I have put together some resources that I think are helpful for guiding students through the PhD journey. These include i) general tips, ii) surviving your first, second, then third year, iii) visualising your research and argument through the PhD planning templates, iv) researcher development, v) and Mike’s top ten readings all PhD students should read.
Top ten general tips for writing your PhD
at the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, University of Surrey, UK.
Your first year…
Useful PhD planning templates
Writing your methodology
MIT’s ‘Crafting Research Questions and Qualitative Methodology’ course via: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/urban-studies-and-planning/11-233-crafting-research-questions-and-qualitative-methodology-fall-2005/assignments/
Primary vs. secondary research
Secondary data collection and analysis in tourism research | by Temple University and the University of Surrey
Qualitative data analysis – using NVIVO
Introduction to discourse analysis | Teun van Dijk’s (2013) talk on ‘Discourse and Knowledge’ | Discourse Analysis by Adrian Coyle with useful examples
Walking Methodologies, Digital Platforms and the Interrogation of Olympic Spaces: the #RioZones Approach | #peripathetic #walkingmethods #digitalplatforms #postpositivism #Olympics #Rio2016
Mike’s top resources every PhD should read
Sociological paradigms and organisational analysis by Burrell and Morgan (1979) – to provide a deeper understanding as to the history and development of social theory and different positions one can take.
George Orwell’s ‘Politics and the English Language’ – how to avoid writing in ‘academese’.
Christopher Hitchens collection of essays in ‘Arguably’ – how to write with concise prose and find your voice in your writing.
The art of writing literature review: What do we know & what do we need to know? (Paul and Criado, 2020).
Writing resources
The Needless Complexity of Academic Writing: Striving for Complexity (Article in The Atlantic, 2015)
Writing for an academic journal: 10 tips | #TheGuardian #Article
Storytelling techniques for writing, presenting, leading (Harvard Business Review, 2020): https://hbr.org/2020/10/storytelling-can-make-or-break-your-leadership?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=hbr.
Writing a journal article | #writing #journals #research #ideas #organising #peerreview #publishing #preparingthepaper #writingthepaper #finalisingthepaper #respondingtoreviewers
University of Chicago Social Sciences: ‘The Craft of Writing Effectively’ – useful for writers at all stages in their careers.
Writing in defense of writing ‘research notes’ by Prof Sara Dolnicar, entitled: “Brilliance is Succinct: Embrace and respect the short communication”. Then, some technical advice given by Sara on how to write a ‘research note’ for Annals of Tourism Research – video below.
Researcher development
The PhD journey is not just about completing your doctorate and publishing in the highest ranked journals. Look around and you will most likely find students working on a range of topics, objectives, with wildly diverse career ambitions. One student may wish to advance a particular theory, whilst another may be looking to commercialise their work. Though both are in pursuit of a PhD, they will require different skills and commensurate researcher development training.
The UK Government body ‘Research Councils UK (RCUK) funded a national researcher development organisation entitled: ‘Vitae’. Vitae created the UK’s national framework to plan PhD research development, entitled the ‘Researcher Development Framework (RDF)‘. I was fortunate to spend the first years of my career at Vitae developing and managing skills programmes, workshops, conferences and events to support the RDF.
PhD actions: Review the RDF and supporting materials online. Use this to recognise your strengths and weaknesses and work with your supervisor to develop a plan and some actions.
Miscellaneous resources
The Surprising Power of Questions (Harvard Business Review, 2018)
How to build a great relationship with a mentor (Harvard Business Review, 2020) https://hbr.org/amp/2020/01/how-to-build-a-great-relationship-with-a-mentor?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=hbr&utm_source=twitter&__twitter_impression=true&s=09%3Cspan%20id=%22ms-outlook-android-cursor%22%3E!~OMSelectionMarkerEnd~
