Research symposia- when a talkfest is good!

By Kim Brown

I recently took part in a two-day research symposium with fellow postgrads, researchers and academics and spent the whole time talking. Yes, two whole days talking! To be fair there were periods when I listened or ate something, but the majority of the time was spent engaged in discussion, problem solving and debate. It was great. I am six months into my PhD, not long enough to know differently, yet already I would describe a distinct managerial tone to the doctoral process. By managerial I mean an emphasis on productivity measured in units of time and incremental research outputs: “set milestones working backwards from anticipated hand-in date”, “write daily for X number of minutes’, “publish publish publish” (so firmly established as a research mantra that the verb now exists in triplicate), “attend conferences”, and so on. Of course, this is all sound advice intended to support prompt completion of the PhD and an academic trajectory, but it feels like the nasty tasting medicine that is supposed to do you good. In such a managerial environment of study, the prospect of two days simply talking and listening may fill some with horror. Fear not, I will endeavour to explain why attending a peer talkfest is time well spent.

For the symposium I attended, each participant had an allocated 20-minute slot, with a maximum of seven minutes talking to the group, PowerPoint presentations were banned and timings strictly enforced. Participants tended to give a brief overview of their research and then presented a research issue, conundrum or dilemma to the whole group. Most participants asked their peers to respond to the given question/issue in smaller groupings, taking feedback in various ways. Participants regularly moved to a new seat around a large table arrangement, enabling (or forcing) people to meet and work with others. The format of the day included generous breaks and good food – both conducive to productive and amiable conversation. If the absence of PowerPoint presentations has not already sold you on the idea of this type of symposium, let me expand upon the benefits.

I was unsure of what to expect so had not prepared for my slot, I did, nevertheless, have a few gnarly research issues plaguing my research design that I could share. I am studying peer learning practices amongst doctoral students, and despite a successful pilot study, I couldn’t quite nail the crux of my overarching research question. And then it came to me, sitting in a room of collective expertise, confusion and collaboration. What I am really interested in is how doctoral students cultivate collegiality in an academic environment. Not quite a eureka moment, but very confirming in terms of locating my research. When my turn came, I was able to ask people to describe what characterises collegiality in a scholarly community. Enough about me however! We got to hear about other people’s research as it was happening in down-to-earth terms.

 

The symposium offered the means for all members of the department equally to seek ideas, insight and feedback. In our time regulated everyday environments, snatched conversations at sites of productive encounters (that’s the water cooler/heater) can be very helpful. The colloquium environment supported breadth and critical engagement with diverse responses. Creativity is often paired with critical thinking in the doctoral toolbox; Vygotsky proposed that creativity is a process by which individuals learn to face conflicts and contradictions, and to focus on future objects or trajectories. Drawing on collective creativity we can rework and process these issues, illuminating and elevating everyday experience. In other words, it was fun, useful and supportive!  

Research symposia take many forms. I have attended formal symposia that involved conventional presentations with the associated pressure to perform. To describe this symposium as informal is perhaps a disservice, since I would be comparing a developmental and collegial environment to a rarefied, and some would say competitive, academic forum. A developmental research symposium is time-well spent because it is demanding of thought and effort, it’s a talkfest where responses are immediate and there’s nothing wrong with a little instant gratification.

We are in the process of organising a postgrad developmental research symposium in the second department I’m associated with, look out for the follow-up blogpost.

Holidays anyone?

by Keely Blanch

This is the last post for the year. Christmas is nigh! The campus is shutting down for the Christmas/New Year period and in these last few days before Christmas, the big question is of course what people are doing over the break.  

As a postgrad it can be easy to be sucked into working everyday, especially if we take work home. But it can be good to get a break to recharge the batteries - for instance, check out this post on work-life balance in academia: Escaping the ivory tower- if only for a little while.  For those who have children on holiday from school and needing minding, the choice of taking some sort of holiday may be made for you. 

This year I am again taking a few weeks to unwind and catch up on a bit of reading along the way. I have a long list of ebooks waiting to be read, including some of the free New Zealand fiction available through meBooks, so I won't get bored. 

Queued on my ereader is this gem offering insights into the postgraduate journey in NZ - Postgraduate study in Aotearoa New Zealand

If you want to check it out first, Chapter 5 in which Martyn Davison writes about his experiences of writing, is free on the website under the preview tab. 

Here's hoping you all get a chance to have a break from the thesis for a few days!
 

Wishing a safe and happy holidays to everyone. 

We'll be back in the New Year!

> The PG Lives blog writers will be taking a small break for a few weeks, but we'll be back with a new post on January 21st, 2015. In the meantime you can check out our Twitter feed @PGLives, or our public Postgraduate Lives Facebook page for odd items of interest we'll share through the season.

> Previewing 2015 - keep an eye out for posts next year reviewing how Paul Silvia's writing methods have worked for us; coming to grips with your data; Tales from Cambodia - researching overseas; conferencing 101- tips and tricks; (re)motivating yourself, and more!

December distractions

by Keely Blanch

One of the perils of writing for a blog is that life can get busy, and suddenly it's the day before the scheduled post and you have to produce something, anything! 

In some ways, I guess that makes a blog a bit like a thesis: it seems to be all about the writing, there are deadlines that sneak up on you, much coffee is drunk along the way, and some days you can feel that nobody is ever going to read it. And just like the thesis, blog writing can be difficult when the sun is shining and you just want to be outside enjoying a glorious summer (- those reading from Dunedin are probably laughing on the floor right about now). Yes, I've resorted to writing about the weather.... that's one thing that hasn't gone in my thesis!

 

It's almost Christmas break. Decorations have been up in the shops for weeks, even months! The Santa parade in Dunedin has been and gone on yet another chilly Dunedin Sunday. The campus appears deserted (although maybe that's due to the weather). Without the bustle of the numerous undergrads the place can seem a bit lonely and sad (although it is much easier to get parking!). Meanwhile, postgrads around the campus are frantically trying to finish chapters and meet deadlines before the campus closes over the break, staff are grabbing the chance to work on their own research, and preparations are underway for Summer School and other courses to start in early January.

Up in the Tower, the postgrads at College are both home and away. Some have grabbed the chance to take holidays early, some have headed home to work, some have headed off to collect data (look out for Tracy's Tales from Cambodia coming next year), and the rest of us are huddled in offices over keyboards working on ethics applications and chapters. 

It's not all work and no play up here though. In our breaks, we've been pondering the important questions - who invented cheese rolls?* will it be sunny over Christmas?** What should we have for Christmas dinner?*** What is that breed of bird we can see by the Leith?**** Will I have time to watch the entire season 8 of Dr Who over Christmas?***** (for answers to these life-changing questions, see below).

The internet also provides some extra distraction from thesis (and blog post) writing. If you're not on Twitter, do consider joining as it is a great way to stalk keep track of researchers and other PhDs in your field. It also throws up interesting gems, such as this seasonal suggestion for your (old) thesis drafts - 

#AcademicXmas: Cut up your old drafts to make snowflakes! #draftflakes #phdchat #ecrchat @thesiswhisperer @PhDForum pic.twitter.com/nf08pncRxq
— Academia Obscura (@AcademiaObscura) December 8, 2014

Search the #AcademicXmas or #CampusChristmas tags on Twitter and you can admire festive cheer from academics around the world. 

Got a few books lying around? How about trying this -

@ldunlop unless it looks like THIS one. #academicXmas #notmine pic.twitter.com/aix4buLb
— Laine Pond (@laddie) December 11, 2011

or if you don't want to sacrifice that many books and you think the library might get antsy if you use theirs -

Our Xmas tree with Xmas wishes of our postgrads (academic success & more coffee) #CampusChristmas @timeshighered pic.twitter.com/DUtOzyZBI9
— Fatos Eren Bilgen (@ErenBilgen) December 8, 2014

So why not join Twitter and share your Christmas cheer.  Perhaps the wonderful people at Otago GRS (@OtagoGRS) could share a few of our campus' efforts on their twitter feed?

The last post for the year wll be a little early because of Christmas, so keep an eye out and have fun decorating! 

Now where are those old drafts.....

-------------------------------------------------------------

Because I know you really want to know...
* Who invented cheese rolls? No idea, but there's a history available at the fount of all knowledge, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese_roll
** Will it be sunny over Christmas? This depends entirely on the answer to the next question....
*** What should we have for Christmas dinner? This decision is known to have a strong influence upon local weather conditions for our household - this year we are having roast chicken thus necessitating the oven heating up the house for a prolonged period. Ergo, the  weather is bound to be hot and sunny and contribute to making the house unbearably hot. You're welcome. 
**** The bird was a white-faced blue heron
***** Are you kidding? It's Dr Who! I shall make time.

Random Things to Inspire: From bibliophiles to Grammarly

by Lara Sanderson

So another month has slipped by and its time for another RTtI. Inspiration comes from different places for everyone - often looking out the window can help - reading this blog may also generate some creative juices (so humble eh?). This month's RTtI is another two parter - this first part is all about books or rather stuff to tempt that inner bibliophile that I know has been struggling to emerge from the 'reading for research only' pile. 
The second part explores the randomly useful grammar checker, Grammarly.

This smallish series is randomly interesting BUT this website is damn interesting! (published at random times!). They have built up a largish archive of short stories that are true and possibly useful for quiz nights?! Best of all, you can listen to them - so you can keep up that multitasking, typing/reading/listening function that comes built in with research experience! 

If you are in serious want of actual books (not just e-books or maybe e-books) but you're not sure or you've been in research reading for so long you wouldn't know your John Donne from your John Green, GoodReads is the place to go - also its a useful research tool as well in that other GoodReads Readers often post comparative book suggestions e.g. when I looked at Alphonse Daudet someone suggested another author Anatole Broyard - AB is way better than AD for those playing at home, good call GR Commenter.

GRAMMARLY.

As an aside but maybe a RTtI  or maybe its antithesis? A quick review of Grammarly.

Aaah Grammarly, I succumbed to the social media pop-up, such shame! I am not afraid to admit I suck at editing my own work. I am partially blind and find editing large chunks of my own work difficult - I often think I have written a perfectly good sentence only to find out later that I have missed a linking or integral.....(add your own here). So I thought I would give Grammarly a crack.

Firstly I want to stress that Grammarly is a TOOL that you can use as a part of your thesis toolbox it is NOT the be all and end all. Editing with beta readers and other unwitting people is also a benefit (mainly because they are human). Grammarly is not the magic do my-thesis-for-me wand, though if you have one of those I'm open to any gifts! In fact it can lead you down the wrong path if you're not careful. There are many reviews, a lot good, a few not. I'm on the fence.

I said this is going to be short because you can actually get a free trial to try it out for yourself and I'm all for the inquiry based learning, so just a few observations then. It has different grammar settings e.g. informal and such. I placed mine to formal academic, this meant that all my personal pronouns were highlighted. Its a bit like spell check stuck in Americanese you have to keep ignoring all the suggestions for added z's only a lot more work. 

 

I have an old (but mainly reliable) version of Word so the "you might have plagiarised there" is an interesting aspect of Grammarly. Most of the time it was soooo sooo very wrong - with only one correct citing of a work which had been cited properly (ugh).

The overuse of a word function was interesting and in someways comforting - comments like you have used Education too much consider revising were comforting because my PhD is in Education I would hope I had used the word at least a bit! 

So final judgement for Grammarly - its a tool and like all tools, they can be useful if you understand how, when, and where to use them....see I told you - fence sitter!

Have you used Grammarly? What are your thoughts? What about your favourite non-research book at the moment? Or do you have a favourite book blog that you want to share?

Postcard from Darwin

by Sylvia Robertson

Water garden MGD©.jpg By MGDboston

I am sitting working in a tropical rainforest garden. At 34 degrees and near 100% humidity, my brain is fizzing. Distraction is inevitable so I will scribble something about my PhD experience to date.

I am one of those annoyingly passionate, conscientious mature-age students. I can’t leave learning alone. I graduated with a BA in philosophy and English literature in 1982 and reluctantly left university to attend Teachers College. With some reservations, I began teaching for three years to satisfy the requirements of my bond. Three turned into thirty years across Wellington, Sydney, and London. I taught all primary and intermediate years, and held several leadership positions. I loved teaching. It allowed me to keep learning and discovering. Children present you with rich perspectives on all things from forked tongue lizards to fantasy friends. While teaching in London and Sydney and still addicted to learning, I completed two thirds of a Masters in sociolinguistics and educational leadership. Back home, I finished the Masters in Education and began my PhD.

Now I feel somewhat guilty about the luxury of ‘just’ being a student. After working fulltime, raising two kids and the effort involved in transitioning countries and cultures, I have almost total control over how I choose to spend my time. If this project fails, I will only have myself to blame but if it succeeds, it will be because I chose to make it happen. This is powerful stuff after being at the beck and call of others for years. Intellectual freedom, I suppose, in that I don’t have to conform too much to the thinking and direction of others. Incredibly humbling, I think, as we tiptoe in the footprints of giants who have grappled with similar issues since the dawn of time. Also incredibly humbling, in that I am working with real people and the issues they face in often-difficult contemporary contexts. 

There have been challenges. The skills you bring from the work place are very useful – time management not the least. However, Humanities in the late seventies did not prepare me for studying with technology. When I started we had microfiche. Despite surviving a technology rich workplace nothing has prepared me for EndNote! But I have found the support of university staff and my colleagues invaluable. And at my age you can get away with asking really dumb questions!

Lastly, if you are contemplating this – do it. Not only will you get to reflect on years of work experience and relationships but you will learn about yourself as well. Make the most of every precious minute but be kind to yourself as well. This is also hard work.

Festivalling: Week Two

by Keely Blanch
 
This year Grad Research School treated postgrads to a full-on ‘Inger’ experience by persuading offering The Thesis Whisperer, Dr. Inger Mewburn, the chance to escape Australia for the lovely shores of NZ to present THREE seminars in two days. For anyone who hasn’t seen The Thesis Whisperer presentations, I’d heartily recommend attending if you get a chance. The slides for Thesis Whisperer presentations are available from the ThesisWhisperer website, but they are no substitute for being there. Inger is so friendly that feel you know her - she must feel stalked when complete strangers come up to her and start talking to her! On this visit, her presentation topics included ‘Social media and Academia’, ‘Tragic research mistakes and how to avoid them’, and ‘What do examiners want’. Sprinkled between these seminars were other offerings, such as tips on networking, opportunities to practice networking, and the Thesis in 3 awards (sadly I missed this last event as I was away, but more details are available at the GRS blog).

Social media and Academia 

(or Blogging and Tweeting – do I really have to do it?)

 

I admit I’m a Facebook addict  an enthusiastic user of social media, so I was keen to hear in this seminar about how I could turn the procrastination time-sink potential to an advantage. Other postgrads who are less keen on social media had come along wanting to know if they really did have to use this ‘stuff’ on the internet.

I still haven’t made up my mind about the first half of the seminar. There was a lot of talk about ‘the future’, accompanied by slightly depressing academic job stats and requirements, phrases like ‘more competition and more PhDs than ever before’, etc etc. The stats were Australian figures, but reportedly similar to those for NZ. But it is all in how you view them – for instance, I decided to be optimistic that only 14% of PhD grads were still looking for work 4 months after finishing. However, all these facts were a lead in to the main argument – that social media can be a good way to increase your academic profile and boost your chances not to be one of the 2% still looking for work a year after graduating.

First point - anyone can do social media. Second point – you do not want your first google footprint to be your university staff page. I immediately thought I could live with that as at least that would mean I was a staff member. I also did have to laugh when I googled ‘Inger Mewburn’ and the first result was the uni staff profile. However, the second result was The Thesis Whisperer blog, which illustrates a wider academic profile.

During her talk, Dr Mewburn covered ways to promote yourself online and where you should be focusing your attention. Hint - your 'basic' academic profile should include your uni page, Linked.In, ResearchGate, Academia.edu, Google Scholar, and about.me. Bonus points if you add Twitter, facebook, blogging and other social media.

In summary, using social media is one way to increase your academic profile, to stamp your mark on a concept, to be a networked scholar, and to expand your academic community.

(* for more about academic blogging, see the links at the bottom of the post)

 

Networking with Prof. Rachel Spronken-Smith

Immediately after hearing about networking via social media, we headed off to learn about face-to-face networking. Yes, with people. Was I the only one whose mind went from social media to networking and thought computer tech wizardry?

Professor Rachel Spronken-Smith continued the theme of promoting the importance of networking for academic careers. Labelled as Cats or Dogs, we mingled and completed activities aimed at helping us get to know each other and expand our networks. It was great to meet up with other PhD students from HEDC, as well as make contact with another blogging PhD student, Sherrema from The Smart Girl's Guide to Getting her PhD Abroad. Networking was working already!

PRANC - the networking party

This event was touted as a way to practise our newly-minted networking skills. Having re-caffeinated, and with the promise of more of the Staff Club's delicious nibbles (did someone mention truffles?) I set off to meet, greet, and work out who had the Lego Harry Potter castle in their office (sorry Claire, I already knew about your Lego village). Networking Bingo was tremendous fun, and conversations weren't just confined to 'what category can I put you in?'. By the end of the evening my head was swimming with names. Maybe I should suggest a seminar on how to remember which names and faces go together.

 

 

 

Tragic research mistakes and how to avoid them

Tuesday was all about The Thesis Whisperer.  In the morning seminar, Dr Mewburn discussed how research integrity is woven through all aspects of the project. It encompasses work practices, ownership of concepts, 'plagiarism' or ethical use of other people's work, and ethical research practices, including the ethics process and ethics review boards.

From a selfish view - a lack of research integrity by others may impact upon your work with disputes over claims of authorship, contribution to projects and so on. So protect yourself: keep an audit trail, negotiate and re-negotiate as needed in group projects, keep proof of your thesis progress (and feedback to prove ownership of ideas), etc. Although do remember that 99% of the time there aren't any problems!

For your participants - you want to ensure you act ethically during the research process and treat their data with respect. Part of this is gaining institutional ethics approval for your research before you start collecting data. Ethics is a bit of a hobby horse of mine so I was glad this got a mention! 

One important note is that ethical approval isn't just about protecting participants, it's also about protecting the researcher. On a selfish note again, without ethics approval granted before data collection, you may not be able to get your thesis examined, graduate, or get published in reputable journals.

What do examiners want?

The afternoon session started off with the curly question of what examiners actually want in a thesis. Recently Dr Clinton Golding of HEDC at Otago outlined what examiners do when they assess a paper (you can find his paper here). 

Dr Mewburn decided to approach the topic from a slightly different angle and talked about the 5 ways to fail your thesis. If you want to fail, don't talk to your supervisors about possible examiners for your thesis; send your thesis to a new examiner who is still relatively fresh out of their PhD and still sensitive and therefore hypercritical; write a bad literature review; make sure your introduction and your conclusion look like they come from different theses; don't use a copy editor to check for proofing, grammar, spelling errors. The good news is that only about 2% of PhDs fail outright. Most have to do some revisions. 

Things to think about if you want to pass: keep your thesis as small as possible - it indicates confidence and promotes clarity; make sure you hit key references in your field; check the conventions for your division when deciding what type of thesis and how to present it; go to seminars; ask advice; keep your intro short (about 2000-3000 words); assessment is based upon first impressions of abstract, intro, conclusion; make your thesis an easy and enjoyable read.

So a busy, but useful two weeks of festivalling. I hope you all got a chance to get along to at least one of the events this year. I can't wait to see what's on offer next year :)

 

Acknowledgments:

I'd like to say a thank you to Dr Inger Mewburn, aka The Thesis Whisperer, for generously sharing a link to one of this blog's posts via her popular Twitter and Facebook feeds.

Academic blogging links:

There seems to have been a bit of talk around academic blogging and/or use of social media this year. If you want to know more, Pat Thomson at Patter has written a few posts on the topic. Some of the recent posts have reflected on whether Doctoral researchers should blog, and the way social media offers a chance to experiment with our writing voice. Jonathon Sterne at Sterneworks offers some salient points to consider for academics thinking of blogging in his Blogging 101 for Academics post. The Guardian has also offered tips from Tom Crick and Alan Winfield for Academic Blogging, as well as a post from Pat Thomson and Inger Mewburn questioning why academics blog so much. Thomson and Mewburn have also written an academic paper on this topic, 'Why do academics blog? An analysis of audiences, purposes and challenges'. 

 

Random things to inspire: A page of Awesomeness!

by Lara Sanderson
 

 

Taking inspiration for this post from Hank and John Green's (of Vlogbrothers and The Fault in Our Stars fame among other things)  motto of their organised geekdom Nerdfighters "Don't Forget To Be Awesome" (or DFTBA). This post is all about the awesome! Especially for those times when you need a wee pick me up at the 3 o'clock crunch you might like to take a look at something from a 1000 awesome things! 

Its a blog that makes you ponder all those little things that make life a little bit more awesome which can be difficult to see when you elbow deep in data, marking, or that reading pile you keep meaning to get through.It reminds me that awesome doesn't have to be that big, bright, and sparkly moment that spells it out!

A few of my favourites include 101 

Number 41 "doin' the Fonz" is a go to method for those pesky technology moments! My last favourite thing number 671 So, what was awesome in your world today? Don't forget to be awesome

 More awesomeness ahead...TED talks.I don't really need to say more, as many people now have discovered how wonderful and awesome TED talks are...I often have them playing in the background, ones that are directly related to my topic, while I am writing. Personally I have found inspiration in many so  I thought I would put a list of randomly interesting ones  - I have tried to keep them non topic specific, so that you may take inspiration where you find it! In no particular order 1. Brene Brown  http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability?language=en2 Susan Colantuono http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_colantuono_the_career_advice_you_probably_didn_t_get3. Sue Austin http://www.ted.com/talks/sue_austin_deep_sea_diving_in_a_wheelchair  4. Isabelle Allende http://www.ted.com/talks/isabelle_allende_how_to_live_passionately_no_matter_your_age 5. And because it has its own awesome scale! http://www.ted.com/talks/what_we_learned_from_5_million_books Do you have favourites not on this small list?  Put your ones in the comments to share with and inspire us!