myResearchSpace

Yamin Ma submitted her PhD thesis today. She doesn't run a blog, so I'm making sure that recognition for her achievement reaches as many in the UWA community as possible. Yamin's thesis ended up with the title ''Vegetation as a biotic driver for the formation of soil geochemical anomalies for mineral exploration of ...

I love it when an examiner talks about ''the PhD'' in general, rather than simply the particulars of the one under consideration. When this happens, we get an insight into what examiners are looking for. Usually, such reflection occurs when the examiner is trying to explain to the candidate how a thesis might be improved - this is the formative ...

Any diagrams, figures, or images in your thesis must be treated in the same way as your text: they must be your own, or they must be appropriately cited. However, unlike text, when an image is copyrighted (and it is safe to assume that all are unless it is explicitly stated that they can be used with a citation only), then you must obtain ...

I know it is hard enough actually stating what your thesis is, but once you have articulated it, you then have to be able to convince the world that it is important enough to be worthy of 3 years' consideration, and that what you have found is a substantial contribution to the world's knowledge.One of the most serious concerns relates to the need ...

Time for another update on the state of my thesis. Over the last week, I've read through the whole thing (in print form) and scribbled down what final-ish changes needed to be made in the margins. Then I set about actually making those changes on the computer. As I dealt with each one, I highlighted it on the printout. Then I went through the ...

I'm sorry to say, but today marks my 4 1/2 year mark of being a PhD student. And I am even sorrier to say today that my scholarship expired. So, I'm going to be 'roughing it' until I can find any sort of employment, the search for which is still being unfruitful. I submitted my nomination of examiners form this week, so that should be on its way ...

I have recently been examining a PhD thesis of a student from another university (in another country). Overall, it was, in my opinion, an adequate dissertation: the candidate had clearly done a lot of work, there were some original contributions (although they were difficult to find in the presentation), and the written style was passable. While ...

Today, instead of making any instantly-recognisable progress on my thesis, I've spent many hours playing Squish. No, it's not really a fun game. Note that it is typically played using LaTeX. I'm not sure whether it adapts easily to Word. Here are the rules: 1. Your supervisor will usually initiate a game of Squish. A typical ...

I wonder if the stresses of PhD research was what Mylo had in mind when writing the song ''Dr Pressure''? Somehow, I think not, but you never know... Anyway, I am starting to feel those stresses as I look at my diary this morning and realise I only have about 50 days left to finish! All I can really do is take it one day at a time and just get ...

I finally got around to returning my library books today. I'd been meaning to do it for a while, but today was the due date (this is a reminder for all of you who have forgotten to do this), so I could procrastinate about it no longer. I had been almost shivering in the office all morning due to the aircon. I was pleasantly surprised upon stepping ...