Postgraduate Workshop

UPDATE - The PG Workshop will be in the Percy Building, University of Newcastle. To see a map click here.

A Postgraduate Workshop will be held on the afternoon of Wednesday 31st March 2004. The workshop will run in two parallel sessions followed by a common general discussion and question & answer session. Session A: 'Kickstarting Your Research' is designed for research postgraduates who are at the start of their studies and who are still formulating their research questions, designing their methodologies, and perhaps preparing to start data collection. Session B: 'Kickstarting your Career' will suit postgraduates who are nearing submission of their theses. They may be thinking about shaping their dissertation material for publication, and considering academic career possibilities post-PhD. Although these sessions are most suitable for research postgraduates, students studying for Masters degrees are also welcome.

All postgraduates attending the workshop are invited to submit a short summary of their sociolinguistic research: aims & objectives, methodology, work to-date etc. This information will be posted on the conference website and will be accessible by other postgraduates attending the workshop. Undertaking a PG research degree can sometimes be a lonely experience and we hope that this information will be useful to you and give you the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with other postgrads.

The event is free for postgraduates who are attending SS15 and will be followed by a drinks reception. However, places are limited and will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis. If offered a place, you must register for SS15 (using the SS15 online registration form on the SS15 website) by the ‘early-bird’ date (31st Jan 2004). Other interested scholars/researchers may also register their interest in attending the workshop. However, priority will be given to full-time postgraduate students and you will be contacted about availability after the closing date for registration.

Bursaries

A limited number of bursaries will be available to Postgraduate Students presenting at SS15. (Note that proposals for posters are still being accepted!)

For further details please visit the Bursaries page.

Timings

• 2pm - 5pm - Session A & Session B running in parallel.
• 5-6pm: General discussion + question and answer session. (all participants)
• 6pm onwards: evening reception

Session A: Kickstarting your research

Sally Johnson (University of Leeds): ‘Formulating Research Questions in Linguistics’.

This session will focus on the way in which postgraduate students need to think about the kinds of questions they wish to answer as part of the linguistic research they are undertaking. It will also consider how to identify the most appropriate way of answering those questions. Such explicit reflection on so-called ‘research questions’ is not only an important part of the research process itself – it can also help with the structuring of the thesis in the ‘writing up’ stage.

Ann Williams (University of Bangor): ‘Children as Informants’.

In this session I will discuss methodological issues and consider a range of strategies that can be used to obtain naturalistic, informal, spoken data from children and adolescents.

Session B: Kickstarting your career

James Cornford (University of Newcastle): ‘Publish or Die.... But how and why?’

Why do people say ‘publish or die’? This session seeks to show how academic publishing has value for you (and your potential university employer) and explores some strategies for getting published.

Paul Foulkes (University of York): ‘Critical paths’.

'The function of the expert is not to be more right than other people, but to be wrong for more sophisticated reasons' (David Butler). This session will discuss ways to evaluate others' work, and paths to take in producing effective critical writing.

Registration of Interest

Please use the PG Workshop Registration Form (link below). Remember that places are limited and will be offered on a first-come-first-served basis. To avoid disappointment register fast!

[LINK: Postgraduate Worshop Registration Form]

Further information

If you have any questions regarding the workshop, please e-mail them to Ghada Khattab (ghada.khattab@ncl.ac.uk).