Hi all,

I'm finishing off the writing up and hoping to submit in less than 2 weeks - the thesis is almost complete but I'm worried about my literature review chapter. The entire thesis is under the word limit (around 60k when the limit is 80k), but my literature review seems long. My supervisor suggested aiming for around 50-55 pages (which is about 15,000 words including figures etc). Mine is at 58 pages, but my problem is that once I amend the border size for binding, it will be more like 65 pages... is this far too long? Will this just annoy the examiners? All my other chapters are pretty concise, and I could just be worrying too much about this. My supervisor has said he doesn't want to see anything else now before I submit so I feel like I'm hounding him if I ask anything now. Any advice on this would be massively appreciated! Sorry if this post seems jumbled, I'm feeling a bit panicky about submission today!

Thanks,
Tulip

Hey Caro,

Hope the rest of the weekend work went well and that meeting your friend gave you a bit more energy. I know how you feel about staying indoors and just working solidly, I tend to feel a bit cabin fever-like if I don't go outside and talk to people!

I'm working again today, this time on my discussion chapter. I finished the revisions to my last results chapter yesterday and I'm avoiding the intro for the time being because it needs the most work (and it's the chapter I like the least!). I originally wanted a complete thesis by tomorrow but unfortunately it looks like I'll need another week to get all the text finished before I can proofread and polish. But the good news is it's getting there - I can't imagine how good it must feel to have a finished thesis in front of you!

Good luck with the first day at your new job tomorrow! Wishing everyone working a productive day.

Tulip

Hi MissyL,

I would also recommend counselling services etc at the university for support. However, I would be cautious about telling your supervisor... you know your supervisor better than anyone here and will be able to judge whether or not they will be sympathetic. If you have any doubts whatsoever about their reaction, then don't inform them. I speak from experience with a chronic illness and I was honest with my supervisor from the start, but it only ended with him treating me differently throughout the entire Phd. Good luck with whatever you decide, and I hope you can get the support you need from other avenues if necessary.

Tulip

Hey Caro,

How's the weekend work going? I'm hoping to get revisions to my last results chapter done today. After that I need to finish the intro and discussion chapters by mid-end of next week and then check the whole thesis etc. It feels so close to the end and yet I'm really struggling to get on with it today, not sure why though! It's probably boredom, the thesis doesn't interest me anymore. On the plus side, my start date for the new job is October 5th, so that should be motivating me but sadly today it isn't!

Hope everyone else working is having a productive weekend! Roll on having these theses finished. :)

Hi asha,

Out of interest, are you mainly interested in dating academics/PhD students? I ask this because I met my boyfriend at undergrad and we've been together throughout my masters and PhD, but he isn't an academic. He started work straight after undergrad and is in a creative career (photography etc) and for me, being with someone not in my field meant that I can get a welcome distraction from work (at least, as much as you can forget about work when doing a PhD!). Also, the fact that he is ambitious and has his own career means that he is proud of my achievements, not insecure about them and vice versa. So I'm wondering if maybe looking for someone with a professional career of their own would be the way to go? Also, I have friends who started dating PhD students while doing their PhD, and they actually found it very hard because when both partners were struggling with thesis problems/stress they weren't in a position to make the other one feel better. This isn't to say that PhD students can't date and be very happy, but it might be something to bear in mind. As TreeOfLife said, try not to worry too much - enjoy the time you have to focus on your career and everything else will just happen.

Oh Caro, sorry to hear about the hassle you had with Word! I hope it's all sorted now - there's nothing worse than losing changes so close to the end.

Thank you for the congratulations on the job guys! ToL - it's not a postdoc, I decided to leave academia quite early in the PhD so I've got a research job in industry. I'm really excited about starting already, but the job requires a PhD so I need to get the thesis submitted first. I got my start date through this morning, it's amazing what having a deadline does for motivation! Caro, are you excited to start your job next week?

JoyofX and Caro - I hope the mad rush is going well, we will soon be finished! Good luck with work today :) Tulip

Hey Caro,

Good luck for this week and the mad rush! What you have left to do sounds doable - I'm also in a similar position, although I have this week and next full time on the thesis, followed by odd days here and there. At the moment I have:
- an intro that needs major revisions and sections that still need to be added
- a complete methods chapter
- two complete results chapters
- two more results chapters with revisions to make
- half a discussion chapter to write then edit

Best of luck for the new job next week! I'm sure we will both get there with the thesis, at least you know you're not alone! I'm really excited today because I received a job offer yesterday, so just waiting to hear back about the start date etc :) I'm hoping once I know the details I can relax a bit and find some motivation to get the last bits written. Wishing you a productive day!

All the best,
Tulip

Thank you so much guys for all the quick replies! I ended up going with dropbox - at the moment it's all in separate chapters still, but your comments will all be really useful when I put them all together as one document. At the moment once compiled it'll be over 50 mb I reckon so I think I'll need to compress the images etc. Thanks again, I don't know what I'd do without this forum at times!

Tulip

That's great news Ellebelle, all the best for submission today! Hope you get some time to celebrate afterwards!

Hi all,

Does anyone know whether it is possible to email the whole thesis as a master document so that the links to chapters actually work? Or if not, is there another way around this? I've only ever sent off individual chapters to one supervisor, but my second supervisor would now like a copy of the entire thesis emailed to him, and when I sent it I found out that the individual links to chapters won't open. Is the alternative to just copy and paste each chapter into a single Word file...? The problem is that I always thought that Word couldn't cope with 200+ pages in a single file.

It's too late for me to learn other software now so if anyone has ideas of how I could resolve this I would be hugely grateful! Thanks in advance.

Tulip

Just as a side note - after I posted I read through all the comments properly and I want to say Ogriv that I'm so sorry to hear of your problems with depression and anxiety during the PhD, I did not mean for my post to sound flippant! It sounds like you've been through a lot and should be really proud of getting to the end of the PhD, it's hard enough without having problems with depression. Very glad to hear you're through the worst of this, and would be great to hear how things are going with the write up!

Tulip

Hi Ogriv,

I'm in a very similar position to you - I also will be submitting mid-end of Sept, which is 1 year after my funding ended and I still have virtually all of my intro chapter to write, half a discussion and revisions/formatting to the entire thesis. It's been an awful four years, I've hated virtually everything about my project and the department I've been working in. As much as I would never wish this on anybody, I have to admit I'm relieved to hear of someone in the same boat who found the PhD process to be awful, because every other PhD student I've met in the last four years has done nothing but talk about how much they love their project!! I always found it so hard to listen to! (Probably a sign that the PhD has turned me into a total cow!)

Anyway, I completely understand what you mean about wanting it to be over and we're nearly there now! Good luck with the writing and it'd be great to hear how you're getting on in the final weeks.

Tulip

Hi everyone,

It's been a while since I've posted here so thought I'd check back in. Congratulations glowworm and aleruri on submitting!! I'm so pleased for you and so envious at the same time, I cannot wait to be in the same position! Marg - I hope you enjoy your holiday and come back feeling refreshed! And Nautilus, I understand what you mean about socialising here, I feel the same. I find that now I'm in the final weeks to submission I don't have much time for small talk with people and just want to get on with work. It's nice to have the forum to find people who are in the same position and therefore are more understanding.

I have until next Thursday to finish my literature review before a job interview on Friday, so I'll be working over the weekend. After that I just need to add a few sections to two results chapters and write the second half of my discussion chapter, then I will have a complete draft!! I'm trying to balance writing with job applications and a few other things (part time work/driving lessons/plans to relocate) at the moment and I seem to go from being stressed one minute to really excited that this is nearly over the next. We will get there. Good luck to everyone else working and have a great weekend!

Tulip

This was the case for me too, although I was very fortunate to get a three month stipend extension on medical grounds due to ill health earlier in the PhD. For the remaining 9 months I've been using up mine and my partner's savings, working part time while writing/finishing experiments and my partner has also taken on extra part time work in addition to his full time job. It's been very tiring and I agree with HazyJane that it isn't fair that so many people have to do this. Unfortunately most academics will have probably gone through something similar to finish their PhDs, and therefore think it's a 'right of passage' of some sort - my supervisor honestly seemed baffled that I wouldn't be able to support myself without funding or a job for 12 months! He expected his students just to work for nothing for a year, absolutely crazy! Jambo944 - I'd recommend writing as much as you can now while you're still receiving funding, and I wish you all the best for the write up year!

Tulip

Hi Adam,

I was in a similar position when I wrote my masters dissertation up and ended up writing the actual dissertation itself in about 2 weeks. My experiments kept failing up until the last minute so I was really stressed too and had no choice but to write it up very quickly, and I also had a PhD to start a week after my deadline, which meant finishing up and moving 200 miles from home to start the PhD! It was stressful but doable, so I promise you will be just fine!

Can you dedicate the next four weeks to read and conduct the research, then the following four weeks to write up? I know you have a placement too which I assume is full time hours, but even if you dedicate the weekends and two evenings a week for example, I think you'll be able to do it. The important thing is that it won't need to be perfect, just finished. Maybe try drawing up a table of contents so that you can break it down into chunks, to make it feel less overwhelming. I hope this helps. I promise you won't be the only person to feel this way and you'll finish and be able to start your PhD sooner than you think! Good luck and keep us posted how you get on.

Tulip