======= Date Modified 25 Oct 2011 08:41:27 =======
Gulp, amended them so they're all per my first option, at least they're consistent! If I have time I will change them again to the second option. All I can say is that whatever the punctuation, that the final stages of a PhD ARE incredibly stressful :-(

Thanks for the link Rina - I actually have that book but never thought to look at it:$

I googled it and it appears there are US and UK conventions although I'm not in UK ;-) so am not sure what to do. Having said that language setting on my laptop keeps spontaneously changing to French :-s

Am now editing thesis to make sure it's consistent; either 100% correct or 100% incorrect :-(

should it not be black for shared things, blue for penguins and then another colour for the polar bears - or am I reading it totally wrong :$?

Hey Mr C8-)8-)L - thrilled you're finished. I'm sure it's fine but I do accept your genuine worry as I hate when people say that to me that 'it'll be fine'. Best of luck - next crisis is getting your viva data, prepping for your viva, sitting the viva...:-)

Well Done(gift)

======= Date Modified 24 Oct 2011 11:24:32 =======
======= Date Modified 24 Oct 2011 11:23:47 =======
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That was my thinking Timefortea and I started to get worried when I tried to reason it out for myself. Given that I am nearly at the end of my PhD, my 'reasoning' capacities are at an all time low! I am proofing my *** thesis for the zillionith time and picked up that about 90% of the time I have the closing inverted commas inside the full stop but occasionally have it outside. I suppose like most things I should just be consistent but which to do...?


Edit :and thanks to Redapple too :-)
Edit 2: a helpful user so your first star(up)

Thanks Sneaks :-)

======= Date Modified 24 Oct 2011 09:47:50 =======
Please don't laugh!! [Edit, spelt 'please' wrong :$]

When you have a quotation in the sentence, and the quote effectively finishes that sentence, where do you put the inverted commas - just before the full-stop or after?

Is it:

Smith (2010) states that "the final stages of a PhD are extremely stressful". OR
Smith (2010) states that "the final stages of a PhD are extremely stressful."

I just noticed that I have it both ways in my thesis:-(

Interesting read Catalinbond and shows how different [or similar] it is for people. My write up was totally different to yours in that I wrote fairly steadily but once I got to the editing stage it all went downhill, rapidly :-(

Hang in there Seratonin (whoever you are!!). Keep checking into the forum for support if you need it and the knowledge that you're not alone. If it's any comfort I feel that I have morphed from a not too bad writer to one that is complete rubbish. If you're writing like a 10 year old, I'm more like an 8 year old.

Keep with it (up)

guidelines where I'm at is 300 words. At the moment mine is 326 so I need to trim it a bit. As far as I know it shouldn't go over one page. I have my thesis in 1.5 spacing and it fits - 3 paras and a couple of lines to spare. btw mine is a social science thesis

What a fantastic outcome Sbsb, many congratuations and thanks for giving us an update (up)

Thanks Swetch, likewise :-)

Have a pie Emmaki, you deserve it;-)

my head is literally nodding here, my eyelids are closing and I soooooooo bored :-( I can't believe how hard it is to keep up the motivation so close to the end. One might think that fear would keep me going, but it's not.

How does anybody proof for errors and typos. Every single time I read something I tweak, rephrase, tweak again. Do people print it out, read it aloud, what??

No I defintely wouldn't change it. I use Harvard not APA but they're not that different really. The main thing is that it is referenced clearly enough that if somebody (ie the examiner!!!) wants to read it themselves they will be able to find the report based on the information you have supplied. Therefore you have to have whatever organisation wrote/commissioned it, the year of publication and the correct title. Reports and government-type docs can be a total pain :-s

I found this (on a related-ish topic) on the net. Have a look at the bibliography - it contains a few un-authored publications and a few reports. http://www.uneca.org/sdd/events/land-policy/LandPolicyInitiative.pdf

I know you have no exact author but is your report not 'written' by the Alpha Beta Delta Community Self-Help Organisation? If that is the case I think I would put something like:
a report published by the Alpha Beta Delta Community Self-Help Organisation on delta conservation (2006: 525) stated that ...

alternatively you could put something like:
a report by the Alpha Beta Delta Community Self Help Organisation (hereafter Delta Conservation) referred to ...
That might work particularly, if you are going to be quoting from the report a few times.

Maybe others might have better suggestions


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