Or even three chapters? 15k words is still fairly long for a singular chapter.

Edit: Sorry I should have said - my R&D chapters were between 7k and 10k long (I have 5 R&D chapters). Hope that helps!

Hi Starsgoblue,

How's the writing coming along? Have you managed to complete Chapter 5?

I'm on track to finish my first full draft before mid March. Just about to begin writing the second half of my introduction chapter, which I'll complete by the end of February. Then I just need to write the abstract and go through the whole thesis adding in the page numbers when I've directed the reader to a particular section.

Are your supervisors wanting to read through your thesis as a whole? If so, have you had a discussion with them as to how long it will take them to read the whole thing?

And Blacktrinity and Wanderingbit - how did your vivas go?

Go well :)

RLD

Hi All,

If anyone is able to gain access to this paper and forward it on to me I'd reeeeeeeeally appreciate it!

García Iriarte, E., O'Brien, P., Mcconkey, R., Wolfe, M. & O'Doherty, S. (2014). Identifying the Key Concerns of Irish Persons with Intellectual Disability. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities, 27 (6), pp.564-575

Cheers,
RLD

Hi GM,

I'm also in my final year, but on a part-time basis.

My daily goal is 500 words. It's high enough to allow me to rack up some serious words every month, yet low enough to still achieve on a 'bad' day.

My advice would be to give yourself a lower goal than 1500 words a day as you don't want to get yourself all stressed out by not achieving your daily goal during this critical stage in your PhD. Even though my goal is 500 words a day, I always keep going until I reach my limit (normally about 1000 words for me). I then give myself an extra BIG pat on the back for being so fabulous and getting so many (stress free) words on the page :)

I also make a list every time I start a new chapter with the dates down one side of the page (w/c [insert date] is enough) and then '500 + 500' next to that date (I work on my thesis two days a week). I always do a word count at the end of the day and keep a cumulative record of what I've written. I LOVE seeing that I'm 2, 3 or 5 weeks ahead of schedule. Definitely a huge motivator for me.

Whatever works for you I say!

Hi starsgoblue,

I'm also working towards an end of March deadline! But mine is to get my first full draft to my supervisors. All my chapters have been reviewed by one of my supervisors as they've been written, so I'm hoping(!!!!) that no major changes will be needed...eek! I'm not holding my breath though.

Maybe we could work towards achieving a March submission together :)

Cheers,
RLD

Hi wanderingbit,

A huge congratulations! I can only imagine how you are feeling. Enjoy your time off - you deserve it :)

Cheers,
RLD

Hi Kain47,

I don't really have any prior experience to call on as I'm about 6 months (part-time student) from completing a first full draft of my thesis. However, my gut says to take this opportunity to get it 'right' as much as you possibly can as it could be the difference between minor and major corrections.

Just think, any changes that you have to make from herein are minuscule compared to the amount of work you've done to date!

Cheers,
RLD

Hi Pjlu. I'll PM you now, just so we don't end up hijacking frequentflyer's thread.

Excellent response 0rYx. I have also been doing each of these tips since I began writing up the body of my thesis in February 2012 (I'm a part time student), with great levels of success. For the majority of the time my writing has been constant and pretty pain free. However, that is not to say that I also haven't hit slumps and been in times of need! Being aware of these times and identifying actions to help overcome the current situation (for example, I recently started using mytomatoes.com to help structure my work/break ratio) is what got me back on track and into my writing. So, in other words, the very nature of your post frequentflyer means that you're onwards and upwards! You'll be in your graduation gown before you know it ;)

Thanks Barramack! Similar to what I have done, but split into two separate sections (discussion and conclusion).

Hello All,

I was just after some thoughts on what people include in the conclusion section of each of their chapters. To provide a bit of background, I'm in the social sciences and am currently writing up my findings and discussion chapters. To date I have tended to include the following:

- Overview of the issue/subject being explored during the research
- Summary of key points (keep it simple - focus on important points)
- Link back to the purpose of the research

How is everyone else doing it? Any thoughts/tips gratefully received :)

Cheers!
RLD

Hello fellow PGs,

I wondered whether anyone was able to gain access to the following article please:

MacIntyre, G. (2014). The potential for inclusion: young people with learning disabilities experiences of social inclusion as they make the transition from childhood to adulthood. Journal of Youth Studies (no volume, issue or page numbers referenced for some reason):

Hi Ultimax,

Things have been a bit crazy for us this end - we're trying to find a new home and move on top of everything else! Hence the lack of response.

After your last post I had a bit of a thought that had not come to me earlier for some reason. I'm essentially conducting an evaluation and will also be comparing responses across several sites. I believe (please correct me if I'm wrong), both of these approaches qualify as a methodology? Anyway, I've decided to take your good advice once again and put something together for my supervisor to either comment on or reject, as opposed to putting forward very loose ideas of an approach appropriate for my research design.

Also, I agree with your last paragraph and have noticed considerable differences in PhD methodology chapters to what I perceived as being key areas to include. It just adds further confusion to what exactly the chapter is supposed to contain. A typical outcome in academia!

Cheers,
RLD

Hi Ultimax,

Thanks for the inside info on the approach taken by your wife. If only I could get away with saying that I had poorly designed my research study! I suppose the PhD is journey is all about this very issue; learning how to become a competent researcher. I, for sure, won't be missing out on this stage again in the future.

I found the blog and all the hyperlinks it contains to be really, really helpful. So thank you so much for that.

And no other advice from my supervisor unfortunately. I'm a little miffed to be honest that I have been able to get to this stage without such a crucial part of the research study being decided. Oh well, nothing can be done now apart from try to fix it!

Cheers,
RLD

Thanks for the book recommendations, Ultimax. I will definitely go and have a look at those.

The two research questions I am attempting to answer have informed all stages of my study design to date, and will continue to do so. However, after finalising the questions, it appears that I moved on to the methods and did not consider the whole study in light of an overall research design. If the entire research process could be conceptualised using Crotty's approach - epistemology>theoretical perspective>methodology>methods (constructivism>interpretivism>???>focus groups and semi-structured interviews, in my instance), I appear to have missed a step!

I'm really interested in hearing more about your wife's approach to revising the study design after the data was collected. Are you able to provide any further info on the process she followed Ultimax?

And unfortunately the data was collected from various sites :(

Thanks in advance,
RLD