Need some advice (postgrad study)

missejackson

Good luck Starry-eyed Suprise! You'll do it if you are determined (and you sound like you are!)

Starry-eyed_surprise

Thank you missejackson:D I am going to give it a go. You never know what you can do until you take that first step and I've got to give my kids something to aim for too (1st one has just completed year 1 at university :eek:I tell him to work hard now as it is sooo much harder for me. Aahhhh the luxury of full time study I'll post again in x years' time when I've got ma PhD. Wishing you well with your studies too :beer:

hostie

pug-in-a-bed apparently it is possible for PhD students to get work doing research in areas related to their studies. There is an organisation that matches companies with useful research students and the students work part time. I'm afraid I don't know the name of the company or anything as it was a student at a conference that told me she did it. That might be something you could look into instead of bar work. Wish I could give you some more details but if you went to the PhD support thread or your uni department someone might know.

Nice words about following your dreams Starry-eyed. I feel exactly the same. Life is for living and growing and I feel that I have learned so much from studying. It has taken me many years to get to the start of the PhD and I intend to work hard at it. I always feel though that if it doesn't work out, it isn't the end of the world. It is easy to take life too seriously but the main thing really is health and the health of the people you love. Nothing else is that important at the end of the day.

I am worried about getting things published too. I gave my first paper this year and it was WAY too long and I made lots of mistakes (like including long quotes - the norm seems to be to use quotes very sparingly and to say 'quote' 'unquote' in a rather annoying manner when you read them out!)

I have submitted an abstract for a conference next year but it isn't too ambitious - I have learned from my mistake and the abstract is not about work I will do but about work I have already covered.

night night all and good luck with it.

missejackson

Thanks for the advice hostie. I will bear your advice in mind when I have to submit my 1st paper!!! AAAAHHHH!!!!