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womblingfree · Joined: 04 Mar 2006 Posts: 826

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this so sorry if it's not.

I'm applying to do a Phd in the UK and was wondering what titles and proposals some of you had submitted for your Phd's? I'd be really interested if you could post some examples. I already have my research topic/s pretty much decided but was wondering about word length and detail when submitting proposals and detailed descriptions of research topics.

It would really help me and I'd be so grateful.

PAULH · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 4672 Location: Western Japan

womblingfree · Joined: 04 Mar 2006 Posts: 826

PAULH · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 4672 Location: Western Japan

PAULH · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 4672 Location: Western Japan

D.O.S. · Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2006 2:45 am Post subject:

Womblingfree, I completed my PhD 'on campus' years ago.

If you want to throw some ideas back and forth, you can send me a message.

abufletcher · Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2006 3:55 am Post subject:

Double post, see below.

abufletcher · Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2006 6:56 am Post subject:

Womblingfree, I wrote up a proposal of about 20-25 pages and then shopped it around a bit before I found both a school and a supervisor that I was happy with. I think that with a research degree it is very important to hook up with the best connections you can in your field and forget about the specific school. I chose the U. of York because several of the profs have a strong reputation in my field of conversation analysis and strong connections with UCLA which is one of the top CA centers in the US. Without the contacts from York I may not have been able to arrange to spend my sabbatical year at UCLA, and this latter experience has made all the difference.

I think all British universities are going to have pretty comparable deals in terms of research degrees and the name of the university is of far lesser importance than the contacts you make throughout the duration of your Ph.D. process. Moral: Go with an expert in your field rather than a school.

In the end, what I ended up doing with my thesis bore rather little similarity to what I had written in my proposal. But then that may be inherent in the nature of conversation analytic research which eschews the usual rationalist approach to science, i.e. hypothesis -> experimental design -> data --> reject or accept initial hypothesis, etc.

I think what readers of these proposals are looking for more than anything else is a sense that you are serious, that you have some idea of how to go about research, that you have a "plan" of some sort for what you'll be doing (even if you don't end up going down that particular route), and in general evidence that you will, at least eventually, be capable of working at the Ph.D. level.

What sort of research are you interested in pursuing? I wouldn't go with Birmingham merely because it's well-known for it's research Ph.D. program. Virtually every university in the UK is willing to accept people working "at a distance." I believe I may have been the very first student at York under my somewhat odd registration status ("mixed" which made me technically 2/3 full-time and 1/3 part-time). Don't ask, 'cause I don't understand either.

The real value of a Ph.D. is who you studied under. Identify a leading expert in your field and then ask yourself how many generations removed from that leading scholar is your supervisor. Try to get as close to "the gods" as you can. I figured I ended up being something like either 3rd or 4th generation, e.g., student of the student of the student. And I was lucky to be a first generation student (of Schegloff and Goodwin) at UCLA.

On the topic of titles, well you probably won't have an actual title until your final year of writing up your thesis. But you can have a working title. Ph.D. titles tend to be fairly long and ideally should communicated exactly what you're working on rather than being some ambiguous though creative invention (like a lot of conference presentations. The final title of my thesis was:

"Co-constructing competence: Turn construction and repair in novice-to-novice second language interaction."

D.O.S., may we ask what your dissertation dealt with? I don't remember hearing you mention it before.

abufletcher · Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2006 7:28 am Post subject:

Also keep in mind that your supervisor or supervisors will be likely candidates for writing those letters of recommendation that you'll be needing regularly. The more recognizable the names the better.

womblingfree · Joined: 04 Mar 2006 Posts: 826

Some great advice so far.

I also found this rather useful website:

http://www.grad.washington.edu/envision/phd/index.html

There are several well respected professors at my college who I'd be very happy to be my supervisors. What's the best way to approach the issue? They all seem so busy the whole time!

abufletcher · Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2006 4:48 pm Post subject:

It's not just them being well-respected but rather being leaders in the particular sub-field you are interested in pursuing. Having contact with top people can put you the equivalent of 10 years ahead in your field. I was amazed at how much "insider" information there is that will take several years to come out in some public forum, e.g. conference or publication.

Are you considering US as well as UK universities? For me, a US degree just wasn't a possible option as most people doing a Ph.D. part-time at a major US university end up taking 8-10 years to complete their degree (this is what I was told by a professor at UCSB's Department of Lingusitics). That just wasn't going to fit my life. At the University of York I would be eligible to submit in 4 1/2 years -- in the end I ended up taking 6 years to finish including a one year sabbatical.

If you intend to be looking for a tenure-track job in the US I don't think there is any doubt that a US degree is an advantage. With a UK degree I think much more emphasis will put on what you have done post Ph.D.

womblingfree · Joined: 04 Mar 2006 Posts: 826

abufletcher · Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2006 8:40 pm Post subject:

I'm not up on this area and am not quite sure how it relates to Critical Discourse Analysis but it seems like the University of Loughbourough might be a good place to check out.

Isn't Ben Rampton one of the leading figures in this field in the UK? The name Norman Fairclough (?) also comes to mind but I'm thinking he's more into CDA. Actually, I think this field is centered almost entirely in the UK.