1. Doctoral Training Workshops Project Planning Sue Oreszczyn, Dave Scott, Julius Mugwagwa
October 2014

2. Planning the whole of your research period and updating this plan regularly is the key to success
SESSION AIMS
To start identifying key tasks for your project
To start scheduling these tasks
To start to identify what you will need to support your research

3. Any research project proposal has to have a timetable, constructing a realistic timetable for a research project is a skill you need to have
Defra WRT049: project Gantt chart
See also VRE

4. Example of a project diagram

5. Doctoral Training Workshops
What does a thesis look like?
Have you looked at a thesis yet?
British library online thesis:
Search EThOS -Searches across 300,000+ theses for free and order full text quickly and easily.
For OU Thesis search ORO:

6. Doctoral Training Workshops
Project Organisation
How should a PhD or Masters dissertation be organised?
What stages/activities/tasks involved?
With the person sitting next to you:
First, make a list of all the key tasks/activities you will need to do in order to complete your thesis/dissertation
Second, decide what year (MRes, what month) you think you will be carrying them out

7. There are lots of feedback loops
Subject Area
Topic Review
Year 1
Is it this simple?
Project Aim
Core Question
There are lots of feedback loops
Keeping on schedule can be hard but success depends on it
Data needed
Year 2
Method
Data gathering
Analysis
Year 3
Conclusions
Write up
Party

8. Doctoral Training Workshops
Your biggest enemy is TIME
“Good intentions get delayed by weeks/months/years one day at a time!”
With the person next to you decide how long you think each task/activity will take

9. Doctoral Training Workshops
WHAT WOULD BE YOUR NIGHTMARE SCENARIO?
Doctoral Training Workshops
In larger groups around your table think about what your worst nightmares are.
Take a sheet of flip chart paper and write down 2-3 of the worst nightmares in your group.

10. Here’s one I made earlier…
Data Collection
Data Synthesis
Data Analysis
Writing up
Supervision
University/Career Development
Conferences
October
Discourse analysis of website
Discourse analysis of websites
Meeting for data site 2 (8th)
Supervision meeting MK (9th)
Doctoral training workshop (9th)
SLUK meeting MK (16th)
Pre-data collection meeting at data site 1 (26th)
Data site 1: Observation 1
Write up field notes and transcribe interviews
November
Initial analysis/reflections of data site 1 observation 1
Revision of sport for development chapter
Supervision meeting MK (6th)
Submit abstract for Sport and Society Conference (5th)
Data site 1: Observation 2
Data site 1: Observation 3
Initial analysis/reflections of data site 1 observation 2
December
Initial analysis/reflections of data site 1 observation 3
Supervision meeting MK (4th)
Getting published for students (4th)
Doctoral training workshop (4th)
Initial analysis of data site 1
Revision of methodology chapter
Follow up interviews from data site 1 observation 1
Transcribe interviews

11. Doctoral Training Workshops
If you had to eat an elephant you could not eat it in one go
For your first year make a detailed plan for what you will do in your 1st year, for PhD students – the 1st 3 months, for MRes students