Sup called and we had a phone meeting.
This is awful for me because I have a phone phobia! But I knew that I couldn't get out of it and also I knew that I would learn a LOT so sucked it up and got on with it.
Basically what I am doing is just dandy (ahem, might have popped in the word 'brilliant' :s) and he started blathering on about how I will graduate in July! OMG! Graduate?! Me?! July?! Ok then! He is very pleased my first draft is coming along but not at all panicky about where the feck my work is. He said that despite the difference in theses and research it is bizarre how similar the process of finishing a PhD is amongst his candidates and said that he had to put his other candidate (he only has the two of us now as he actually retired from the dept about two years ago!) through the wringer lately. This is amazing news and has done a lot for my confidence! Haha, no, not because I am a bitch and happy someone else got a bollocking (well, he doesn't bollock just chides gently) but because it meant I am not a dolt all on my own, but we are all dolts, with strengths and weaknesses and producing a PhD is a LONG process of learning, editing and revising, not a feat of spontaneous genius.
He thinks there is one chapter I can split into two and thereby make the research more empirically weighty, rather than theoretical as I keep wanting to do. This is fine as I thought the same... though I really hope I have an old edit of that chapter where I blather on. Is nicely edited but now, apparently, I have to 'un-edit' it. Ho hum. It isn't such a disaster.
Other main point was to stick to my point ALL the time. What is the case I am making with the PhD, what is my argument? stick it on the wall and say it again and again (but in different ways to mix it up a bit!) so everything you write is sort of justifying it. To come up with this he asked me to imagine I was on a protest march: what would I put on my banner? And imagine I was leading the march: what 3/4 other slogans would I have for them to carry - basically saying the same thing but in a punchy, attention grabbing way. This is great and I will work on this today. He also said to wave my thesis in front of the reader all the time. Be proud of it. This was a point I agreed with hugely as I said I was very underconfident in what I had to say and in my research. But he said it was fine and this is normal and just do it.
I feel much better and more anchored now. And just speaking to someone in real life about my work makes it feel like it is a real thing, that is for a real purpose and not just me being crackers in my spare room.
x J
This is awful for me because I have a phone phobia! But I knew that I couldn't get out of it and also I knew that I would learn a LOT so sucked it up and got on with it.
Basically what I am doing is just dandy (ahem, might have popped in the word 'brilliant' :s) and he started blathering on about how I will graduate in July! OMG! Graduate?! Me?! July?! Ok then! He is very pleased my first draft is coming along but not at all panicky about where the feck my work is. He said that despite the difference in theses and research it is bizarre how similar the process of finishing a PhD is amongst his candidates and said that he had to put his other candidate (he only has the two of us now as he actually retired from the dept about two years ago!) through the wringer lately. This is amazing news and has done a lot for my confidence! Haha, no, not because I am a bitch and happy someone else got a bollocking (well, he doesn't bollock just chides gently) but because it meant I am not a dolt all on my own, but we are all dolts, with strengths and weaknesses and producing a PhD is a LONG process of learning, editing and revising, not a feat of spontaneous genius.
He thinks there is one chapter I can split into two and thereby make the research more empirically weighty, rather than theoretical as I keep wanting to do. This is fine as I thought the same... though I really hope I have an old edit of that chapter where I blather on. Is nicely edited but now, apparently, I have to 'un-edit' it. Ho hum. It isn't such a disaster.
Other main point was to stick to my point ALL the time. What is the case I am making with the PhD, what is my argument? stick it on the wall and say it again and again (but in different ways to mix it up a bit!) so everything you write is sort of justifying it. To come up with this he asked me to imagine I was on a protest march: what would I put on my banner? And imagine I was leading the march: what 3/4 other slogans would I have for them to carry - basically saying the same thing but in a punchy, attention grabbing way. This is great and I will work on this today. He also said to wave my thesis in front of the reader all the time. Be proud of it. This was a point I agreed with hugely as I said I was very underconfident in what I had to say and in my research. But he said it was fine and this is normal and just do it.
I feel much better and more anchored now. And just speaking to someone in real life about my work makes it feel like it is a real thing, that is for a real purpose and not just me being crackers in my spare room.
x J
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