Pages in topic:   < [1 2]
Suggestion of a PhD dissertation topic
Thread poster: Milena Chkripeska
Milena Chkripeska
Milena Chkripeska  Identity Verified
North Macedonia
Local time: 11:42
Member (2009)
English to Macedonian
+ ...

MODERATOR
TOPIC STARTER
Participation in my PhD research Jul 14, 2017

Dear colleague,

I hope this email finds you well! First of all, allow me to
introduce myself. My name is Milena Chkripeska, I come from the
Republic of Macedonia and I work as a freelance translator and
interpreter. For more information, please check my ProZ.com
profile at http://www.proz.com/profile/627044

I am a PhD student at the University of Pompe
... See more
Dear colleague,

I hope this email finds you well! First of all, allow me to
introduce myself. My name is Milena Chkripeska, I come from the
Republic of Macedonia and I work as a freelance translator and
interpreter. For more information, please check my ProZ.com
profile at http://www.proz.com/profile/627044

I am a PhD student at the University of Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona,
Spain and the topic of my PhD research is "How to succeed in the
market of freelance translators: model strategy for success"
As part of this research, I am supposed to make interviews with
successful translators and to conduct a survey. I am contacting
you, as you are among the top 10 translators in your language pair,
and I assume that you see yourself as a successful freelance
translator.

I would kindly ask you to confirm your willingness to participate
in my research. Unfortunately, I cannot offer any financial
compensation in return, since I do not have any budget and I do
not receive any scholarship, but please take into consideration
the benefits of my research for the future freelance translators.
Namely, my idea is to come up with a manual including a model
strategy for success that can serve as a valuable tool for every
aspiring recent graduate in translation and every novice in this
profession/business in general.


I am in the process of fine tuning my reach, as well as refining specific point I would need for my PhD research.

For this reason, I have created the following survey https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1vA44PVr954UvJxz2BZwlmwIXWckDtyJuat6AmS6kPHM/edit, which will take you about 15-20 minutes to complete, but will help me immensely in drawing conclusions while creating a model strategy for success in the market of freelance translators.

I would be truly grateful if you took a few minutes to fill out the questionnaire by Wednesday, 26 July 2017, EOB. Most of the questions are multiple choice, so it should be quick for you, but extremely useful for me.

Apart for the questionnaire, you will be asked to track your daily activities for 2 weeks, so that I could have an idea about the typical day in a life of an already established successful freelance translator.
Please take into consideration that about 90 freelancers have already filled out the questionnaire, but you are part of that special group of only 10 translators who are considered role models thanks to the name you have made in the translation industry.
Therefore, you are expected to record your daily activities every 2 hours during the first week (just a short report, e.g. within the last 2 hours I was cooking and proofreading a 300 word project or I was translating and had a short break for a coffee and phone call with my friend, etc.), and write a short report regarding your daily activities at the end of each day during the second week. I am going to provide more details about this later today, and will send you the time tracking forms that you should fill out every day. Please note that you should stay focused on your job related activities, such as: answering and organising your emails, organizing your digital and paper documents, marketing your services, accounting activities, proper translation/editing/proofreading, as well as your leisure activities.

Please let me know whether you are ready to start the tracking experiment on Monday, 17 July? If not, please let me know when is the most suitable time for you.

Thank you in advance for your support! It means a whole lot. Have a wonderful day!

I look forward to hearing from you!

Kind regards,
Milena Chkripeska
http://www.proz.com/interpreter/627044
Collapse


 
Mario Chavez (X)
Mario Chavez (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 06:42
English to Spanish
+ ...
If you're of a young mind... Jul 15, 2017

jyuan_us wrote:

But i'm too old to even think of it now (I'm 49).

When thinking about a topic, the major headache is how you link your topic to the available literature. If you work on a topic that no one else has ever worked on, you could be in trouble. The reason is that a substantial portion of your dissertation will be literature review. You will be evaluated about how well you can use literature in a meaningful way afer 3 years' study.

So it will make it much easier if you choose a topic that abundent literature is available.

Another point is that you should have something very narrow. You will lose focus if you have a topic that is very broad. A topic as narrow as "the mis-treatment of "the" in the XXX language translation of English" should do for an in-depth study.


...anything is possible. I started my PhD at age 53 (2016). I'm working now on my thesis proposal.


Milena Chkripeska
 
Mario Chavez (X)
Mario Chavez (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 06:42
English to Spanish
+ ...
Clarification is needed Jul 15, 2017

Milena Čkripeska wrote:

Dear ProZians,

I am writing to you regarding the research proposal that I have to prepare in order to apply to a PhD programme in Translation, Interpreting and Intercultural Studies. For more information, feel free to visit my ProZ.com profile.

Could you please kindly suggest some relevant PhD topics that might be of interest to the PhD programme? I would really appreciate it. If you could come up with some ideas, please take into consideration that I prefer the topic to be ProZ.com related.

Thank you in advance for your time!

Taking this opportunity, I would like to wish you a happy and prosperous New Year!

Best wishes,
Milena


Milena, you say that you're doing PhD research in your latest posting. That's not exactly true, is it? You are applying to a university for a place in a PhD translation-related program, are you not? At the start, you talk about a “research proposal” but that's not accurate, isn't it?

I only want to complement the advice you've been given by many generous colleagues. However, may I offer these thoughts:

a) Seek advice from people who have completed or are completing a PhD in translation or related field
b) What the university has asked you is routine: a letter of intent, or why do you want to study in a PhD program? This is not about impressing anyone but looking inside yourself and finding (1) a reason (is there an issue or problem in translation or interpreting that drives your attention?) and (2) the personal motivation to follow through with your PhD studies.
c) I'm a PhD candidate at two Portuguese universities co-administering a PhD in Translation and Terminology. I wrote that letter of intent last year and I was accepted.
d) If the university is asking you how you want to apply your PhD, or what topic you would choose for your PhD thesis (when the time comes, after you take all the classes), what they want to know is what topics hold your interest, not what topics are popular in research. If a research topic is not interesting or challenging to you, then you'll do a mediocre job at it.

Like I said, I'm doing a PhD program right now, and I'm working as an independent translator parallel to that. Please consider (b) above, why you want to do a PhD, what issues you want to tackle and propose a solution to in a translation- or interpretation-related field, when you write your letter of intent. Last but not least, part of researching a topic to do a dissertation involves reading (a lot) the state of the art (the current situation) of a particular issue (the one you want to tackle). Maybe what you want to do has already been done.


 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 11:42
French to English
2012... Jul 16, 2017

Mario, the first set of messages dates from 2012, so Marina has presumably moved on now to the research part of her thesis work.

Milena Chkripeska
 
Mario Chavez (X)
Mario Chavez (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 06:42
English to Spanish
+ ...
Thanks! Jul 17, 2017

Texte Style wrote:

Mario, the first set of messages dates from 2012, so Marina has presumably moved on now to the research part of her thesis work.


Thanks, Texte! Sometimes the topic of discussion is so interesting that I forget to notice the posting date.




Milena Chkripeska
 
Milena Chkripeska
Milena Chkripeska  Identity Verified
North Macedonia
Local time: 11:42
Member (2009)
English to Macedonian
+ ...

MODERATOR
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks a lot for your kind contribution, dear colleagues! Jul 17, 2017

That's right! I started my PhD in October 2014, and now I am finishing it, i.e. working on the research.

I am really glad that I've e-met such nice and helpful colleagues like you, and I will truly appreciate if you participate in my research by filling out the following questionnaire:<
... See more
That's right! I started my PhD in October 2014, and now I am finishing it, i.e. working on the research.

I am really glad that I've e-met such nice and helpful colleagues like you, and I will truly appreciate if you participate in my research by filling out the following questionnaire:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdILs4UAEwBUYZCNv5smYZvX4sIMdZDlcQ-OcwYtWKwEMhlnQ/viewform

Thanks a million in advance for your help!

All the best,
Milena
Collapse


 
Pages in topic:   < [1 2]


To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator:

Moderator(s) of this forum
Nawal Kramer[Call to this topic]

You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request »

Suggestion of a PhD dissertation topic






Protemos translation business management system
Create your account in minutes, and start working! 3-month trial for agencies, and free for freelancers!

The system lets you keep client/vendor database, with contacts and rates, manage projects and assign jobs to vendors, issue invoices, track payments, store and manage project files, generate business reports on turnover profit per client/manager etc.

More info »
CafeTran Espresso
You've never met a CAT tool this clever!

Translate faster & easier, using a sophisticated CAT tool built by a translator / developer. Accept jobs from clients who use Trados, MemoQ, Wordfast & major CAT tools. Download and start using CafeTran Espresso -- for free

Buy now! »