I'm told that once you're through your first review, you might slump a little. You might struggle to get back into the swing of research after the decompression of the end of First Year. It might seem like you've climbed one mountain, only to be told that there's another peak a little further up. Then … Continue reading The Slump
Category: Research and Practice
Funding a Research Trip
This guest post comes from the Transatlantic experience of Kiefer Holland, and is essential reading for anyone at a Scottish HEI planning to fund a research trip! Kiefer is an English Literature PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh. His research looks at the writing and speeches of six nineteenth-century African American women: Jarena Lee, … Continue reading Funding a Research Trip
Freedom Road
This incredible guest post comes from Janine Mitchell. Janine Mitchell is starting the second year of her PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Stirling. Her practice-led research examines the ways in which archival material is analysed, selected and implemented in the creation of biographical narratives, and how this process negotiates the shifting boundaries of … Continue reading Freedom Road
Top 4 tips for surviving the first year of your PhD
Every year of the PhD is hard. Year 2 is host to the dreaded ‘second year slump’, when you still have a long way to go, but the novelty and newness of doing your PhD is wearing off. Year 3 is full of the pressure of writing and editing, picking examiners and choosing when you … Continue reading Top 4 tips for surviving the first year of your PhD
Top 5 tips for writing your PhD
Being almost 3 years into my PhD, I’ve written my fair share of academic writing. This also means that I’ve had a huge amount of feedback from my supervisor on my writing style. There are some mistakes that I’ve made (and continue making), which I wish I had got out of the habit of doing … Continue reading Top 5 tips for writing your PhD
Staying organised during your PhD
Organisation is one of my favourite things. It’s sad but true. I love the feeling of creating order out of chaos, straightening out my world, and getting everything out of my head and onto a list on paper. But when you start a PhD, you have to up your organisation game. A lot. It’s so easy … Continue reading Staying organised during your PhD
How many hours should you spend on the clock, and when should you spend them?
When you start a PhD, you’ll often hear that your research should be treated like a 9 to 5 job. If you’re like me, this will probably cause you to panic and question what on earth you’re doing – don’t a lot of us start PhDs because we secretly didn’t want a 9-5 job?! I … Continue reading How many hours should you spend on the clock, and when should you spend them?
Library antagonisms
Our latest guest blog comes from Charlie, a first-year PhD student in the Architecture by Design program at the University of Edinburgh. He is studying the architecture of prisons and the potential for such architecture to directly exert moral influence upon inmates. And he is tired of hearing references to Foucault. I went to the National Library … Continue reading Library antagonisms
Perfectionism and the PhD: the dread of completion
I don’t know if it’s just my intense perfectionism, but I have a real fear of finishing things, signing off, and saying I’m done. I’ve always been terrible at doing so, handing in essays right on the deadline during my undergrad. Once or twice, I even edited an essay within an inch of its life … Continue reading Perfectionism and the PhD: the dread of completion
Why wolves? The wolf in my story and finding a PhD topic that you love
I said in a previous post that I would talk about why I study wolves – so today I thought I’d fulfil that promise! It’s been a bit of a winding journey to this point. When I started thinking about doing a PhD, I didn’t have wolves in mind at all. Truthfully, I hadn’t thought … Continue reading Why wolves? The wolf in my story and finding a PhD topic that you love
