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Learn how to structure your thesis

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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.

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.

7 Ways To Beat PhD Writer’s Block

Then the deadline grows shorter. You start to worry, “I’m so far behind. Can I ever catch up? I’m a good student. So why haven’t I been more productive?”

A System That Helps Makes Academic Writing Less Boring

Let’s be honest, PhD theses can be boring. The subject matter and technical language is necessarily complex, so writing one that remains engaging can be tough. It’s worth it though.

Learn how to write a PhD proposal that will stand out from the rest

When stripped down to its basic components, the PhD proposal explains the what and the why of your research. What it will be about and why it will be important.

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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.

The Methods Chapter – How To Write A PhD

This post is part of a series of guides that explain in the simplest terms possible how to structure each of the major chapters of a typical PhD thesis. If you haven't already, download our free PhD Thesis Writing Template for a simple way of visualising your entire...

The Theoretical Framework – How To Write A PhD

This guide explains how to write a PhD theoretical framework, the conceptual scaffolding upon which your entire rests rests.

The Literature Review – How To Write A PhD

This guide explains how to write a PhD literature review, which is a critical assessment of the literature related to your research topic.

The Introduction – How To Write A PhD

Your introduction chapter is a short summary at the beginning of the thesis that sums up the research, layout and contribution.

The Abstract – How To Write A PhD

Your abstract should be a short summary at the beginning of the thesis that sums up the research, the layout of the thesis and its contribution.

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.

During coronavirus, cut yourself some slack

Your new routine won’t look like your old one, so stop comparing them. Instead, accept that it will take you a while to find your new routine and that it will look very different.

Snippets of advice for self-isolating PhD students

One of the participants over in the the virtual PhD co-working community shared an article today that talks specifically to academics facing the reality of self-isolation and lockdown. I want to share it with you.

Focus on things you can control

In life in general, but particularly during times of crisis and national emergency, there are many things outside our circle of influence that we have little control over. Yet still we worry about them. We worry about things that may or may not happen, or things that we have no say or control over anyway. We often worry about future uncertainty outside our realm of control too.

How is coronavirus affecting your PhD? Anonymously share your experience

We’re asking PhD students like you from around the world a simple question: How has coronavirus affected your PhD and how have you adapted? We’ve created a dedicated webpage for people to share their accounts. In a short paragraph, students are sharing their unique experiences and providing a rich, detailed account of what effect coronavirus is having.

Worrying about coronavirus is like sitting in a rocking chair

Worrying can be like sitting in a rocking chair; it can give you something to do, but it doesn’t mean really get you anywhere. As best you can, use this time as a gift. Take this rare opportunity to savour the quiet, enjoy the slower pace and use isolation to your advance. Communities are improved when the people in them are creative, focused and inspired, rather than anxious, worried and overwhelmed.

As the dust begins to settle…

As time goes on, this new reality becomes your new normal. You’ll get used to the new routine, the new limitations and the new dynamics that you encounter. You may even start to see positives that come out of your new work and social life. Not every day will be easy, but not every day will be hard either. Each day will get easier, and each day will present new opportunities for growth and development. As the dust settles on this strange new world, we’ll all start to grow the resilience necessary to deal with it.