luxury.
Oh and remember in Europe they drive on the other side. So when you get in a taxi, don’t sit in the driver’s seat. It could be embarrassing for you.
At the conference
Dress smart. A suit jacket will tidy up most outfits. Cover any tattoos also. It’s not that I am against tattoos – I love the good ones – but it does avoid you being on the receiving end of any unnecessary judgement. You only have a very short time to win these influential people over. Be open, warm and friendly. Try not to stick to one or two people, especially the English speaking ones. You will have plenty of time to get to know these as you will naturally gravitate towards them. Make an effort to communicate with everyone. Although at a bigger conference I would probably suggest the opposite. Pay attention to the key note speech, make notes (it shows you are interested), and try and think of an interesting question that introduces you to the group as a thinker but not a critic. Oh and in Europe they like to knock the table rather than clap but either is fine.
Your presentation
Now you might want to think of this like a game of Come Dine With Me. Until it is your turn you want to be on your best behaviour. Even if the person before you was awful, and their research had more holes then it takes to fill the Albert Hall, just let it go. If you come across as cocky, you will undoubtedly face the biggest grilling in your life. If you are reading this guide I can bet you are nowhere near experienced enough to stand up against the seasoned researchers who will pull you up just for being rude. If you do want to offer advice to someone that’s fine, but be mindful about how you might come across.
So it’s finally time for you to speak. Here are some of the things I learnt, again, the hard way. Although I never imagined it to be so, it is actually standard practice to use PowerPoint in conferences. Although I have seen it so on many occasions I didn’t realise it was expected. Something told me that a high brow audience would appreciate a paper that was just read to them. Besides my subject area didn’t really lend well to any pictures or graphics. I opted to not use it. This on reflection was a mistake. Since everyone else had used PowerPoint it seems to be expected of you. There were a few murmurs and shuffles as I began my reading. This didn’t help my nerves one bit. Thank God I had printed with double line spacing and on one side only. Usually I print single or 1.5 space for editing and double sided to save paper. But trust me on this it is much easier to see and turn the pages using double line space and single sided. Staple them in the top left hand corner too to prevent the dropsies.
I was around a page in before I chanced looking up into an audience that I felt had been quite rude and chatted through a few other presentations. The president of the organising body waved at me. It appeared that I was speaking too fast for the non-native English speaking audience. I apologised and moved on. Now I was torn. How fast is too fast and how slow is patronising? Also for a 20 minute presentation I had gone towards the upper end of the word count at approx. 3,500 words. What if I ran over now that I was slowing down? My insides turned over the previous evening’s tapas and my mouth dried up like a dessert. I worked through doing my best to ad inflexion, personality and the odd fleeting eye contact with the audience. I chose to ignore the three people at the back who were turned away from me.
It wasn’t all terrible. On reading through the paper I could see how well I had structured my arguments, how I had indeed backed everything up with citations and references. I could see that I had covered all the arguments and responded fairly to them. It suddenly dawned on me that I was in fact reading a very well written paper and I felt proud of my work for the first time in my relatively short research career. It didn’t matter if the present audience could understand. What mattered was that it was good. Before I knew it, the longest 20 minutes of my life were over. It was time for questions. I can only assume that no one understood enough of what I was saying to pick up anything to ask about. I apologised for the speed reading and blamed my nerves.
It was pointed out to me that a PowerPoint would have been helpful to overcome some of the language barriers. I explained that my work didn’t lend well to images and graphics.
‘Yes but a few supporting sentences up there would have helped us follow you much better.’ She rightfully pointed out.
Many transcontinental conferences use a technology that provides a translation loop. I have never seen these but they sound petty handy, of you are willing to let Google translate or similar convey your work. This conference did not use this technology, but English was the chosen language of the event. Don’t be fooled by this. Although you might be with very learned people the chances are they only have a working knowledge of English. All that advanced vocabulary you are using to impress your supervisor will not work here. It will only make things work. Here are my top three lessons for presenting to an international audience.
1) Aim for the lower end of the word count to allow you to speak slowly. It doesn’t matter how slowly. It might even help to pause and check that your audience follow from time to time.
2) Keep your English simple. Keep it plain.
3) Use PowerPower point. Don’t cram it with text. Just use a few anchor sentences to allow the audience to keep up with your arguments.
Other than that have fun.
Advanced essay writing for those short on time.
Eight years passed between my graduation and taking up post graduate research, so essay writing has taken a little getting used to again. The proposal for my PhD was excellent practice and pulled the basic, such as referencing and structure back to the fore. This guide however is a culmination of the techniques I have developed since. This is advanced essay writing for others, who like me, are looking to be published and working towards a PhD thesis.
I have recently finished drafting my first official chapter that will contribute towards my final PhD. I am under no illusions that by the time I reach my viva this chapter will be remarkably different to how it stands today.
In the lead up to writing this I have worked on one unofficial paper and have put together a strong portion of my transfer paper. However, this is the first time I have had to produce a full, to standard, paper, firstly with the intent on publishing and secondly, whilst also in full time employment.
The constraints on my time have taught pushed me to be more organised and to find ways to stay focused on the work I have to complete. It is my hope that you can learn from the advice I have to give and the methods that I have devised.
What will your paper be used for?
It is important to discuss with your supervisor which chapters you should work on and when. A PhD thesis is rarely written in the order that it is presented. It is great if you can manipulate it so that you can write chapters that will also convert easily into journal articles or conference presentations. With this in mind to start I took a look at what presentations were coming up and where I might be able to fit in. This gave me a clear understanding of the kinds of discussions planned and allowed me to find a route in. Whist presenting and getting published are not integral to passing a PhD they do make good career sense. It gives you a chance to gain a reputation, find a wider audience for your research and to gain valuable feedback from establishes researchers and academics.
You don’t have to specifically present on the core subject area of your research. For instance I am researching Amazonian shamanistic practices in Great Britain, yet my first chapter and planned presentation barely mentions this. My first chapter is all about issues related to being known to your participant group prior to research commencement. Other examples might be papers on ethics, maintaining academic rigour and methodologies.
Reading material
There are no guides or rules in relation to how much reading you should do or how many sources you should use. This completely depends on your subject matter. Some subjects have thousands of articles about them, other you might be pushed to find five.
What is important is that you find a handful of good quality papers on your subject that will give you a form understanding of the discussions and arguments taking place around that subject. As a guide (and only a guide) I found eight papers on the subject of insider research. A quick read of the abstracts gave me a fair understanding of what they were about and didn’t require too much of my sparse time.
Give yourself a few months to work through the reading material. And also to collect all the papers you are looking for. Google scholar is a great way of finding out what papers exist but you cannot always access them. Your university will most likely subscribe to journals and a data base of papers and articles. Use as many sources as you can.
Many researchers find this the most interesting part of the process. It is the bit that really makes you feel like a researcher. You are digging and finding and not giving up in the face of defeat. Inter-library loans usually find the more difficult to find papers and these can often take up to two weeks. In the mean time you can start reading what you have already.
Carry your papers, your research journal and a pen, with you at all times. Get yourself a bag that can handle it and make this your daily bag. You never know when you can steal an hour to do some reading. Maybe your train is delayed, or a meeting has been cancelled. If you can be ready to read at any time you can add to the depth of your understanding on your subject all the time.
Annotation
If you are printing papers try and reduce the pages to A5 printing two pages on each side and print on both sides. This massively reduces paper usage and is still big enough to be comfortably read. If you are working with books and original journals or magazine NEVER write on them, even if it is in pencil. It is unlikely that you will erase your notes, and if you do it will damage the integrity of the page. Finding massive passages underlined in a book, especially if the subject is difficult enough to read (Adorno and Horkheimer) is incredibly distracting. Making notes in books is terribly disrespectful, please stop it.
When making notes do not bother with colour coding to begin with either. Bracket off or underline relevant quotes and make a note of them in your research journal. Note any thoughts or feelings too – and explain these. I myself have simply noted ‘disagree’ and later failed to remember why I disagreed, this as you can imagine is quite annoying. At the top of each page in your research journal write the name of the paper or book you are making notes about. Just in case it gets separated from the bind. Only write on one side of the page too. Also try and refrain from writing about more than one article or book on each page. This again will become clearer as we move on.
Nightmare scenarios in literature reviews.
So by this point a few months should have passed and you will have exhausted all your reading material. At points you will have despaired about the fact that all arguments seem to have been covered and there is little you can add that is ‘fresh’ or ‘new’. At others you will have been confused about what to do with references within references. You will also want to bang your head of the table as all the other writers in your subject seem to have used older more authoritative sources and you simply don’t have time to find and read them all. you see a rabbit hole open up and as you fall down the books float past ready to trap you in an infinite reading loop. Fear not.
As you work through your notes and make sense of the information you have collected, the gaps will become clear. If you must quote a reference found within a paper you have read, you should however go back to the source. How can you trust the interpretation of the secondary source? Would you not rather gain a truly authentic representation of the work? As for going back to earlier sources, it is advisable to have a range of sources from different ages, since you want to demonstrate how ideas have developed or remained the same. However what is most important is that you join the conversation as it is today. You must show you understand what people are discussing in the present so as to be relevant.
Making sense of your notes
So you can breathe again right? You are past the anxiety now. You have a pretty good understanding of your subject now and it is all floating around your head and scrawled out in your research journal. It’s time to go get yourself some highlighters. Go on treat yourself to the untra-delux multi pack. Better to have at least six colours.
Have a quick skim through your notes and see if you can notice any emerging themes. These will form the basis of the structure of your paper. In my case I was able to identify four. Advantages of insider research, disadvantages and matters relating to both dichotomy trust. I gave each a colour. Now I went through my notes again. This time, with a lot more attention and patience. I looked at each statement underlined or note made and determined which section it should go into then highlight it accordingly. If it goes into more than one section then do a kind of psychedelic fluorescent cross hatch type thing. You can pull the pages out of your note book and paperclip relevant notes and papers/sources together. you can see now why you don’t notes about more than one source on one sheet. Now number each source.
Structuring your paper.
Your newly created categories will have done much of the hard work for you. Type out suitable headers for each category on to a fresh word document, and use cut and paste to put them in the more logical order. It would be nice to give them a flow; if one led to another for instance. Try and avoid having a random bunch of divorced sub fields on your page.
Now as bullet points work through the newly colour coded notes and write up each point as a nice succinct statement. Next to each statement be sure to make a note of the number of the paper that it came from. Once they are all types up you can go through each category and look at grouping again. Do some of the points relate to others? Is there a better, more logical order they can go in? can you create sub-sub headings?
Once you have done this you successfully have a complete and logical skeleton for your paper. Writing has just become a whole lot easier.
First draft.
Run through your bullets and make them into nice, flowing sentences. Don’t forget to acknowledge that they have come from other authors. At this stage I choose to have the original papers in their folder. This is just a first draft. I don’t worry about quotes and instead of writing the authors name I use a space holder. I do however add a reference comment to any space holders noting the paper that the statement, concept or idea came from. In between bullet points I add my own commentary as appropriate.
You will find that very little actual writing is required as you are simply linking bullet points. The writing that is required is all from your own ideas and as such easier to articulate and gratifying to put down.
By the end of this you will have clear flowing arguments, using a range of sources that are clearly identified – sort of.
Second draft
At this point I would be looking for feedback from my supervisor. It is also a good time to find any additional sources to support arguments that may have come up. Or those primary sources you were too lazy/busy to find when you came across them in another paper.
Remember that no matter how much they criticise your supervisor is paid to improve your work. They shouldn’t have any other motive for telling you to change something. So listen. If you disagree with them try and discuss it, but never take it personally. However, ultimately it is your work not theirs so it is your prerogative to change what you want.
When working through the second draft you should now have your sources back out for their folder.
- Add in all the names, replacing the space holders and deleting the comments as you go.
- Check if you have covered everything.
- Have you responded to all discussions and arguments as you would like.
- Have you been objective or can you spot bias?
- Is there a logical flow (there should be).
- Can you pick up any spelling or grammatical errors?
- Have you included a relevant introduction and conclusion?
- Are all your claims validated?
- Can you support any of the claims with a quote?
Final draft
At this point you can if you want to run it past your supervisor again; yet if you have followed all of their advice it isn’t necessary to do so. It is however the final polish so you want to look at the finer detail. Print a copy out it is often easier to read this way.
Double check spelling and grammar – in fact ask someone else to.
Fine tune your referencing and add your bibliography.
et voilà
Neat huh!
Amazonian Shamanism in Great Britain 