Welcome to my PhD blog
Worried you're doing your PhD all wrong and someone's about to find out? You're in the right place. 😂
In this blog, I cover all the stuff you might need help with. Like writing your literature review, doing your qualitative data analysis, developing your discussion chapter, and trying not to go completely bonkerpants in the process.
I'll help you work out HOW to do all those things everyone keeps telling you to do.
Expect practical PhD advice, based on the unspoken truth that nobody's PhD is nearly as neat as their finished thesis makes it look.
Have a nosey at the latest posts below, or browse by topic to find what you need.
Qualitative Methods | Literature Review | Methodology | Planning and Organisation | Writing Up | Supervision | PhD Mindset | Paradigms, Conceptual and Theoretical Frameworks
Featured Posts
Latest Posts
PhD Researchers: How do you know when your work is good enough? Are you being thorough, or is something else going on?
As a PhD researcher you’ve probably experienced that feeling of your work continuing to expand and expand and expand because you’re unsure when to stop. You start losing the plot, getting tangled in what on earth you’re trying to achieve and feel like you’re working in a vacuum. Is it ready? How much detail do I need to go into? I just sound really un-academic. Gosh, even that phrase is unsophisticated! I wish I had a bit more faith in myself when it comes to my work.
What does Degree Doctor sell? PhD Survival Guides, Books and Momentum Community explained
If you've found your way to Degree Doctor through my blog, YouTube channel or social media, you might be wondering what I actually DO here. Apart from talking about the various ways a PhD can drive an otherwise perfectly reasonable adult human being completely bonkerpants, that is. 😂 I also make things that people can buy. Because, well, I have bills to pay and a cat who expects a certain standard of living.
Is AI making PhD researchers doubt themselves? Should you use AI in your PhD?
I'm starting to worry that AI is making some PhD researchers LESS confident in their own thinking.
Last week, I had a chat with a PhD researcher that really concerned me and I want to put my take on this “out there”. The PhD researcher in question is okay with me sharing this anonymously BTW so I’m not betraying any confidences and they read and approved this before I posted it.
Types of Literature Review, Explained: Which one do you need for your PhD?
Okay. So you've been told you need to write a literature review for your PhD. Fair enough. You knew that was coming. Then you start looking into HOW to write one, and all of these WORDS start emerging from the mist. Thematic. Systematic. Scoping. Narrative. Critical. Conceptual.
WHAT?! You thought there was just one type of literature review.
How to connect theory and data in your PhD discussion chapter (without making it awkward)
If your PhD discussion chapter was a buffet, where theory and data were awkwardly eyeing each other from opposite corners of the room…
PhD researcher doing qualitative data analysis? You're the family tech support now. Sorry.
Qualitative data analysis during your PhD can feel a bit like trying to untangle the cables behind your TV. “Wait, what's this one for?”, “Where does this go?”, “It's not even connected to anything!”, "Should we just call Tom?" (every family has someone who knows how to mop up a techy mess, ours is Tom, he's the law-abiding equivalent of Harry de Souza from MobLand).
Conceptual framework, methodology and analysis: what’s the difference?
Conceptual framework, methodology and analysis. Ping-pong, back and forth you go, wondering what belongs where and if you’re just going to end up with three identical paragraphs that will give your examiner a black cat moment when they read your thesis (Matrix analogy, sorry-not-sorry).
PhD Supervisor Leaving? What to do when your supervisor leaves
PhD supervisor leaving? “We’ll find you another one.”
Ah. Lovely. Like replacing a missing member of the Sugababes. 😂
Except changing your PhD supervisor isn't always quite that straightforward.
Stuck with your PhD writing? Try this 10-minute reset
Writing your PhD is not all that easy. You can have a couple of hours of writing time blocked out in your calendar, a clear thing you need to be writing, yet still… no words on the page. When you do manage to tap something out, it’s just waffle, and you’re like, “Have I forgotten how to write?”.
Feeling overwhelmed by your PhD? Your problem might be smaller than it feels
One tiny PhD problem can turn into Godzilla remarkably quickly.
It starts innocently enough: “This section of my literature review isn't working.” Then you spend three hours moving the same paragraphs around until somehow - impressively - you've made it WORSE.
Fiddlesticks.
Your PhD literature review no longer fits your findings? That’s normal
The PhD you finish is not the PhD you start. Along the way, this happens:
PhD: (Grabs you by the elbow) "THIS way! Over here!"
You: "Mmmm, but I read all that stuff and wrote thousands of words on the other thing, can't we just stay here?"
Why doing a PhD can knock your confidence (even if you’ve always been good at academia)
Something came up recently in my Momentum PhD community that highlighted one of the most frustrating things about PhD life. One of our members asked whether anyone else had ever felt a bit foolish for not realising quite how difficult doing a PhD would be…
PhD productivity: what to do when you feel like you've fallen behind
Summer can be kind of weird if you’re a PhD researcher. You might have imagined that everything slowing down would magically create loads of lovely empty space for you to crack on with the PhD, except your busy adult life doesn’t necessarily get the memo.
How much theory do you need in a theoretical framework? A guide for qualitative PhD researchers
Theory can be a strange thing when you’re doing a qualitative study for your PhD, it can really boggle your brain. Trying to come up with a theoretical framework will send you down all kinds of rabbit holes and you’ll lose hours and days of your life that you’ll never get back.
PhD Writing: Why you don’t need to understand it before you write It
One of the most common PhD writing blocks is sitting in front of a blank page thinking, “I can’t write this yet because I haven’t worked it out in my head.”
Why your supervisor never gives you a straight answer - and why that’s probably a good thing
Has your relationship with your supervisor kind of...shifted recently? Maybe you sent them a draft, made all the changes they suggested, then the next round of comments somehow steered you back towards your original version. Or perhaps they seem to contradict advice they gave you six months ago.
Why qualitative PhD research feels so confusing - and why it's probably not you
Have you noticed that your PhD seems to become more confusing the longer you do it? The confusion was wholly expected in the early days, because you were a newbie, right? Things are supposed to be a bit foggy then. You get to blunder around for a few months with everyone saying, “Aww, baby PhDer!”. But months (or even years) in, the confusion hasn't really gone away.
The real reason you can’t write your literature review
In those blissfully naive early days of your early PhD journey, the literature review seemed like a fairly innocuous part of the doctoral process. Perhaps it was even one you were looking forward to…
Your literature review isn't Pokémon
Is your literature review starting to make you feel a bit… anxious?
You might be worrying that there are papers (or books) out there that are absolutely central to your research and you haven’t found them yet. Indeed, one thing that plagues your dreams is the scene from your viva when your examiner says…
The Hidden Curriculum of Qualitative PhD Research
I’m guessing you’re here because you’ve chosen to do a qualitative study for your PhD but things have started to feel a bit… slippery. You like how qualitative approaches value people’s lived experiences and you’re researching something you genuinely care about so that’s why you felt drawn to it. However, recently you seem to have unlocked a whole new level of confusing and it’s all gone a bit Alice in Wonderland.
I’m guessing you’re here because you’ve chosen to do a qualitative study for your PhD but things have started to feel a bit… slippery. You like how qualitative approaches value people’s lived experiences and you’re researching something you genuinely care about so that’s why you felt drawn to it. However, recently you seem to have unlocked a whole new level of confusing and it’s all gone a bit Alice in Wonderland.