try Cardiff. a friend of mine was accepted there without experience.

@walminskipeas... thanks for your thoughts. they're really helpful (i'll remember to appraise that :p) and for offering to take me out of my misery. yes ofcourse! i would appreciate an example of how its supposed to be done to compare with what i've been writing. maybe it will help sort things out. my research is more towards qualitative and its business related.

my email address is: [email protected]

will look through it and get back to you.

thanks once again!

Anyone else feel this way?

For the last few days i've only been able to do bits of a chapter am working on. the section was supposed to be 4000 words long, now its 8000 + and am not yet done! i obviously have to cut these words down at some point, but i need to compose and say something about the things i've been describing. is anyone else struggling with saying things using their own words?? how do you refine this? the main aim is that it is convincing. am considering asking a friend to read through this section but at the same time almost afraid that my thoughts are out there. have i got so used to quoting people that am not confident of my own thoughts?

Dear Heifer and Sneaks,

Thanks for the reassuring advise: the reading does have to stop at some point. am now working with what i have already read and written and concentrating on making my argument with what i already have.

You're right. Once i have rearranged what i have, it should soon be clear whats missing. Can't wait to get the first complete draft!!!! :p

Thanks again.

J.

sorry i hadn't read your previous post on you not wanting to change supervision.

if i were you i would ask if its worth it. and if at this time next year you will have got anywhere at this rate. other people may not be as good at her, but they may allow you to make progress on your phd. you can then meet her at conferences and draw on her knowledge in other ways. have you considered working in the wider area so that you have more of a choice of a supervisor? i did change my topic in the end, after three years to the wider area to suit my new supervisor and i have no regrets. the rest may have been good, but they had no faith in me. they had already made up their mind that i was no good enough. i spent years trying to prove myself. but it was pointless.

all the best.

have you considered changing supervision?

i changed mine twice. at the end of my first year after the first set ensured i did not pass my first year review claiming that nothing i ever did was good enough. unfortunately i kept one of them (who was head of department) who influenced the new one ( a newly employed lecturer) to the point that we returned to the same point. at the end of my third year they tried to fail me and i threatened to sue and go as far as need be: the senate, the press wherever. at that point they gave me someone from my area. the ones before were from different areas each trying to force me to do what they wanted and when i did what one wanted the other would get angry. unfortunately in my department lecturers tend to be carrying on with each other and complaints about one to another always end at a dead end. i now have a supervisor who is part time and based at another institution full time. he doesn't spend much time at the department and so doesn't get fed with rubbish about myself by the rest. he is very supportive and corrects me gently and constructively and gives timely feedback. am very happy now and am coming to the end of my writing, 4 years on. at last i have a human being for a supervisor.

no one has the right to torment you like that. find out if changing is an option. perhaps approach a potential supervisor in person. can your thesis be done in another department? one of my friends in a similar situation switched departments and completed successfully.

before changing supervisors i did everything: crying, counselling, panicking etc.. got ill. don't let it get that far.

hope your mum is better now.

let me know how you get on because once am done, suing my university for stress and negligence is something am seriously considering.

as a lawyer.. i would advice you to make a complaint on health grounds. maybe this supervisor's conduct caused you some stress, illness, trauma etc. do you have medical records to show that from your GP and a councellor. if you don't you need to go to a GP, councellor or psychiatrist and whine so that you get a diagnosis as stressed, depressed, or at least a recognised medical condition and make sure you are linking it to your supervisor. ensure that the word supervisor appears somewhere in your records. take a month to recover... even take time off and then make a personal injury claim. you need to also state how your supervisors conduct affected your life - were you able to do normal things, leisure, work etc. did you need care and support because of them? usually for a personal injury claim you need to make it in three years from the date of the incident. and its no won no fee. it costs you nothing.

as the other person said, you are not likely to get very far on academic grounds. but once you mention the word health, the whole legal system is for you.

i once used a health ground against a bullying supervisor and the uni was so afraid they changed my supervision.

all the best.

Am just reading through my chapter and looking at some arguments made 3 years ago. they're good arguments but i can't remember how i arrived at them. am having to re-read some papers again. some made so much sense then and were so exciting but reading them today, they don't make sense..

then there's the other part where i have written too much. some footnotes got mixed up. endnote! grrrrrrr. i have to go back to drafts from ages ago to redo them.

i feel like i should not read more. just get all i've got. read through each draft and incorporate to make a thesis. any advice?

:-(

aww.. get well soon Algaequeen. Sue.. so sorry. i know how that feels.. esp when its that boring chapter that you finally managed to put a few sentences down on. take a break and get back to it.

yesterday was ok. did some reading. just getting started for the day today (8 hours) like office people and not accepting any distractions. now that i've finished that chapter, i have to get a story going and make it interesting because its still suffering from 'boring' syndrome. sigh..

i've met my target. yeah! but am knackered. off for the day. hoping for a better day tomorrow. being very selfish tomorrow.

i've met my target. yeah! but am knackered. off for the day. hoping for a better day tomorrow. being very selfish tomorrow.

kaymoy - just what i need to hear: i need to learn to be selfish. being selfish is not always a bad thing.

i was thinking earlier and trying to identify what made my day rubbish and i realised that it was because i checked my emails first thing, instead of working first, got stressed and then made a few calls to sort the stress.. and accepted other calls which resulted in more trouble in my life.

now if i can just stay away from these things: devices through which humans contact me - email and the phone.. my stress levels would be almost zero and i would be very productive. maybe i should only check them in the evenings after work. its on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

kaymoy - just what i need to hear: i need to learn to be selfish. being selfish is not always a bad thing.

i was thinking earlier and trying to identify what made my day rubbish and i realised that it was because i checked my emails first thing, instead of working first, got stressed and then made a few calls to sort the stress.. and accepted other calls which resulted in more trouble in my life.

now if i can just stay away from these things: devices through which humans contact me - email and the phone.. my stress levels would be almost zero and i would be very productive. maybe i should only check them in the evenings after work. its on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

have just signed on to check on everyone else..

wow.. you guys are doing really great. i've done two pages so far.. not as much as I'd have wanted after picking an phonecall from an annoying relative!! grrrrrrrrrrr...

i've decided to stay away from the phone for now.

am working on it tho.. will be giving a better report in a few hours. let me see what the rest of you have been up to.