Category: Getting things done

Let me tell you a story about my PhD. I studied how architects and students gestured when they talked to each other. I was trying to find out what role gesture played in classroom communication and what implications this might have architectural education. Gesture is a visual medium, so I decided to use participant observation …continue reading.

I believe it’s important to find a reference manager that fits your working style. Most university libraries teach and support Endnote because it was one of the first to market. Many people end up with it because it’s the default, but it’s not your only choice – or, in my opinion, the best one (I’ve …continue reading.

What happens after you graduate? Some people tell me they feel like they have just run off the end of a cliff they never saw coming. That final sprint to the end and the immediate aftermath can be confronting. In this post Dr Lauren McGrow,full-time feminist academic, part-time poet and casual caver, has some advice …continue reading.

Most creativity involves theft. Take Thesis Bootcamp as just one example. Dr Peta Freestone and Dr Liam Connell from the University of Melbourne, didn’t really invent the Thesis Bootcamp, but they did steal it creatively appropriate it in a rather special way.  I watched Melbourne University Thesis Bootcamps at a distance, via social media updates. …continue reading.

Juan Castro wrote to me earlier this year to show me his new, free application ‘writefull’ designed for people who are doing their thesis in English when it is not their first language. I’ll admit, as a native English speaker and confident writer I’d never thought to use the Google technique he described, but it …continue reading.

As I’ve noted before, PhD parenting can be difficult. But do we sometimes ignore the positives? In this lovely post, Rebecca Turvill, PhD student and parent, considers the positives. Rebecca is a 1st year PhD student at Brunel University, London. Her research focuses on how young children develop ‘number sense’ in schools, for which she …continue reading.

This post is by Inez Von Weitershausen, a PhD student at the London School of Economics who blogs on people, thoughts, experiences, feelings on the Epiphany blog. Inez first came to my attention when she wrote an interesting article in the Guardian about PhD survival strategies, so I was happy when she sent me this …continue reading.

This piece was written by my ex-RMIT colleague and friend Dr Sarah Stow. Sarah has a PhD in English Literature and has been working for a long time, at a high level, in university administration and has learned about academia from both sides. Sarah is currently doing a project management role at the School of …continue reading.

You know you have arrived as a blogger, I think, when thesis examiners recommend that a student submit part of their text to your blog! At least, that is what has happened in this case and they were right – how could I resist a post on cartoon characters? An avid life-long learning, Charmayne completed …continue reading.

Eve Hermansson-Webb recently completed her Doctoral degree in Psychology, concurrently with a Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Psychology, at the University of Otago. Her thesis investigated the spread of depression and self-injury within adolescent girls’ friendship groups. She is currently backpacking through South East Asia and Europe, after which she will return to the Southern Hemisphere …continue reading.