Teacher Discussion Forums

Hi, every Phd holder:
Would you please give me a suggestion?
I want to do Phd. But now I have only the idea for my further study. And now the application for many colleges has started. So, I don't know what I should do first. Should I just write the proposal according my rough idea to apply for the admission first? Or do the pilot study first to make good preparation for my future study first?
I want to study the grammatical metaphor in workplace texts. And I prefer the universities in HongKong because I live in Shenzhen, quite close to it. Would anyone suggest me a professor who studies in the same or similar field?

It depends on a lot of things. First and most importantly it depends on the nature of the Ph.D. program. If it is an "American-style" Ph.D. program with 2 years of taught courses, followed up by qualifying papers/exams before entering the dissertation phase, then you can just go ahead and apply now with whatever ideas you have.

On the other hand, if you will be doing a "UK-style" program (a "research degree") I would recommend that actually get quite well into your research idea before submitting a proposal (and formally joining the program).

Thank you very much!