Keeping getting lost in the quagmire of self-doubt and worrying that I don't know what I'm doing or what the overall structure is... I am also enjoying the 'discovering' too much, and seem to spend more time absorbing new things than necessarily synthesising them... and the writing... oh it's taking me forever to do very little at all, just little fragments for meeting with sup. Would be interested to hear how other first years are doing?? It is a lonely old world, this PhD!

I have moments of despair followed by moments of happiness! I've probably submitted close to 20k words now (although in bits and pieces all over the place!) that will, apparently, eventually become my 'Part I' of my thesis.
I probably see my supervisor twice/ 3 weeks, which works really well as it keeps me on track, and he's always really helpful (I feel really lucky given some of the other reports!!). Can't wait to get started on proper data collection though!!!
Sarahx

Sounds exactly like where I am at. I keep thinking about actually starting writing this literature review but have no idea where to start. My supervisor doesn't want me to worry about this too much and I'm not expected to produce much of a literature review during my first year because it doesn't really work with the qualitative method I'm using. But it means that I have very little direction and sometimes I wonder what I am actually supposed to be doing with my time.

Hi all, new to this thread, so give you all an overview. Started in October, have been doing reading, had a bit of a blip in January, changed direction and supervision slightly so technically haven't written any chapters yet. Starting tomorrow and have read other threads saying that everyone writes every day, am I the only person has taken this approach? Need to have 10,000 words completed for the end of April, is it achievable??? Good (and also very frightening) to read everyone elses progress. I also have had confidence shattering times (my writting is crap of late, hoping it will come back to me eventually lol) but hoping that everything will come together and motivation will keep me going, also starting to enjoy it a little more!(up)

would everybody please stop writing, you are making me feel bad! apart from my lit review (~8000 words) i haven't really written anything! but i am in the sciences, so i'm hoping that makes it ok...! other than that, things are going ok so far. i started on july so am nearly 9 months in now (scary thought!). i have just had to present my work to my dept as a pre-requisite to starting my transfer report for the end of year 1, and it seemed to go ok, so have a meeting next week with my sup and my advisor to have a mini vivas before going on to start my report, to be handed in by mid-june. so i'll definitely get some writing practice in soon! just found some really interesting new work that has been done in my area as well, so lots of things to be looking at - i sometimes feel i lack direction a bit simply because there are so many directions i could go in, so i seem to get a bit lost! so my aim is to focus myself a bit more clearly and work on one task at a time rather than letting myself go off at a tangent quite so often (although occasionally this leads to more interesting things so i won't rein myself in completely!)

Although I turned out 10,000 words at Christmas my supervisor specifically asked me to give my latest work to her in the form of a presentation so haven't done any more proper writing since then, only detailed notes, and that seems to be fine for now - my first major written work will be for my upgrade. Incidentally, my supervisor hasn't mentioned a literature review at any point yet (nor has my secondary supervisor), I don't even know quite what it would entail, although I've heard plenty of other PhDs saying it's 'obviously' the first thing they do. Should I be worried?

Depends on your topic and what research you've done in the area previously.
Quite often a literature review is just a mechanism for helping you to get your head around a topic.......
I'm sure it'll come up eventually, but I wouldn't worry too much. Your a Classicist right?? I'm an archaeologist (prehistory) and parameters are much less clear than with Classics so you tend to have to spell out what you're going to do via a literature review, to enable you to defend it properly in the end!
Sx

i'm in the sciences so obviously the rules are a bit different, but for me the lit review was a requirement at the 4 month stage. it was basically to prove that i had read and understood the context of the project and it should (in theory at least!) provide me with a basis of an introduction for both my 1st year report and my final thesis (although obviously it is probably unlikely to still be relevant by the time i get to that point!). the system differs from uni to uni and so itmay not be necessary for you to do one, i guess it also depends on your research area and what would be relevant for you.

Hmm, thanks, might mention it to my supervisor although if no-one's said anything yet I probably don't need to panic that they'll chuck me out following my end of year review for lack of literature review! I worked in this area for my BA and MA dissertations (there's hardly anything written on it but a general acceptance that it needs doing and that my period is one of the next areas that needs serious work in Classics) so I'm pretty aware of what has, or mainly hasn't, been done. My major concern would be having to produce a major piece of writing on it at remotely short notice as there's quite a bit of stuff written in German which I'm aware of (ish) but can't yet sit down and read, owing to the primitive nature of my German! The Italians are posing me similar problems but with my Latin that's rather more manageable.

Hi all, how goes it? As end of year approaches...care for a review? (or should we hide?) :)

Can I join in please? :$

Hello all,

I started in October like most others from the sounds of it. I don't think I have an end of year review though...or I do and I'm being extremely stupid! We have a mid point progression, but nobody has mentioned anything before that. I think my supervisor would be the type to tell me, but maybe I'd better check to be sure! Anybody else not have one?
Its scary to 'put out there' how much work I've done in case in others are way ahead, but here goes! I've written an introduction (which now needs major revision) and one chapter and am busy putting together another one which should be done in a month or two. I'm quite happy with that, really, apart from the odd panic that I should have done more. My supervisor seems happy with my pace and I feel like I've learnt a lot, although I'm aware that there's a lot more essential reading I need to do, both primary and secondary.
I will be presenting at two conferences in the summer and one early next year. Looking forward to all of them, but I know I will be extremely nervous when it comes to it. One thing I want to do is stock up on lots of confidence-improving books etc, no matter how cheesy! Does anybody have any suggestions?
I think I had unrealistic expectations about what I could achieve in a year when I started and although I don't want to start taking things for granted I think I've settled into a pace which, at the minute, works for me.
Looking foward to hearing your stories :-)

hey guys, I havent posted for a while, but I have still been lurking around the site getting lots of great tips 8-) I started in October and feel like I don't have a whole lot done! So far I have done three modules (one abroad) and I have just been constantly optimizing experiments in the lab. I am also doing field work so have done a certain amount of planning for that and starting a lit review which is due in September. Also presented a poster at a conference. I have a review now at the end of May, Yikes! I seriously have to catch up on reading though...but there is never enough time:-( How is everyone else getting on now?

I think we're all all doing a lot by the sound of this!! Perhaps those of us with End of Year Reviews should do a simulation online over here ha ha! For those of you who have chapters, WOW!

Hmm what did i do? I've been earning money from day 1, so that has meant RA ship and a co authored report on a consultancy, a continuing RA ship on a pan European project and a scholarship that looks quite nice on the CV :)
Leaving money aside, there's a conference in the Netherlands in June, one (or two) in the UK and one perhaps in the States in Oct (not sure). There's also a little encyclop entry, and a couple more stuff in the pipeline for writing for publishing. Thesis work (ha ha, I hate how this comes last), my sup has read 3000 word essays each fortnight and I realise over the year that's a good many number of words...I started a pilot in January which became pretty rich fieldwork which we decided to include in the final thing, so that's a nice little chunk of data collection done..

I think it's been a hectic, extremely fast paced year and I'm getting nervous before the end of year review... simply because the thought of three people interrogating me is quite scary!

Oh and I did a 12000 word theory chapter which of course has come back to be revised for Version 2 now... (and many more to go still...) :( Hence my worry that it is a little too early for 'chapters'...

Well PhD_Bug it sounds like you've done an awful lot yourself! I couldn't even understand half the stuff you listed! :$ And 3,000 word essays every fortnight...yes that is a whole lot of writing there! When I talk about chapters god knows whether theyll be any use in the long run and the one I have has been revised to buggery so I wouldn't be too impressed :-)
Sounds like people are generally keeping their heads above water. I do worry when I read some of the other threads about people who are further on, and I think about the probable dark times ahead.

Well, I'd like to join the conversation! I enrolled in my PhD in August. Since then I had my registration, which included a formal research proposal. Also, I've done lots and lots  and loooot of reading (never imagined I would read so many things in less than a year!!!), written and given to my supervisors about 20000 words and have about 10000 more to give them. But the most enjoying things are those in May-June!!!! I have to write 2 presentations for conferences (one international, one student), do my pilot, transcribe 10 interviews in Greek and translate them in English, apply for a research permission in Greece, apply for an annual leave from my work (something like scholarship with funding) and write my 1st year report and (if I can make it) do my upgrade to PhD from MPhil!!!!!!!
Bear in mind I am studying part-time!!!!!!