PhD Pizza, you are the future for me~!
PhD Pizza will have speedy delivery!
PhD Pizza, the cleverest pizza around!
PhD Pizza, is there one in your town?

PhD Pizza will set you free
from chapter structure and data analysis drudgery!
PhD Pizza is the golden light
PhD Pizza, good at every bite (byte?)

PhD Pizza, you are the future for me!
PhD Pizza, oh how good it will be!

Something that does not help CSIS--when you want a drink ( of a caffeinated sort) and you are 5 p short of having enough change to get one from the expensive vending machine, and you dig through the change that migrates to the bottom of your handbag, and the only change left is irritating amounts of foreign coins that won't help in this instance, and you wonder why countries ever invented things like one p coins or their equivalent...and you feel more than ever...

Yes, Data Overanalysis Syndrome must be part of the same overall syndrome!!!! It sounds very similar indeed! Using an inductive methodology is making my life HARD right now...because chapter structuring is NOT inductive, its deductive, and at some point you have to grab the material and shape it into a coherent whole. ACK! If university guidelines give a word count for the thesis, is this a max or a minimum? In other words, if my university says 80,000 words--do I have to come in dead on the money on this ( exactly that!) or is there some sort of lee way in terms of max and min...? I cannot find anything in my uni regs that says! If I can go over by a certain amount, it would be helpful in dealing with Chapter Structure Irritation Syndrome.

Not to be a total idiot on this, but how do I find out what the ranking of a department is? Like the RAE 5 or 5*...is this awarded by the ESRC or some other body, and is this ranking in any way linked to the ESRC +3 or 1+3 awards? Sooooo confusing.....not that this has a lot of relevance to me at this stage in the game, but just curious. And a good diversion from the Chapter Structure Irritation Syndrome.

but having to do all of this results in Chapter Structure Irritation Sydrome, which has recognisable symptoms including the desire to throw your USB stick into a puddle and stomp on it, and become an abstract impressionist painter somewhere along the French Southern coast instead; having to eat crisps and chocolates whilst strategically placed in front of the computer; a vague incessant feeling of irritation not unlike the whine of a mosquito in your ear...cure? I don't know if one has yet been discovered.

:-s:-s:-s:-s:-s:-s:-s:-s

I am having chapter structure irritation syndrome ( CSIS)--something that I am sure is a common but hopefully not contagious syndrome amongst PhD students at all stages of this fine adventure. My problem is needing to refocus a particular chapter that has been revised many times--what was to be its polish and shine moment has instead resulted in it being gutted, with a word limit requiring a hard look at just which things should stay and which must go. It needs to come down by about 6,000 words....limbering up my fingers to make judicious use of the cut and delete options...

???? How can you find out if your department/faculty has ESRC ratings and if so what they are? I know this sounds like a daft question, but I haven't any idea how to find out--and this after trying to search around on the ESRC homepage.

Hi Jojo, that is great news! I am curious what book you found regarding development of a normative framework? I am looking for something that might provide some guidance in that, and it sounds like you found something that really helped.

Insane computer posted my message, before I wanted it to :/ anyway, I meant to go on and say, the supervisor may or may not remember the conversation, and may or may not recall it the way you do. What I would say, put it out of your mind, and carry on. Actions speak louder than words anyway, so if you settle down to work, and reliably meet your deadlines, produce whatever work you are being asked to initially, attend meetings well prepared ( both with questions and answers!) then the supervisor will see you as the ideal PhD student.

Remember that YOUR PhD does not feature as centrally to the supervisor as it does to you. It takes over your life, in a sense, but is but one of many things that a supervisor has going on.

I just read the article at the link posted. That is horrifying and hair raising.

Are these rogue, isolated examples, or is this indicative of how the PhD experience plays itself out?

@ juno, let me know how it turns out!
@swantje, I admire you for all that work! Anyone who can maintain a strict eating and exercise programme whilst doing a PhD is very dedicated to all of those!

My writing plan was pretty plain--just a list! I am not skilled in doing charts and graphs, so I just put down what I was going to do in a list...and update periodically and send it to my supervisor.

you just want a nice gooey mix at this point. Let the mix simmer on the stove top for as long as you can, an hour at least, several if you can, checking from time to time that everything is still gooey, if it starts to get dry, mix in more tomato puree, and stir. Simmer with a lid on. Taste from time to time to make sure you have the spices as you like. I myself prefer this with Italian sausage, which again, a purist would resist, but...its GOOD. If you like spicey, instead of tomato puree, use V8 Spicy...again, its GOOD. Its all how spicey you like the food. The result will be a rich tasting, savoury dish that is even better the next day. If you have left overs, just put in the fridge, and then re-heat the next day, it tastes even better, somehow the flavours mellow and mix and its just that much better.

Jambalaya--food of New Orleans!
Let me see if I can remember....

Sautee onions, green peppers ( not sure what you call them in the UK) and garlic in olive oil or other light oil. At the same time boil up some rice--best is long grain or dark rice, anything but sticky white rice. Meatwise, if you want, you can add a variety of things to the jambalaya, a purist would say use seafood and sausage or crayfish and sausage. You could use low fat chicken, low fat beef, low fat sausage, or even soya meat substitutes! Add whatever meat/meatlike substance you want to the sauteed onions, peppers and garlic. Add pepper to taste as you cook the meat/meatlike substance. Add tomato puree in--just enough to sort of make everything float...when the rice is done, mix the meat/garlic, etc. mixture with the rice, and add more tomato puree to the mix until everything is "wet"--you don't want a soup,