I thought I would try to tip the balance a little bit in this thread and focus on some of the positives.

I have more confidence in myself at the moment - probably due to submitting weekly drafts of work I'm doing and getting good constructive (and not always positive) feedback.

I have set myself goals and feel I'm achieving them. This might only be small weekly things like writing so many words or reading up on stuff but I'm getting there. I have been at this Phd business 3 months now and should have a finished 1st draft of my 1st chapter done by the start of June.

I think I'm developing a critical eye. I make judgements more quickly on books and don't waste time trying to take in every last detail. Title, contents, index, first paragraph, last paragraph, out of there.

I think I've overcome my fear of the writing process. I would stare at the screen and put off writing til the last possible moment. Now I just wade in and write without rereading til I'm finished a section.

Saying all this I would like to join the fat brigade, I've got a back muscle issue from sitting all day, I'm recovering slower from my weekly football match, I have less time to play Pro Evo, I haven't even looked at Football Manager this year, and I have no money.

But I believe I will do this and so it will all be worth it.

The RSTP in my university is awful. The places for each session are extremely limited. Dates change without noitce. The facilitators have to come from far away to give the sessions.

Regarding one of the most important group of sessions for my field, officially the postgrad office is unable to find facilitators to this course from within the university and therefore it only runs once a year, there is a large waiting list, and so I am not able to attend.

I have complained to the Postgrad office. They have sympathised and said that I am one of a number of students complaining about the situation in general, but also more specfically regarding the course above.

How high can I / should I go with this?

Thanks to everyone who replied.

Since posting this I have spoken with my sup and he's told me to go for it. I started my project in Feb and have finished two-thirds of my first chapter and he think I should present a paper on one element on this chapter - nice backhanded compliment there! plus no need for too much extra researching, reading, and writing.

Of course I have to be accepted to present, and I'm not counting my chickens, but we'll see how it goes.

There is a conference coming up in Sept (in Paris!) that is directly related to my studies. I am a 1st year student and I'm going to approach my supervisor with the idea of presenting a paper at it. But Im nervous about mentionning it to him. Is it too early? I only started my phd in Feb but I would love to be apart of this. The uni in Paris has a research project dedicated to my area of interest and would be fantastic to get involved.

I'd say stay away from internet forums.(up)

My sup is a great guy and expects me to have written work for him each week for him to correct. The first few pieces were 4000 words each week but now I'm in a new area that I had no prior knowledge of and I'm struggling for the word count.

I guess that I'm finding this part slower than the previous mini-project and getting the phd guilt.

I know this more of a ladies thread but I'd just like to say that since I started my MA (I'm now doing my Phd) I have fathered 3 children in 3 years. To the same lady of course.

How often do you guys (particularly in humanities) email your sups? I have just emailed my sup with some work that I have been doing. We have a meeting scheduled for Thurs but this section has been a chore thus far and i'm not sure if I'm heading in the right direction.

Is it unreasonable to ask him to read 2500 words and give me his general assessment outside of metting time. I would wait til Thurs but a) I travel quite distance to my uni for the meetings and b) I don't wanna sit there and be told what I could be told now.

Am I being a pain?

I am currently writing my first chapter and the next section of it is a new area that I'm not 100% familiar with. It seems that there is a lot of literature out there to be read and reviewed and I'm wondering where exactly to start!

How do you guys approach this mountain? I normally go for the big hitters first, then search for article reactions to their work, and then go for more recent articles on them, before then heading into recent book publications on the subject.

Any tips?

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Anyone who starts a thread with "brothers and sisters" ........... : picard :

I'm oot.

At the moment the motivation for me is getting the first chapter written by May. I just (re)started this month and my sup is happy to postpone my differentiation until Sept but I'm aiming to keep in line wiht the other students and do it in May.

So far I've written about 10000 words in roughly 4 weeks and have another 14 weeks til diff.

In the long term what motivates me is the graduation ceremony and getting a post in a uni in Southern Spain.

I think you should definitely quit. Definitely.

In my view I write sharp direct sentences. Like my granny used to say: "shit or get off the pot".