Author: Thesis Whisperer

This is a picture of one of the rather nice glass doors in my apartment. If you look closely you will notice there’s a big crack in it, right next to the handle. I blame this crack on Chapter five of my PhD. To this day I don’t know how it happened, but I managed …continue reading.

Our first PhD student piece – professional brain?

Inger finds herself at home and highly medicated

When I was hunting through my reader request pile I found this email from @thetokenlefty asking about writing for different  audiences: I had a quick question for you about this 5,000 word literature review I have to write for my methods course.  It is going to be read and marked by people like yourself — …continue reading.

This one is about a complex supervisor / student relationship issue: what happens if you think your thesis is ready to submit but your supervisor doesn’t?

The thesis whisperer is on a short vacation: returning on the 15th of July. Any topic suggestions can be left in comments or direct message on twitter @thesiswhisperer.

So you want to tell Aunt Betty what your thesis is about? Here’s how.

One way a humble whiteboard can help you think more clearly about your research

On the tram this afternoon a friend commented that learning is a very inefficient process. I think this is especially true for PhD students, partly because it is so easy to get distracted. When I was doing my PhD I suspended my facebook account –  but the fridge was still a great source of distraction. …continue reading.

A PhD thesis or dissertation is supposed to make a “significant and original contribution to knowledge”. This can create a lot of angst amongst research students, partly because originality is often defined, but rarely talked about in actionable ways. In “How to get a PhD”, Phillips and Pugh set out 16 ways to be original …continue reading.