So this is the end of the journey. Why I thought it would be finished within 12 months defies belief but, hey, who cares now that it is all over after three long years.
I had the email confirming that my corrections had been accepted by the examiners a couple of weeks ago followed by one from the Institute offering congratulations. Actually the examiners requested two further small changes which I was happy to make.
It was a strange moment. Once I had typed the last full stop I sat back and thought 'That's it - finished - no more worries, no more writing, no more isolation at a PC!! Now what?'
Needless to say the answer to the last question is lots of decorating, gardening and maintenance to catch up with jobs that have had to take second place. Of course the immediate answer was to print off copies of the thesis and to pass them to the binders. That was expensive as I chose to send a copy to my supervisor and both examiners, however, it was fantastic to see the finished article beautifully presented.
A useful tip I can pass on is regarding the corrections. Initially I was inclined to make the corrections with track changes and to pass the revised documents to the examiners. I don't know how you feel about track changes but I think they look unsightly especially in long documents. So instead I created a separate document with a table of corrections. In one column I extracted each of the examiners requested changes and alongside noted in the next column the page number from the viva draft. In the next column I noted the initials of the person requesting the change (including myself if I initiated any changes). In the final column I noted the page number of the correction in the final draft so that these could easily be found.
Under each correction requested I put an 'Action' heading and detailed the wording that was added, removed or amended to satisfy the request. Any changed figures or tables were included in an appendix at the end. I sent this document off with a full copy of the final text for the examiners to review. This worked well as the examiners commented on how this provided a clear and easily accessible way of checking the amendments.
Now I wait until April for the official graduation ceremony. I will be very proud to put the robes on and to go up to receive the certificate, but just at the moment it all feels a bit of an anticlimax. Still, like any bereavement, time will be the best cure and probably by the New Year I will feel like writing again!! In the meantime I can start to develop my new role as Reader in Distance Education.
If you have been following this blog, or if you are only now reading it, I hope that it has been helpful and given an insight into the trials and tribulations that doctoral research entails. If you have any comments or observations please do email them to me at w.n.mcneill@cem.ac.uk . For those of you working toward your thesis I say 'Good Luck - Never Give Up'.
I wish you all well for your futures.
Bill
Monday, 29 November 2010
Sunday, 19 September 2010
VIVA PASSED!!
26th August 2010. The scariest and best day of my life - but really worthwhile as the examiners passed my thesis with minor amendments.
I prepared well for the viva. I set myself a timetable to revisit all the references and, probably like most people before me, hunted down typical viva questions on the web. I had intended to prepare answers to these on paper but decided against this as keeping them in my head seemed more sensible. Wise move as none were actually asked but the process of giving thought to how I might answer was worthwhile. I wrote a synopsis for each chapter and collected all the essential supporting info (including this blog) in a separate file for quick reference and revision. I also talked to as many people who had experienced vivas as possible.
The main preparation was reading through the entire thesis as objectively as possible ie placing myself in the position of the examiners. Would every sentence, statement, chart make sense to them? I wrote copious notes on the blank page to expand, explain, justify any that I though might be contested. Even so I missed some!!
About 10 days before the viva Imet up with my supervisor and went through the possible questions and the detail of the viva day. I also arranged for a colleague who had read the thesis to give me a mock viva. This was beneficial as it is different voicing your research to reading it on paper!
I had elected to give a 10 minute presentation at the start. My initial inclination was to do a Powerpoint but decided that this was not appropriate for this type of exam. Instead I set out on one side of A4 the importance of the research and a single sentence summary of the research. The latter was an interesting experience as it takes a while to condense 3 years work into 50 words. Most of the page was a flow chart showing the thought process that I had followed and how the main propositions had emanated through this. The benefit in the viva was having this in front of me so that I had a visual reminder when needed. In the viva I talked the examiners through the importance, summary and flow chart which worked well for me and provided a good jumping off point for their questions.
On the day I travelled to London early as I had to drop off a copy of my IFS for the examiners to refer to if necessary. Although this meant I would not be affected by travel disruption it also meant I had time to kill before the viva started. I hate hanging around getting nervous but fortunately my sister was in London visiting my niece so we met for lunch. Talking about family, holidays and so on was a great distraction and I felt very relaxed going into the viva.
They say a viva should be not less than one hour and not more than two. Mine was three hours!!! We started a little late as the chair of the panel did not arrive and after two hours I was asked if I objected to taking a break and continuing. You don't say no to that kind of suggestion! The questioning was all very positive and constructive. Much was directed at establishing my reasoning for including data, the meaning of charts and tables, what I had not included or potentially overlooked, the generalisability of the concluding propositions and the relevance to current practice. Fortunately all the problem questions relating to economic theory that I had feared did not get asked (although I had prepared some good answers)!!
The viva was held in a most convivial manner and, as others have found, the time passed very quickly until the point was reached when the examiners were left to make their decision. After 30 minutes Andrew, my supervisor who had sat through the viva taking notes, and I were called back and the decision was pass with minor amendments. Phew!! What a relief!!
I am sure I am not the first to feel absolutely shell-shocked at the moment when the decision is given. Indeed it seems very surreal after all the preparation and anxiety that it is (almost) over. The nice touch for me was when Andrew appeared with four glasses and a bottle of champagne. 'Aha', I thought, 'you don't get offered bubbly if you have failed!!'.
And so to the concluding part of this journey. I now have the corrections to make and then to submit the finished thesis within 3 months. Andrew's notes from the viva were a very helpful reminder of the sequence of events and major statements / points made. It was rather irritating that it took over 3 weeks for the list of the examiner's required changes to be send through but now I have them I can get on with finishing things.
This blog isn't finished yet ............
I prepared well for the viva. I set myself a timetable to revisit all the references and, probably like most people before me, hunted down typical viva questions on the web. I had intended to prepare answers to these on paper but decided against this as keeping them in my head seemed more sensible. Wise move as none were actually asked but the process of giving thought to how I might answer was worthwhile. I wrote a synopsis for each chapter and collected all the essential supporting info (including this blog) in a separate file for quick reference and revision. I also talked to as many people who had experienced vivas as possible.
The main preparation was reading through the entire thesis as objectively as possible ie placing myself in the position of the examiners. Would every sentence, statement, chart make sense to them? I wrote copious notes on the blank page to expand, explain, justify any that I though might be contested. Even so I missed some!!
About 10 days before the viva Imet up with my supervisor and went through the possible questions and the detail of the viva day. I also arranged for a colleague who had read the thesis to give me a mock viva. This was beneficial as it is different voicing your research to reading it on paper!
I had elected to give a 10 minute presentation at the start. My initial inclination was to do a Powerpoint but decided that this was not appropriate for this type of exam. Instead I set out on one side of A4 the importance of the research and a single sentence summary of the research. The latter was an interesting experience as it takes a while to condense 3 years work into 50 words. Most of the page was a flow chart showing the thought process that I had followed and how the main propositions had emanated through this. The benefit in the viva was having this in front of me so that I had a visual reminder when needed. In the viva I talked the examiners through the importance, summary and flow chart which worked well for me and provided a good jumping off point for their questions.
On the day I travelled to London early as I had to drop off a copy of my IFS for the examiners to refer to if necessary. Although this meant I would not be affected by travel disruption it also meant I had time to kill before the viva started. I hate hanging around getting nervous but fortunately my sister was in London visiting my niece so we met for lunch. Talking about family, holidays and so on was a great distraction and I felt very relaxed going into the viva.
They say a viva should be not less than one hour and not more than two. Mine was three hours!!! We started a little late as the chair of the panel did not arrive and after two hours I was asked if I objected to taking a break and continuing. You don't say no to that kind of suggestion! The questioning was all very positive and constructive. Much was directed at establishing my reasoning for including data, the meaning of charts and tables, what I had not included or potentially overlooked, the generalisability of the concluding propositions and the relevance to current practice. Fortunately all the problem questions relating to economic theory that I had feared did not get asked (although I had prepared some good answers)!!
The viva was held in a most convivial manner and, as others have found, the time passed very quickly until the point was reached when the examiners were left to make their decision. After 30 minutes Andrew, my supervisor who had sat through the viva taking notes, and I were called back and the decision was pass with minor amendments. Phew!! What a relief!!
I am sure I am not the first to feel absolutely shell-shocked at the moment when the decision is given. Indeed it seems very surreal after all the preparation and anxiety that it is (almost) over. The nice touch for me was when Andrew appeared with four glasses and a bottle of champagne. 'Aha', I thought, 'you don't get offered bubbly if you have failed!!'.
And so to the concluding part of this journey. I now have the corrections to make and then to submit the finished thesis within 3 months. Andrew's notes from the viva were a very helpful reminder of the sequence of events and major statements / points made. It was rather irritating that it took over 3 weeks for the list of the examiner's required changes to be send through but now I have them I can get on with finishing things.
This blog isn't finished yet ............
Sunday, 1 August 2010
And Next the Viva!!
Wow - 6 months on from my last post and a lot of water has flowed under the bridge. My draft was duly scrutinied by one of the lecturers at IOE as well as my supervisor and a couple of colleagues at the College. Their combined thoughts allowed me to take the first draft and improve it considerably. It was less demolition and rebuilding and more a gardening exercise - pruning sections out, re-arranging sections and drawing out / highlighting the best blooms. It is certainly well worth getting others to read a thesis not just from a content point of view but also from a research process and plain English stance. I had the feedback around Easter and finally submitted the thesis on 21st May. Hurray! The great thing was I could go on holiday to Italy and enjoy Rome, Florence and Venice without a research care in the world :-)
Of course now comes the interesting bit - the viva. This is arranged for 26th August and I am now busily preparing for it. An essential book to read beforehand is Rowena Murray's How to Survive your Viva - full of good advice. I doubt I will get passed without any further work but I am hoping this will be minor corrections / amendments only.
Will update when I have the result.
Of course now comes the interesting bit - the viva. This is arranged for 26th August and I am now busily preparing for it. An essential book to read beforehand is Rowena Murray's How to Survive your Viva - full of good advice. I doubt I will get passed without any further work but I am hoping this will be minor corrections / amendments only.
Will update when I have the result.
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
.... and 6 months later!!
My thesis has explored time and the lack of it. Naturally I would offer this as the reason for not posting anything here for the last 6 months. This is true to an extent but mainly the failure to post has been to avoid repeating the same thing week after week.
It may be inexperience or naivity but back in the early autumn I thought writing up the discussion and conclusions would be straight forward. How wrong I was. My initial attempts ended up simply repeating the findings. Eventually I worked out that this was as a result of looking at the results of the diary and survey in terms of numerically accounting for time. This provides parameters but did not really provide explanation.
It was not until I was on holiday in Egypt at the end of October that I stepped back far enough to realise that the answer had been staring me in the face and that the framework for explanating the findings lay within the principles of economics. I should have realised this from the references to consumption and utility in the time use literature but I guess my scientific background papered over this.
Now I am not an economist sothe time up to Christmas involved refreshing the bits of economics that I have done and learning new aspects that apply more to social behaviour.It was lengthy and at times tedious, but with the help my good friend and colleagure, Maurice, I believe I have come up with a new take on time use and economics that fits with the findings. Time and the viva will tell if I have!!
Effectively since Christmas all my time has been consumed by writing up the discussion and piecing together the conclusion chapter. The hardest part has been keeping within a word limit of 45,000 words. This has meant omitting sections that I would like to have included to give depth to what may be in danger of being too broad. Oh to have the word count of a PhD!!
Now I have to wait to see what others think. As well as Andrew I have a colleague at the College and someone at the Institute who have agreed to read and feedback. Naturally I hope they say it is perfect but that would be wishful thinking!! At least I can hope they will be kind and not condemn my work entirely ;-)
So now I wait and have time to check through the references numbering etc, but the important thing is -
It may be inexperience or naivity but back in the early autumn I thought writing up the discussion and conclusions would be straight forward. How wrong I was. My initial attempts ended up simply repeating the findings. Eventually I worked out that this was as a result of looking at the results of the diary and survey in terms of numerically accounting for time. This provides parameters but did not really provide explanation.
It was not until I was on holiday in Egypt at the end of October that I stepped back far enough to realise that the answer had been staring me in the face and that the framework for explanating the findings lay within the principles of economics. I should have realised this from the references to consumption and utility in the time use literature but I guess my scientific background papered over this.
Now I am not an economist sothe time up to Christmas involved refreshing the bits of economics that I have done and learning new aspects that apply more to social behaviour.It was lengthy and at times tedious, but with the help my good friend and colleagure, Maurice, I believe I have come up with a new take on time use and economics that fits with the findings. Time and the viva will tell if I have!!
Effectively since Christmas all my time has been consumed by writing up the discussion and piecing together the conclusion chapter. The hardest part has been keeping within a word limit of 45,000 words. This has meant omitting sections that I would like to have included to give depth to what may be in danger of being too broad. Oh to have the word count of a PhD!!
Now I have to wait to see what others think. As well as Andrew I have a colleague at the College and someone at the Institute who have agreed to read and feedback. Naturally I hope they say it is perfect but that would be wishful thinking!! At least I can hope they will be kind and not condemn my work entirely ;-)
So now I wait and have time to check through the references numbering etc, but the important thing is -
THE DRAFT IS FINISHED!!
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
The End Game
As predicted my week off last month did not see the end of the writing. It did allow me to read through what I have done and to get the final plot together. At present I am working through the copious notes that I have and getting them marshalled into some kind of order in the discussion chapter. In terms of words I have almost 10k but there is still a lot of pruning needed.
Last week I met up with my supervisor and talked through what has been written so far and what needs to be done. I have a new schedule which looks like this:
By 23rd August - complete draft discussion chapter
By 1 September (after week's study leave) - edit and complete first full draft - send to Andrew for feedback
Meet with Andrew 10/11 September
By 16th September - complete revised draft - send copies to reader(s)
By 28th September - receive reader's feedback
By 4th October - complete final draft and pass to editor for 'English' check.
[Early October - meet with Andrew for final sign off?]
12th October - print copies and deliver to binders
16th October - Deliver final copies to IOE.
As I really want to get this finished I will do everything in my power to keep to this and hopefully be able to take the viva in early December. Those of you who have been following this blog will probably say 'oh yes' at this point as the date has slipped several times over this year. Well time will tell who is right. All I know is that I go on holiday to Egypt on 23rd October so there is a great incentive to have it finished before then. Two weeks on a beach swimming and reading novels - I can't wait!!!!
Last week I met up with my supervisor and talked through what has been written so far and what needs to be done. I have a new schedule which looks like this:
By 23rd August - complete draft discussion chapter
By 1 September (after week's study leave) - edit and complete first full draft - send to Andrew for feedback
Meet with Andrew 10/11 September
By 16th September - complete revised draft - send copies to reader(s)
By 28th September - receive reader's feedback
By 4th October - complete final draft and pass to editor for 'English' check.
[Early October - meet with Andrew for final sign off?]
12th October - print copies and deliver to binders
16th October - Deliver final copies to IOE.
As I really want to get this finished I will do everything in my power to keep to this and hopefully be able to take the viva in early December. Those of you who have been following this blog will probably say 'oh yes' at this point as the date has slipped several times over this year. Well time will tell who is right. All I know is that I go on holiday to Egypt on 23rd October so there is a great incentive to have it finished before then. Two weeks on a beach swimming and reading novels - I can't wait!!!!
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
Last Hurdle Approaches
The last two weeks have been slow due to graduation ceremonies / conferences at weekends so it was only yesterday the four data and analysis chapters went off to my supervisor. It has proved quite a challenge to keep anywhere near the word limit I set for these so have had to include charts!
I struggled with how to show change across four modules for the longitudinal survey results in the last of these chapters. Luckily I came across stock charts which are a godsend for showing the movement in values over time and work well for three or more sets of data.
I am taking next week as holiday and hope to make good progress with the discussion. I am not expecting to finish it but you never know ... !!
I struggled with how to show change across four modules for the longitudinal survey results in the last of these chapters. Luckily I came across stock charts which are a godsend for showing the movement in values over time and work well for three or more sets of data.
I am taking next week as holiday and hope to make good progress with the discussion. I am not expecting to finish it but you never know ... !!
Monday, 29 June 2009
Data and Analysis Complete (almost!)
Another month goes by with few postings but progress has been made. I took a week off at the end of May which was the first time I had properly returned to the data since January. Have you ever had that overwhelming feeling of being on an ocean without a boat or a buoyancy aide? That was how I felt to start with and feared drowning under the volume of information.
Rather than writing, that week was spent re-reading the data and refreshing my memory - a frustrating but necessary time but which resulted in a clear plot for writing up the findings. Since then I have taken a further week off work and managed to produce a reasonably comprehensive but condensed set of four data and analysis chapters. The first presents the overall descriptive information of time use before, during and after the focus module . The second uses disaggregated analysis of time against the survey answers to establish trends and peaks in the results. The third reports the findings from the time given to the online learning activities and the final chapter considers the changes in time use experienced by the sample tracked over the succeeding three modules.
I still have about 800 words to write for the last of these chapters but it is substantially complete. Overall I have about 33k words written which is almost 75%. The final hurdle is to write the discussion of the findings and conclusions. I reckon I will need at least one more week of concentrated writing to finish the draft and then a further week or maybe less to mould it all together into its final form. With a fair wind I hope to have the draft finished by the end of July and the final document submitted by early September or earlier if possible.
Rather than writing, that week was spent re-reading the data and refreshing my memory - a frustrating but necessary time but which resulted in a clear plot for writing up the findings. Since then I have taken a further week off work and managed to produce a reasonably comprehensive but condensed set of four data and analysis chapters. The first presents the overall descriptive information of time use before, during and after the focus module . The second uses disaggregated analysis of time against the survey answers to establish trends and peaks in the results. The third reports the findings from the time given to the online learning activities and the final chapter considers the changes in time use experienced by the sample tracked over the succeeding three modules.
I still have about 800 words to write for the last of these chapters but it is substantially complete. Overall I have about 33k words written which is almost 75%. The final hurdle is to write the discussion of the findings and conclusions. I reckon I will need at least one more week of concentrated writing to finish the draft and then a further week or maybe less to mould it all together into its final form. With a fair wind I hope to have the draft finished by the end of July and the final document submitted by early September or earlier if possible.
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