PhD blog: 13 | Prospects.ac.uk

My Prospects

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A small amount of success

Yesterday I received a letter through the post. It was good news.

Remember all those months ago I had to fill in a form named the RD1? Essentially, this was a registration form, where you detail your proposed thesis so that a panel of faculty judges can determine if you are cut out for PhD study, or if your project has what it takes. It’s a daunting prospect – the fact that the sum of your hard work could be deconstructed, the pieces handed back to you to reconstruct in a different configuration.

Well, no need to worry anymore. For the first time since beginning my PhD, I have had some good news:

'I am pleased to inform you,' the letter said, 'that you have been registered by the Faculty’s Research Degrees Sub-Committee as a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.' I am now, eight months after enrolling, an official PhD student. It’s a relief and it is motivational, and I feel I actually deserve a place in the research office for the first time.

There were, of course, some suggestions to make my proposal tighter, but on the whole, I managed to tick the relevant boxes and pass with flying colours.

The letter I received also made another thing clear. That is the earliest submission date. I think people outside of academia believe that as soon as the work is done, then you can hand it in, but that is far from the case. I am not allowed to submit my finished thesis until 20 March 2012 (being part-time). Actually, that’s when I think my earliest submission date is. The form actually says March 2022, a full eight years after the latest submission date. Maybe I mistakenly got the form that is usually sent out to all the quantum physicists…

So, I wouldn’t blame you for thinking that my toil with the forms is behind me. I wish it were. Alas, I’m just gearing up for my annual review, and working hard to make a comprehensive list of the work that I’ve done.

This, or course, can’t include the 120 assignments I’ve marked in the past ten weeks or the money that I’ve struggled to earn over the past eight months.

What counts?

I sat down with my DoS the other day to tot up the grand total, and things just snowballed. I’ve written 10,000 words (and counting) towards my project, I’ve read countless books (some great, some awful and, worst of all, some that I’m resolutely indifferent about), I’ve gathered piles and piles of research material (including films, interviews, reviews, theory books, novels, ad nauseum), and I’ve attended a research methods class. I don’t really know how I’ve found the time. After we had made this list, both my DoS and I gave a sigh. The university states that a full-time PhD student should have written 20,000 words in the first year. The fact that I’m part-time means I can halve this. I’m well on target, but in a sense these numbers don’t really mean anything – it’s the work that goes into this writing that counts, and it’s easy to get obsessed with counting words. The final target of 80,000 words is written everywhere, and sometimes it’s easy to measure your progress this way, but it would be foolish to think that the 10,000 words I’ve written have realistically gotten me closer to my ultimate goal. There is still work, and research mutates everything, so I have to be prepared for a situation where what I have written will need drastic amendments.

Talking to other PhD students, it’s the writing up of their research that is apparently the hardest thing. But, with the risk of sounding brazen and naïve, it’s not something that scares me. I’m a writer by trade. It is my lot in life, and I can hardly complain when I get put into a position where I have to write more. Vocationally speaking, it’s what I’m built for.

I just need to explain all of this to the person interviewing me for my annual review. I will send word from that particular front line next time…

Read Graham's previous blogs:

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