More phone interviews

Doing a few more phone interviews before the end of the year... then Xmas break.

No.

I am not going to rewrite chapters 4 and 5.

I'm done.
Fin.
The End.

Supervision on Chapters 4 and 5

Had supervision meeting yesterday for the first time since July, discussing chapters 4 and 5. Still a lot of work to do on them. Have been asked to re-write them according to a plan for each chapter that is much more focused on the research question and how the data relates to the dependent variable.

All quite frustrating as I am always drawn to trying to make it interesting and accessible, from my previous work experience, but I know that this is not necessarily appropriate for a PhD thesis. It would be nice to think there was a middle path between dull academic writing and interesting, accessible writing. In other words, I want it to be both - readable and full of analysis and 'added value'. I guess that is my task to aim for that.

Re-registered as part-time

Finally managed to re-register with Sussex as a part-time student. Despite doing the form at the end of July, it has taken ages to get it all sorted.

Going part-time

Had my last supervision meeting for this academic year today. Lots of comments received on chapters 4 and 5 - the ones on political elites and on civil society.

Also got my form signed for going part-time, mainly for financial reasons. This doesn't alter my final completion deadline of September 2013.

So, lots still to do - but first, a holiday!

80,000 words!

I seem to have 80,000 words done. Now, I wonder how long it will take to get it to the point of being ready to submit....!

Annual Review

Just doing my annual review form. Seems a bit early in the year to be asked all these questions but there you go. With my meeting tomorrow I have only had three supervisions this academic year. Also being asked when I might submit my thesis and I don't really know - April 2013?

Giving a paper at a conference

Heard today that my paper proposal for the DPhil conference in the School of Law, Politics & Sociology at Sussex on 14 June has been accepted.

Thesis word count

This is how things stand with my thesis at the moment:

(1) Introduction – including literature review and theory and methods – 12,000 words

(2) Three cases of democratization: Poland, Croatia and Ukraine - 12,500 words

(3) EU democracy promotion: The view from Brussels – 13,000 words

(4) The domestic impact of EU democracy promotion 1: Influencing political elites – 10,000 words

(5) The domestic impact of EU democracy promotion 2: Working with civil society – 10,000 words

(6) Explaining European Union democracy promotion: Conclusions – 3,000 words

BIBLIOGRAPHY 12,500

Word count of all chapters 61,500

TOTAL 74,000

Bibliography

I have just combined all the separate bibliographies from all the chapters of my thesis and it comes to 12,000 words. Hope that's not too much!

Telephone interviews

In the past week or so I've been doing some telephone interviews. I've spoken to two members of the cabinet in the DG Enlargement, a member of the EU delegation in Zagreb, a spokesperson for the EEAS, and a head of a think tank in Kiev. Great to get some more data!

Second article submitted

Just emailed off an article based on the Brussels interviews to the European Foreign Affairs Review. It's titled 'The impact of EU democracy promotion: The view from Brussels'. So, fingers crossed!