Oh dear, I've now lost another hour of my life to obsessively reading webcomics. And I'm wondering why I decided not to do a PhD. Clearly, all I'd have to do is drink coffee and procrastinate on a computer: Both things I'm very talented (!!) at... crumbs working in R&D for a company, I might actually have to do some work...

When it come to an Arts PhD how do they sort out funding - I didn't think bank robbing was legal!

Anyone willing to give me some help in applying for a PhD? I've got about 5 months to go until the deadline but have so much going on that I really need to start soon. Thanks in advance!

What sort of help do you need Floss? I applied for one when I was doing my Masters, it was with one of the research councils, so I have a bit of an idea of what they are looking for. I didn't get the award sadly but if I can help you in any way then all you need to do is ask.

Are you applying to the ESRC?

I too am applying this year around in the broad areas of phonetics/linguistics/bilingualism. If anyone has any experience in these areas and wouldn't mind having a chin wag about it, I'd love to hear form you I've completed a first draft of a research proposal and sent it off to a potential supervisor that I've been conversing with for about a month now. Let's hope it's well received!

Hi Freda - can't remember if we have "spoken" before but I am doing my PhD in linguistics at the moment.

I haven't started my research proposal yet, I'm currently working on my dissertation research proposal and will hopefully get the PhD one done over the Christmas break. Good luck Freda!

Flossie, I'm applying for a funded studentship with my current department (it's a 'one off' anniversary studentship) but do you think it would also be sensible to apply to the ESRC?

Thanks Louise.

Mine was advertised on jobs.ac.uk although about all the advert said was that it was for research on Energy in Buildings, so if you can one with that broad a description it should make things easier as it means the funding is already in place.

Ah yes, many moons ago we did.

I got some feedback about my proposal yesterday. One line puzzled me:



In any guides/how-tos/advice that I've read, they've all stated that you need to show why you, as an applicant, are suitable for this research. I don't know how I can do that without including some sort of personal information.

Any thoughts?

You are writing a research proposal not a personal statement - sounds like you've muddled the two things.

A research proposal should cover the aims and objectives of the project, the gap in knowledge which will be addressed and how the proposed research extends existing work or knowledge, how you intend to do the actual research, the intended research outputs (both academic and policy related plus any community outreach type things if relevant) and ethics.

Edit: For a PhD application the personal experience stuff goes in either the personal statement section of the application form or in a covering letter, dependent on what has been requested. For a proper research proposal or funding application there would be a separate section for your supporting statements and evidence including things like a full list of publications, grants etc. The personal experience stuff should be academic only unless it is essential e.g. for a project exploring mobility issues for young wheelchair users in school settings it would be relevant to say that you have X years experience of voluntary work with children/young people with disabilities including those with mobility problems, it wouldn't be relevant to say that you had taught swimming to primary school aged children. Yes, the latter might have provided transferable skills which you could draw upon, but it isn't directly related to the proposed research.

Ok thank you for that

I've since had more information from my potential supervisor and this corresponds.

Ugh... it's so hard to get funding. I can't help but think that this is all in vain

Well, I submitted a fortnight ago. Apparently the turn around time for a response is about 6 weeks so I'm still on tenterhooks. I'm trying not to get too excited because I know how hard it is to get funding. Fingers crossed though, eh?

Yep!

Good luck! Don't give up...if you don't do it now, when will you do it?

Well indeed! I didn't get funding, unfortunately, which was going to be my do-I or don't-I condition. However, after working so hard to even get offered a place, today I accepted the offer on a part-time basis. Yes, I'm going to have to accrue yet more debt (at least in the beginning for I can apply for more funding as times goes on) but I see it as a worthy investment to make since, quite frankly, I cannot see myself doing anything else.

So, as of September, my life will revolve around scraping enough money together to pay rent and pondering first language attrition in late bilinguals.

...And it's back to London I go! Gah!