Category Archives: doctoral experience

my supervisor expects me to keep revising – why?

I often hear doctoral researchers asking this question. They’ve sent their supervisor some writing. It’s come back with feedback and suggestions and maybe actual corrections. The doc. researcher has attended to all of these and sent the revised text back … Continue reading

Posted in doctoral experience, doctoral pedagogies, revision, supervision, thesis revision | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

when you’re older than your professors

This is a guest post from Dr Noelle Sterne. Noelle runs a coaching and editing practice and in 2015 published Challenges in Writing Your Dissertation: Coping With the Emotional, Interpersonal, and Spiritual Struggles.   Marlene was one of the brightest … Continue reading

Posted in 'mature' doctoral researcher, academic writing, doctoral experience, doctoral researcher, feedback | Tagged , , , , | 20 Comments

‘the PhD experience’

Patter is currently on two weeks annual leave. (Faint sounds of cheering.) So the next four posts are reprints of some other writing that might be of interest to Patter readers. This is the foreword I wrote to a new anthology of Australian doctoral … Continue reading

Posted in "doctoral student", doctoral education, doctoral experience, doctoral researcher, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 3 Comments

letter to an unknown doctoral researcher

Dear becoming-doctor, I know that you are about to enrol in a PhD. That’s fab, no really, it’s great – but there’s something I want you to think about as you fill out that form. By the time you reach the … Continue reading

Posted in comparison, competition, doctoral experience, doctoral researcher, norms, PhD | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

why do doctoral researchers blog?

Today Inger Mewburn, Thesis Whisperer, and I presented the first cut from the survey we did – with your help – on PhD blogging. As yet, we don’t know whether we are going end up with a book chapter, or one or … Continue reading

Posted in academic blogging, doctoral experience, doctoral research | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

the experience of doctoral researching/writing – five good books

Patter is on a week’s leave. She may or may not be reading thoroughly, but she has taken along some books to dip in and out of. In the interests of sharing the dipping in and out, here are five … Continue reading

Posted in doctoral education, doctoral experience, doctoral research | Tagged , , | 1 Comment