Thank you! :-) Am currently rewriting a journal article for the 50th time, and yep, what started out as a meaty article is now indeed stir fried vegetables!

Hi KB

Well done for getting thorugh it!!! That's excellent!! Next time will be a lot easier. Yep, panic attacks are just so horrible, awful, awful things...Like you, I used to be terrified before teaching a class - it is adrenaline pumping around, and I was so worked up that I used to sweat profusely. Have never had this problem before, but by the end of the class I'd have huge wet patches under my arms. Well gross! Had to make sure I only wore black and had to use really heavy duty anti-perspirant for men! :$ At least you don't have that!!

But I got used to it. I used to do breathing exercises before class, and drink chamomile tea to help calm me. I'd visualise walking in, setting up, speaking to them all. I made sure I was prepared and knew how the class was structured. And yep, group exercises or someone giving a brief talk first up is good, so you can calm down while the class starts. I also attended a tutor training course for new tutors, which was incredibly helpful in teaching me how to teach - highly recommend you look for one of these at your uni, if you're not already getting some training. The main thing I learnt was that I was not there to lecture, but to facilitate, and the less speaking I did the better - get the students to do the work. By the end I hardly ever was out the front talking at them - I'd move around, talk to them in groups, get them to talk across to the other groups etc. Group exercises not only helped them learn, but took the pressure off me. But it is just practice, and the more you do, the better you'll be. Hang in there!

Hi Jojo

I think you're right to want to get your work in as many different journals as possible - it shows your work will have been widely accepted by a range of academics, rather than the same few who are on the editorial committees etc of just one. And I also wouldn't send 2 articles in to one journal either - even if they liked both of them, they wouldn't publish both articles in the same edition, which means you'd be waiting ages for the second one to come out. Spread them around. And if you can write an article in a w'end, that's amazing!! Has taken me weeks and weeks to write one, and am still rewriting.

Have a read of Guitarman's posts - he agonized over quitting, but did it, and has never looked back.

Sorry to hear you haven't been the best lately - hope you're as well as can be at the moment. Yes, I know re freak out! Still, not much we can do about it.

I'm not going to make my March deadline, but my new motto is 'it takes as long as it takes', so am trying not to stress. We'll all keep pushing on!

Hi AL

Nice to hear from you! Glad to hear things are going well. Am not surprised that lecturing takes lots of prep - I found prep for tutoring took me hours and hours, so am sure lecturing would be a big effort. And excellent that you're enjoying your new job! Don't worry about getting back to your thesis, you'll get there. Once you start back into it am sure you won't remember missing it! Will become that millstone around the neck again!

Article drags on and on. Got the latest version done, thought it was pretty good, sup has suggested lots of changes again...she keeps talking about how I need to improve my style, but doesn't actually say how, so I'm a bit as sea really. Her changes make my work better, of course, but I still don't see what's really wrong with my style...am going to have to talk to her about this.

And are you still around Bilbo? Are you OK? Haven't heard from you for ages...

Keep well and happy everyone.

Hi Emily

The bible on this forum, Joan Bolker's 'Writing Your Disseratation in 15 Minutes a Day' has a chapter on how to publish your thesis, maybe you should have a look? And I'd gloss over this in your applications - don't highlight what you lack and focus on the positives. Even saying that you're writing/submitting etc would help, I think. If you're finishing and going to pass, then your thesis must have original work which you could publish! Have faith in yourself and your work!

Yes, I'm here too. I have to have an article completely rewritten by 9am Mon, so have been working solidly since Thurs am. Am tired and grumpy after working 3 16 hour days in a row, and the article is still sh$$e. Too may editors and reviewers want more and more and more background, but still want to the article to come within the word count. So have done what they want, and now, out of a 20 page article, there's exactly 3 pages on the actual fidnings!!! Insane. So I need to restructure and rewrite again.

So, am here this fine Sun morning.

Hi Jojo

Interesting thread. My supervisor has said the same thing to me, and I think I'm just learning how to do this. I'd written 4 case study chapters, then on the fifth went out on a limb and interpreted the cases more, using analysis out of my little brain. And she liked it! I had the evidence in the cases, and my interpretation was fine! I think it's practice and you need to be a bit brave and put your thoughts out there. Am also reading Bolker's book, and she mentions that we need to go from the transition of being a reader, to someone who is being read, which I think sums it up nicely.

Finding our voice is hard, but to me, a bigger difficulty is getting a 'nice flow' (as my sup says) into my writing. Now, of course my writing is fine, have done enough of it (!), but am having trouble getting from my functional writing, to something that's really nicely written. Have also started reading style books, but they're hard going and practicing what they say is going to be time-consuming, and at the moment, I just want to churn out words.

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Welcome! And good luck with your studies! There have been posts in the past where people have listed their tips - do a search on 'tips' and they should come up.

But if you don't find it, a tip from me (end of 3rd yr) is to be careful about how much extra academic work outsuide of your PhD you do. It can mean that you won't finish in 3 years.

Oh god, that hamspter story is terrible!! That's really sad! I didn't laugh...:-(

OK, here's one from me. Years ago I used to clean houses to supplement the dole, and the tenants had done a runner from their house, leaving behind a perfectly good double bed. I could keep the bed, but had to get it from the top floor of a really narrow little house. Anyway, friend and I eventually shoved the bed over the balcony, onto the back of the ute, where it didn't land flat, instead denting the side of the ute. So then bright spark me attempts to do a bit of home panel beating (!), to, of course, no effect. Well it just made it worse, little hammer marks near the big dent. Gave up, took the ute back to the car rental place, which of course noticed the damage - but I'd never noticed this before!! How did that get there??;-) I got away with it, but was lucky I didn't have to pay for it. And once I'd got it cleaned, also ended up with a very nice bed.

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And I've just made it into the 3 star brigade in the last week too - thanks everyone! Hee hee!! And like Eska says, you need to earn starts Walminski, so dust off your sympathetic and helpful persona and help more!! Actually, I think we need more problems on the forum;-)

And I see Sascha has achieved god-like status with 5 stars!! Oh the joys of being a moderator!

Hi KC

If I got this right, the article you're planning to submit is the original paper that your conference paper came from? Then you wrote a whiz-bang abstract, which now doesn't work, and so are going back to the original? If this is the case, I think it's fine to go back to the first paper, and maybe you could rewrite the abstract which goes with it. I've done this, and included an explanation when I've sent it in, and it's been fine.