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
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.
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).
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.
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 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 problem with your literature review “To Read” folder
Yes, the “graveyard of PDFs”. Where’s yours? Is it on your desktop so it makes you feel guilty every time you sit in front of your computer? Is it tucked away in a “to read” folder somewhere so you don’t have to feel bad about it too often?
Why reading more won’t fix your PhD literature review
As a PhD researcher, you do a lot of reading. It comes with the territory, obviously. There are things about academic literature that you didn’t quite understand until you started studying for a PhD…
Why your qualitative PhD discussion chapter feels like a 1980s game show
“The discussion chapter is where I started wondering whether I actually understood my own PhD” - actual words from a member of my PhD community recently. The qualitative PhD discussion chapter is where a lot of doctoral researchers suddenly start feeling as though their brain has stopped cooperating.
Why writing up a qualitative PhD feels like having 47 browser tabs open
Did you expect the discussion and writing up phase of the PhD to be a little bit… more chill than it is? That the, “Oh, so that’s what my argument is!” lightbulb moment should have happened quite some time ago, and you’re still waiting for it?
Your qualitative PhD discussion chapter - brace yourself for the Green Lanes phase(!)
As you’re writing your discussion chapter, maybe you’re wondering why your study appears to have become more complicated rather than less as you’ve got further into it. Perhaps you’re thinking, “What if I’ve done all these years of work and I still can’t put my finger on exactly what my argument is?”
Why your qualitative research PhD discussion chapter feels so difficult to write
Perhaps you’re looking at your discussion chapter document and wondering, “Have I actually understood what my PhD is saying?”.
Despite having collected a library’s worth of literature and written tens of thousands of words, your argument feels slippery, the chapters feel disconnected and your literature review seems to belong to a completely different thesis season than your findings chapter.
Why the PhD often gets harder after you become more knowledgeable
“I can feel there’s an argument in here somewhere. I just can’t get hold of it yet.” Said thousands of people across the globe trying to finish a qualitative doctoral thesis…
How do you know if your qualitative analysis is good enough? Quality criteria to judge analytical work
Maybe you’re questioning your analysis right now. “Is this good enough?”, “Are my themes strong enough?”. One of the most uncomfortable parts of qualitative analysis is that nobody can give you a neat, reassuring answer to your question: “Is this right?”
Why smart PhD researchers constantly feel like they’re doing it wrong
You might feel like you’re doing your PhD wrong. You’re probably not. What’s likely happening instead is this:
You’re looking at the things you’re doing - which feel like metaphorical academic faceplants - and interpreting them as evidence your research isn’t “good enough”.
Your qualitative analysis “needs more depth”, but what does that mean?
Maybe you’re writing your qualitative findings chapter and getting feedback like: “Needs more depth.” One of the most frustrating parts of this stage of the PhD is that nobody ever really explains what those comments actually mean. You can end up staring at your work thinking, “I genuinely do not know what else I’m supposed to be seeing here.”
Why the PhD is one of the first times many intelligent people cannot clearly tell how well they are doing
Why do so many intelligent PhD researchers constantly feel unsure whether they are “doing it right”? This article explores one of the hidden psychological challenges of doctoral research: learning to work within uncertainty when the usual markers of progress, feedback, and success become much less visible.
Struggling to connect theory and data? A simpler way to approach your discussion chapter
Maybe you’re sitting down to write your discussion chapter and thinking, “I can’t see how this whole thing fits together.” You literature review might feel like it belongs to a completely different thesis entirely…