Do I need to cite everyone?
Research Degree Insiders » Thesis
by Katherine Firth
2y ago
I’m just wrapping up a couple of projects that required me to move into a new field and so I’ve been thinking about the challenges of making sure you are reading and then citing the right sources. For PhD students, working out what needs to be cited can be a learning curve, getting the balance right between demonstrating wide familiarity with the field and keeping it relevant to your topic. Becoming an outsider again reminds me of the skills I learned on the inside, so I’m sharing them in case they help you! Getting into a new field is challenging. You need to read widely, and feel confident y ..read more
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Is 2021 the year you finish your thesis?
Research Degree Insiders » Thesis
by Katherine Firth
3y ago
Look, the true answer is ‘probably not’. I’m not being discouraging here, I’m talking about cold hard maths. Here are 10 reasons why 2021 is unlikely to be the year your thesis gets finished. All PhD programs officially take multiple years—3 years (Full Time Equivalent) at the shorter end, 7+ years at the longer end. If you are currently enrolled in a PhD, more than two thirds of you are not going to be finishing this year.  If you are studying part time, each FTE year needs to be split across 2 calendar years. So even if you are in your official ‘last year’, you may not be in your ..read more
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You don’t have to feel ready to take action
Research Degree Insiders » Thesis
by Katherine Firth
4y ago
One of the biggest challenges for many people starting to write, or to speak in public, or to take an exam (or to do anything that is important) is they ‘don’t feel ready’. At Thesis Boot Camp, we tell people to write anyway, because the research, and experience, says that waiting to feel ready is a quick route to not writing. It can be too early to write, absolutely. You need to do a basic amount of reading, thinking, understanding. But then moving into the writing is how you grapple with the ideas and how you start shaping them into academic prose, the medium your research needs to be in to ..read more
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What is a ‘logical progression’ and how do I make one?
Research Degree Insiders » Thesis
by Katherine Firth
4y ago
Western logical structures, which developed from the Ancient Greeks and were then developed by the Church Fathers and Enlightenment philosophers, tend to be what we mean when we say we want your argument to ‘progress logically’. Of course there are other forms of logic, both forms that are equally ancient and newer forms that challenge this pattern. So if you are doing quantum physics, post-modern philosophy, or Indigenous stonework, among others, you will be challenging these logical norms. It is important to understand what readers are expecting as ‘normal’ to establish what you are doing an ..read more
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Sending your thesis (or book) out into the world
Research Degree Insiders » Thesis
by Katherine Firth
4y ago
The moment you send a book out into the world can be full of emotions.  On the one hand, a thing you had been working on for so long is now complete. You took something that was an idea, a hunch, a guess, or a feeling… and turned it into a sold piece of work that other people can read. You probably feel a sense of accomplishment, of pride, of excitement. On the other hand, once you send off a thesis or book, you don’t have control over who  reads it, or how they react to it. People might misunderstand it. They might understand it but dislike it or judge it to be poor quality work. Th ..read more
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Almost, nearly, very nearly totally complete… except…
Research Degree Insiders » Thesis
by Katherine Firth
4y ago
There is a stage at the end of a major project, like sending off a book or a thesis, where you are almost, nearly, very nearly totally complete… except there keeps being one or two more things you need to do. And that stage can go on for a couple of weeks, or even more. It can be hard to tell if that stage is you procrastinating or if you really do have a bit more to do.  I have just been there (I am writing the first draft of this literally a couple of hours after sending off a book project to beta readers), so I thought I’d write about my own experience. Apart from anything else, you ar ..read more
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A thesis has shape as a tree has shape: Imperial Gardens, legitimacy and editing
Research Degree Insiders » Thesis
by Katherine Firth
4y ago
This is a reflection on the form of a writing genre and what that means. I started thinking about it about a year ago, on a holiday in Japan. These musings start with gardens and poetry–two of my passions–but, as always on this blog, quickly move to academic issues. Here I compare two forms of doctoral thesis: the IMRAD (or Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion) structure which is typical for experiment-based research, and the traditional Humanities ‘Big book’ thesis.  We walked through the Imperial Palace Gardens in Tokyo–the most beautifully manicured trees, the softes ..read more
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How many drafts should you write?
Research Degree Insiders » Thesis
by Katherine Firth
4y ago
There are no right answers here, but the true answer to the question ‘how many drafts should I expect to write’ is ‘probably more than you think!’ In this post, I talk about a typical draft process, for me and for other people I write with and work with. Consider this a typology rather than an exact blueprint that you must follow to do good work! *** Pre-writing. Reading, note taking, conceptualising, understanding, talking about it with your supervisor, doing experiments or case studies, problem solving, planning. These are often rehearsals for drafts. First shitty draft (also called a ‘zer ..read more
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The PhD Quest: Arise, become a peer.
Research Degree Insiders » Thesis
by Katherine Firth
4y ago
This is a post I started eighteen months ago. It was only after my last post, on warfare and Foucault, This is not a test, that I felt I was ready to finish this off and send it out into the world. That’s because this metaphor has two sides. The side explored here is the meta-narrative that the Academy tells–that pursuing at PhD is like a noble quest, for the Holy Grail of new knowledge. It will test you, and only the pure may succeed. This helps sustain the hierarchy and the myth of ‘meritocracy’ in the academy. You may spend much of your candidature feeling inadequate, like you are in the Sl ..read more
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Choosing your research question
Research Degree Insiders » Thesis
by Katherine Firth
4y ago
How do you chose a research question? How do you decide what it is that you are going to spend the next 3-7 years of your life on? You are going to wake up at 3am gnawed by this question. You are going to find good data if you pick a good question. You can construct a great argument if you pick a well-focused question. You can get funding and publications if you ask a relevant question. Often, people say something like ‘I want to take my time and pick a topic that really fires my imagination‘. That’s a great idea–but what will still fire your imagination when you’re correcting commas in 400 fo ..read more
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