What is the PhD level?
Now you have submitted your chapter, I will spend the next three sessions talking specifically about some aspects of the PhD that come up as a result of feedback from supervisors, in addition to the general anxiety that all feedback creates.
Today I want to tackle something that comes up alot: ‘your writing is not at the PhD level’.
What is the right level of a PhD? What does this even mean besides the original contribution?
It will take you 12-24 months to get to that level; it will not come immediately. It is incumbent on your supervisor to tell you this, repeatedly, until you get there. It is not you remember - it is not your ugly baby.
The PhD requires a lot of reading and research of course, but sometimes students might not be reading the right things; either you are reading in too narrow a field, or reading material that is too basic. So for example if you focus on primary sources, and text books, and neglect the difficult academic criticism found in monographs, you will not be reading at the right level for a PhD. You will need to read a lot of scholarly monographs and of course journal articles.
Even here, there be tigers. Not all journal articles are of the same quality or calibre - some journals are extremely difficult to publish in (usually the older the better), whereas some journals are known as predatory (i.e. they are not real peer reviewed journals and they operate on a pay-to-publish basis). Predatory journals are not subjected to the same standards of rigorous review and the material is not reliable.
Make sure you are accessing the right material. You might need to upgrade your research / IT literacy skills, and subject librarians can be invaluable. There is no shame in this. If you were never taught it, you won’t know. No-one is born with this knowledge but your supervisor might not tell you. You can check out the editors of journals and their academic reputations by finding out where they work. You need to be able to access the highest quality research in order to produce a PhD at the right standard. We mimic in our writing the things we read, and one tends to feed into the other.
Today I will…
Make a note to ask my supervisor about my sources: are they the right type of materials and are they at the right level for a PhD student;
Start researching my next chapter;
Write for 2 hours minimum in my scheduled writing slot on a pipeline project whilst I await feedback.