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This is not a normal blog subscription
Each day we send a short, thought-provoking email that will make you think differently about what it means to be a PhD student. They’re designed to be read in thirty seconds and thought about all day.
Become a better writer
Writing a PhD is hard. Here we present advice and insight that can guide you through every step of the process.
Impressing the Examiners: How to Prepare for Your PhD Viva
Completing your PhD thesis is a huge moment, but there’s still another hurdle to clear. Read on to learn how to prepare for your PhD viva.
What to do if you lack motivation in your PhD
Motivation is elusive. Some days you have it and others you don’t. Well, having fluctuations in your motivation is normal and to be expected. If you took ten PhD students, how many do you think would say they’re highly motivated all the time? Not many, I imagine.
‘It is a special time’ – PhD student responses to the coronavirus crisis
We wanted to find out the effect that coronavirus was having on PhD students around the world. So we asked them. Over the course of a week, over sixty PhD students answered a simple question: How has coronavirus affected your PhD and how have you adapted?
10 Things You Can Prioritise If You’re A Self-Isolating PhD Student
Whilst being based from home and self-isolating will undoubtedly have a big impact on how you work, it doesn’t mean your PhD comes to a stop. There are other things you can work on once you re-prioritise your workload and shift your projects around.
What you should know if you are self-isolating during your PhD
This post has been published in direct response to recent calls by governments around the world to encourage more people to work from home. We wanted to create a resource that talked specifically to PhD students in order to advise them on steps they could take to ease the transition to home-working. Towards the end of these guidelines are specifically tips for those who currently teach as part of their PhD workload.
6 Things New PhD Students Should Know
Noting can ever fully prepare you for the intellectual, physical and emotional assault that comes with doing a PhD. Everyone does a PhD for very personal reasons, and everyone finds them challenging in unique and varied ways. What for one person may seem like a death-blow may to others be nothing more than a minor inconvenience. However, in this post I want to discuss the six things that every new PhD student should know. They’re things that I learnt the hard way during my PhD, and which I’ve seen time and time again in my career as an academic, PhD thesis proofreader and PhD coach.
6 ways to overcome PhD loneliness
PhDs can be the loneliest places in the world. You may be part of a bigger cohort of students in your department, but ultimately it’s down to you to power on through, turn up every day, make decisions and deal with problems. It’s you that has to carry around the weight and anxiety that accompany your PhD, and it’s you who has to constantly find a way over what seem like insurmountable hurdles, problems and sticking points.
The 9 most effective ways to achieve PhD success
Writing a PhD is physically, intellectually and emotionally daunting. You may spend each day doubting yourself, not sure if you’re making the right choices and unsure whether you’ve got what it takes. During the course of my life I’ve helped thousands of PhD...
How Moments of Mindfulness Can Thwart the PhD Blues — The Science of Mindfulness for Students
PhD students are six times more likely to experience depression or anxiety than the general population — that’s what a recent survey of over 2,000 graduate students found. To those of us currently on our PhD journey, perhaps this won’t come as a surprise. Doctoral...
What makes a good PhD supervisor? Top tips for managing the student-supervisor relationship.
We explain what makes a good PhD supervisor, what they should and shouldn’t be doing, and how to make the most of your supervision meetings.
39 PhD Mindfulness Exercises To De-Stress Your PhD
Research has shown how mindfulness exercises can be important in lowering PhD stress. Here we present 39 mindfulness exercises to help you towards a successful submission.
Seven tips for clear and concise writing in your PhD
At the heart of a PhD is a goal to make the examiner happy. Clear, concise writing is an important component of achieving that goal.
Infographic: Strategies for ESL PhD Students
Writing a PhD when English is your second language is a challenge. We’ve put together an infographic that will help you to improve the way you understand the PhD writing process.
Writing Your PhD For A Western Audience When English Is Your Second Language
If you’re a PhD student for whom English is a second language, you may not realise the importance of writing for a Western audience.
People like me will never do things like that: PhD imposter syndrome and academic anxiety
To those who think they’re not good enough I say two things. First, good enough for what? To be an academic? Well, you are one. You’re a trainee. Second, you’re not good enough yet. There’s a big distinction.
The PhD only needs to be good enough, which is terrifying if English is your second language.
The hardest thing about doing a PhD isn’t the research, the literature review, the research design. They’re all hard, sure, but the hardest thing about doing a PhD is the constant worry about whether what you’re doing is ‘good enough’. The trouble is, we only have so much control over making it good enough.
PhD Mental Health: The importance of self-care during the writing process
‘Am I doing it right?’ ‘Others are so much better at writing than me.’ ‘I have to please my supervisor.’ ‘My future career, my life, depends on how well I write this thesis.’ Sound familiar?
Writing your PhD begins with writing fieldnotes
For anyone writing ethnography – or doing any participant observation at all – writing a thesis begins in earnest in the field, with notes: an absolute heap of them.
Structuring your thesis
Our guides can show you the best way to structure every element of your thesis and give you the confidence to shine.
How To Structure A PhD Thesis
Struggling to understand what goes where? Let us walk you through a non-nonsense guide that’ll teach you how to structure a PhD thesis.
The difference between empirical and discussion chapters (and how to write them)
There is a very important distinction that needs to be made between the empirical and discussion sections/chapters. It is a common misconception that the empirical chapters are the place for your analysis. Often this confuses the reader.
Five tips to improve your PhD thesis
Regardless of what stage of the writing process you are at, there are five overarching tips you need to keep in mind if you want to improve your PhD thesis.
What are you doing and how are you doing it? Articulating your aims and objectives.
How long does it take the person reading your thesis to understand what you’re doing and how you’re doing it? If the answer is anything other than ’in the the opening lines of the thesis’, keep reading.
Wrestling an elephant into a cupboard: how to write a PhD literature review in nine easy steps
When I was writing my PhD I hated the literature review. I was scared of it. I thought it would be impossible to grapple. So much so that it used to keep me up at night. Now I know how easy it can be and I’m sharing my top tips with you today.
How To Structure A PhD With Our PhD Writing Template
Our PhD Writing Template allows you to visualise your PhD on one page. Here we explain how to fill it in and how it can help you structure each chapter.
Eureka! When I learnt how to write a theoretical framework
The theoretical framework is so important, but so misunderstood. Here we explain it is in simple terms: as a toolbox.
Submit with confidence
There’s lots to do before you are able to submit your thesis. In this section, we make sure you’ve thought of everything.
How to deal with post-viva PhD thesis corrections
We like to think that the viva is the end of the doctoral process; the final step in the long journey to a PhD. But, for most, it isn’t the final hurdle. The outcome of the viva in most cases is another three to sixth months work to deal with corrections.
There’s no place for struggle-porn in academia
Ever slept under your desk? I have. I was proud of it. It was something to boast about the next day. People admired me because of the amount of work I was putting into my PhD. Awful, right?
How attached to your PhD thesis are you?
If you’re anything like I was, your PhD thesis is like your baby. You’ve bought it into the world and you’ll die for it. It’s tested you, pushed you harder than you ever thought possible and bought your to tears many, many times.
Proofreading is cheating, isn’t it?
Record numbers of PhD students are having their dissertations proofread. Should it be counted as cheating? Sometimes, yes.
Ten Reasons Why You Need Your PhD Proofread
Deciding whether or not to hire a proofreader for you PhD is a big commitment. Whichever way you look at it, it’s expensive. Plus, you may think that your English language skills are good enough. So why bother? Read our ten reasons why.
A Handy PhD Submission Checklist
Your work isn’t finished when you’ve written your thesis and had it proofread. There is still a surprising amount of administrative work to do before you are ready to submit. Don’t underestimate the amount of time it will take to turn your finished text into a final, bound copy.
How To Proofread A PhD Thesis – A Checklist
You’ve written your thesis (phew!) and now you need to proofread it. In this guide we talk you through what to do and how to do it.
Five Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Use Grammarly To Proofread A PhD
Grammarly, the free online grammar and spelling checker, claims to ‘make sure everything you type is clear, effective, and mistake-free’ and that ‘everything you write clear and effective all the time’. If that’s the case, then why spend money on a proofreader when Grammarly can do it for free? Put simply, Grammarly is terrible at proofreading academic texts.
A Daily Dose of PhD Motivation
Each day we send out a short, motivational email to over 1,500 students. You can find an archive below, but if you’d like to get yours delivered straight to your inbox click here.
Recognise your own brilliance
Spend a moment right now reminding yourself that life is not about how inventive or creative you are, but about noticing what you’re already a part of. Reflect on the incredible journey you’re on and on all of your positive attributes. If you struggle to think of any, think harder – they’re there, I promise you.A PhD is a cruel, unforgiving exercise. Don’t let it colour your worldview such that you stop noticing the incredible gifts you have and the incredible trajectory you are on.
What is it you are trying to say?
A common complaint I hear from PhD students is that they find it hard to structure chapters and to ensure that their writing flows.Can you relate?If you struggle to find the thread in your chapters or your thesis as a whole, here’s some advice: think hard about the key argument you are trying to make in each chapter/the thesis. Then, don’t over-complicate things.
It will all be worth it in the end…
It may not feel like it sometimes, but one day you’ll be done with your PhD and it will all be worth it.All the hard work, the uncertainty, the perseverance, the never quite knowing. It’ll all come to fruition and you’ll look back on it all in years to come with a sense of wonder and awe.
You can be dedicated and struggling
You can be passionate about your PhD and dedicated to your research but still struggle with productivity and struggle to stay motivated. You’ll have days where you procrastinate or where you question the path you’re on, but that doesn’t mean your passion or dedication has disappeared. It’s just harder to access, that’s all.
Keep steady on your path
During your PhD, you’ll have days where nothing seems to make sense.You may question why you’re doing your PhD at all, or you may look towards the future with anxiety and doubt as you wonder whether you’ll ever be ‘good enough’ or whether you’ll ever ‘make it’.You’ll have days where you wonder how the hell you got here and where you go next.
Some Things Are Worth Fighting For.
What are you fighting for?Underpinning every PhD (and PhD student) is a personal struggle. Something worth fighting for.On the dark days where nothing seems to be going right or you can’t escape the PhD-blues, it is helpful to remind yourself what this fight is, and of why you’re here and why you decided to start your PhD in the first place.
Your one page PhD thesis
Visualise every element of your thesis on one page with our free thesis template.
Whether you’re writing up or starting out, use it to present your research in the most compelling way possible.