Three type

I wrote the following phrase in my PhD thesis:

"the following three general types of component" 

It would also be acceptable to write 'components', in the plural. I don't know if there's a prescriptive rule on the matter but speakers seem to feel that both are OK. So I ended up with having 'types' in the plural and the type of thing I was talking about, 'components', in the singular, and that's the way it stands. I think it sounds more academic or formal that way, whereas perhaps I'd use the plural in speech. I don't know; I'd have to check. 

But I was tempted, just for a moment, to write this:

'the following three general type of component'

Here, 'type' is singular, and so is 'component'. In combination with 'three', indicating that I'm not talking about just one type of component, this is definitely not grammatical for me. Nevertheless, my little addled brain wanted to write it and really thought it was all right for the moment. I don't have a reason why, and maybe there isn't one because after a little consideration I dismissed it. Certainly, having 'general' intervening between the number and 'type' made it easier to do, and leaving it out makes the singular 'type' sound much worse.

But it is also true that singular/plural agreement with 'type' (and related words like 'kind') is hard.

(If you're interested, this Stack Exchange thread discusses it, and doesn't come to any conclusion other than that maybe the one with agreement where both are either singular or both are plural is more natural.)

Thesis - done

I finished my PhD thesis today. I'm not submitting until Friday, but I needed to send it off to my super-helpful and kind friend so she can print and bind it for me. It's been a long, hard slog, especially these last few weeks getting it finished, and today I finally did the last read-through.

Until last night I didn't even know if it was any good - I've worked on it too long to get any kind of distance and objectivity. But then I left it few hours and did a last check for typos and I think it's not that bad, in the end.

I don't feel ecstatic or anything, though. I haven't been out celebrating because I don't really know anyone down here in Canterbury, plus I'm teaching at 9am tomorrow so I can't get drunk. I am having a celebratory glass of wine though: my first alcohol in a couple of weeks so it feels like a treat.

I'm submitting on Friday so I head back up north tomorrow afternoon (if the trains are running - the track's flooded) and it'll be great to see everyone and celebrate properly.

No posts for a bit

I'm submitting my thesis next Friday. At least, that's the plan. It's going to be a PhD-heavy time until then, so I won't be posting anything till at least Wednesday next week, which is when I hope to have sent it off to be printed by. Then I'll be back to my usual language-based waffle and twaddle.

Writer's retreat

I'm in Alnmouth, on the Northumberland coast. It's a lovely village, set at the mouth of the river Aln (I know - lucky coincidence with the name!).

It's been lovely weather since I got here yesterday too, considering it's still March and therefore technically winter, as you can see from this photo I took this morning:

I've been enjoying walks on the beach, I've popped into the local village store for some kippers for my breakfast, and I'm staying in an adorable little cottage (it really is tiny - just two rooms plus an en suite, but they've done such a good job of planning it that it doesn't feel cramped at all, and I've got a nice outside area to sit in the sun in.

But don't I have a PhD thesis to write? Why yes, I do - and that's the beauty of it. I've come here to write. I'm getting away from it all. I've brought my laptop and a few papers and things that I need, and the idea is to write as much as I can without the distractions of work. I've set a goal to write at least 2000 words a day, and I've done that yesterday (when I arrived) and today. I feel good about that. I'm actually really enjoying it and not finding the writing too hard - I don't, once I actually get going; it's the getting going that's hard. I don't want to get too complacent in case I find it gets suddenly much harder later in the week, but I'm hoping that I can write a decent chapter's worth while I'm here (14,000+ words, if I stick to the 2000 words a day goal), and that'll make a nice dent in what I've got left to do.

I just said no to some work

This is possibly a world first. I find it hard to turn down work, because the twin draws of money and experience are irresistible to me, and I feel like I'm letting people down. But today I turned down teaching work that was not only amazing experience (teaching on a TESOL MA course) but worth around £1400. That's a heck of a lot when you're in the last (unfunded) year of a PhD with no savings.

I would have loved to do the MA teaching (there was also some other teaching that was more appealing for the money than for the experience, though it would have been another string to my bow - discourse analysis, which I'm not sure what it is, and I don't think it's real linguistics, but apparently it's a thing), but it was just too much work. It was the phonology component of a linguistic theory module on the TESOL MA. I'm not a phonologist by a long chalk, but I've been teaching quite a bit of it so I can get by. But for an MA course, that's quite a lot of preparation, which eats into the (generous) hourly rate. Then there's the assignment, which requires them to transcribe their own speech. That means that I have to teach them phonetics as well as phonology (even more not my thing) and also, marking it means checking their transcription. This is a thing that takes a Long Time. So, regrettably, I said no.

But on the up side, that means I have more time for thesis-writing. And I've still got some teaching, just not that teaching.

Three-minute thesis

Tomorrow (or maybe today, I don't know how the time difference works) the University of Melbourne is holding the finals of its Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition. It seems to be a university-wide competition, with a prize for the overall winner.

It's a great idea, as you do need a three-minute summary of your thesis - for your viva, for your 'elevator pitch' and for those people who say 'so, what are you working on?' (actually, 3 minutes is too long for some of them). And the idea of making it a competition is really fun, because it means you have to work extra hard to make it interesting. So many of us either forget that the other person doesn't care, and go on at length about the details which are fascinating to us but meaningless to them, or conversely, apologetically say 'oh, it's really boring' (guilty). Having to make it interesting to everyone is a challenge, but one well worth taking on.

Anyway, there seems to be live streaming promised at this page.