Baby Steps

by Tracy Rogers

As I write this post, it is exactly a month to the day that I started as a PhD student…or doctoral candidate…or doctoral researcher…here at the College of Education. It seems that I have to pinch myself every now and then to check that this new role of mine is actually for real. I am the first person in my family to have gone to university, let alone embark on a PhD. 

So whilst I may not have anyone close to me to turn to for advice, I have found sharing office space with amazing women embarking on the same journey very rewarding and supportive. It can be a bit of a challenge trying to find out information about the process (hot topic at the moment). Though it is not as challenging as trying to get curtains from property services! 

I have started my PhD by leaping right into getting my ethics application done, and aim to submit it for the August committee meeting. The process has been extremely helpful in helping me think through the 'baby steps' required to get through each stage of the data collection and the project overall. My wee wall planner and flowchart are helpful reminders that I am somehow on track (at the moment). 

The process of writing the ethics application is somewhat daunting when you have to put into words your vision of your project. I keep thinking about the 17 people of the ethics committee reading my application and I hope that what I have written sounds convincing and feasible. It was therefore particularly timely that Pat Thomson's latest posting is about not boring your supervisors with a dreary writing style. Read her entertaining thoughts on the topic here:

http://patthomson.wordpress.com/2014/07/03/sending-the-thesis-examiner-to-sleep/

For those of you who are part of Karen's writing workshop, you will appreciate Pat's grumbling about the use of too many passives and paragraph-long sentences. So I am thankful for the guidance and feedback I have received so far and aim to hopefully avoid sending my supervisors to sleep in the future!

When I reflect on my month long experience as a PhD student I have learnt that:

* there is a growing wee family of lovely and supportive postgraduate students of the 4^th floor variety,

* devising a plan or timeline is particularly helpful with keeping you on track

* scheduling regular meetings with your supervisors helps iron out any hiccups before you start implementing  them

* writing every day is crucial to keeping you in the swing of the PhD journey

* there are multiple sources of funding if you just know where to look

* if you don't ask, you don't get, so just ask the impossible and see where that leads you.

And finally, I met a woman yesterday who completed her PhD in 2011. She took great pleasure in telling me just how pleased she was to have finished with that chapter of her life. She looked at my naïve, eager, and smiling PhD newbie face and said "That smile won't last". But you know what? I really hope it does. I am sure that there will be bumps along the way, with some rather challenging bumps too. But, I have thoroughly enjoyed these first weeks of planning and nutting out my ethics form, and if I just take baby steps and keep everything in perspective, then I think I will continue to enjoy this chapter of my life. And I hope you will too!