Milestones
Just an interim post as milestones have come up in conversation recently, outside and inside of this blog, also I haven’t had that perfect day I talked about. I’ve got my first actual milestone as the university’s research council see it. The registration point in fact is the only milestone until my final year starts when I transfer from the MPhil to the Ph.D. The council are kind enough to provide the following graphic. I think what’s above kinda simplifies the whole process too much. Doesn’t say anything about induction, presenting internally, publishing or anything before submission but hey, I suppose they’re not trying to intentionally scare anyone! And also every school and discipline is different. I have to submit this registration document by 2nd April, else my supervisor will have to fill in a form. I hope to have it in by then but it’ll all depend on how well I write, (It contains my research proposal.) and the feedback I receive in the next week or so. My next actual milestone, (as I see it) is trying to get some work published. The submission deadline for that is 10th April and will be for this. Needless to say…
Boom you’re a researcher!
Today’s been a bit of a brain fart day in the halls of academia so I’ve decided to end the week commenting on my Experience of the Week… Yesterday I presented my research to date at an internal symposium. I was pretty relaxed about it up until the first person presented their work, (At 9.30am on Wednesday.) and then I had to sit through 20+ presentations before delivering my own the following day. The nerves began to build more and more after each confident presentation that I witnessed. Just leaving me to question if the work I am to present is going to be any good, let alone interesting to the audience. At the end of the first day I was asked if I had picked up any tips. All I had learned was that the aircon gets in the way if you restrain your natural speaking voice. Also I hadn’t even timed the presentation, nor had I rehearsed it. I crashed out that night and as I slept I presume the left side of my brain was getting a kicking from the right side of my brain because when I got up in the morning at seven I began…