The Pragmatic PhD – Craft skills for students and supervisors

A catalogue of obstacles, and how to overcome them

“Prevention is better than cure.” “I think the bottom line is students are incredibly dependent on their supervisors…” A PhD is hard […]

Students ask: How can I manage all the work in time? And how can I balance the PhD with everything else? How do I spread […]

Written in collaboration with David Bowers. One of the most important – and most overlooked – factors in timely submission is project […]

Students ask: How do you read your own work and criticize it? How can I read like an examiner? People usually read […]

I came across this blog post from the LSE the other evening discussing the shortcomings of the current financing structure for research […]

Watch this space… Over the last few weeks and months I’ve been working with colleagues across my institute on drafting specific guidance […]

A colleague recently sent me an article – a manifesto for the simple scribe – my 25 commandments for journalists. On a […]

Students ask: How can I deal with imposter syndrome? There’s so much I don’t know; I feel like a fraud. Imposter syndrome – that […]

Students ask: What does it mean to keep good records? How can I maintain traceability between my writing and my notes? Research […]

I recently received the most contradictory reviews I have ever seen. My co-authors and I had submitted a significant journal article to […]