PhD diary

I’ve been making further revisions to Chapters 4 and 5. These two largest chapters of my thesis have hindered me from moving on to editing the other chapters. There’s so much left to do, and everything seems to be going back and forth, making me wonder if I am making progress or not. On the read more

I’ve completed editing Chapter 4. At 15,000 words, it is the second-largest chapter of my thesis. My methodology chapter provides a lot of background about my preliminary fieldwork, the main fieldwork, the data sample, the three stages of the analysis, the results of a pilot study, and the development of an analytical framework for the read more

I was able to share my research with 106 first-year students in the Health Sciences department. They are future health professionals in medical and social care: many of them were young, some looked like mature adults. My supervisor was invited to run the session, and she included me to assist her. We were so pleased read more

I started my doctoral research in January 2017. Three years later, today, I finished writing the conclusion chapter of my thesis. For the past three weeks, I have been immersed in revising the discussion chapter and writing the conclusion chapter, along with teaching and other research activities, which proved to be tough – both mentally read more

My first week of 2020 was very productive: supervision, feedback, reformatting and organising my working drafts – and, also, tidying up the house. I had a meeting with my primary supervisor and received her feedback. She explained how important it is to have clear arguments in the discussion chapter. The discussion is the closing argument read more

Happy 2020! We welcomed in the New Year over a roast chicken dinner and Prosecco. It’s been a lazy, relaxing and peaceful time for us. I made a list of my New Year’s resolutions: complete my PhD programme look for career options that use my skills cook or bake one new thing each week learn read more

My resolution for 2019 was to submit my thesis in December. This didn’t materialise, but I’ve reached a stage where almost all the draft chapters are done. For the next few months, I’ll be editing the first draft of my thesis, which is already a great achievement for me.   Nine things I achieved this read more

I am writing this post at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, waiting to board my flight to Tokyo. I’m heading off for a week’s holiday in Japan. On Wednesday, I taught my last lesson for the term, and on Tuesday, I completed my draft of Chapter 6 and sent it to my supervisors. It’s a great relief to read more