Funding ending is really scary (at least for me anyways). I have some savings especially for this, so I'm hoping I'll be OK.

I had a question about track changes. Do you folks use track changes when you make changes to chapters? I've never used it before, and I'm wondering whether I should? I do keep a note of all the major changes I've made through each version, but I haven't been using track changes, and now I'm thinking maybe I should??

And I have another question about plagiarism software. Are any of you planning to put your thesis through a plagiarism software before you submit? I feel like it may be a good idea in case I have made a stupid mistake (probably in my literature review) and then I could then sort it out? I've never used the software before so I'm not really sure how exactly it works.

Track changes, first time knowing about such thing...i guess it will be helpful. For me I am kind of traditional, I do everything manually.

I've used track changes for editing other things but not when editing my thesis. As I was the one making the changes I guess I didn't see the point. But like you, I kept previous versions of each chapter.

It's a good idea to put your thesis through plagiarism software. It's mandatory upon submission at my uni anyway, but it's nice to know if there are going to be issues beforehand.

It's really easy - all you do is submit the word file and it does the rest. It gives you a % plagiarised score and highlights the problem areas and shows the source material. Then you just have to go and paraphrase these areas and hey presto, no more detectable plagiarism.

Could you guys please recommend a plagiarism software for me to download? I want to give it a try.

Thanks TreeofLife, that's really useful! :) May I ask which software you used? I'm not sure PG researchers have access to it at my uni.

Also, someone said that once you input anything into TurnItIn it remembers it, so if you submit it before the uni does, when uni does it it'll detect it as plagiarism. is that true?

Skyhoo- I have been working on my conclusion chapter mainly. It has been moving along much faster than I anticipated which is very motivating- I am aiming (perhaps too ambitiously) to have a draft of it in two weeks ready for proof reading. I am going to an international conference just after then so I am planning on taking the draft chapter with me and proof reading it in a new environment.

Once that is done its on to the task of editing the thesis. The introduction needs a lot of work and so does the literature review. I also need to apply supervisor comments to a number of chapters, AND chop the word count (I'm about 8k over the limit)- dreading this part!

Hugh- I don't use track changes on my thesis. My supervisor makes comments and slight amendments in track changes which I then work through which is very useful. I do use it on other things like applying corrections to journal paper as it is easy to decipher quickly which parts are 'new'/amended then apply them before returning it to the journal.

Zutterfly, that sounds like a good move, to use for papers but not for chapters.

You are making excellent progress btw, well done! When is your first full draft due/you plan to submit? I'm aiming for end of September. I've still got 3/4 more chapters to write, but they are not huge.

Thank you Hugh :) I think we are all progressing well- this thread is so helpful, particularly since writing up is pretty isolating!

My initial deadline to submit my full draft was October which is when my funding ends. Initially it was September but I unfortunately had to take leave of absence for one month towards the end of 2015 as I had to have surgery for a medical issue, so it has been extended one month. However, I am hoping to have it submitted asap. I am trying to maintain this momentum to submit sooner than October as I feel if I tell myself I have until October, it will certainly take that long (I may slack off!) Though I have absolutely no idea how long the editing will take- I gave myself two months, but I think finishing my last chapter asap will give me more time with this.

How about yourself? What is your proposed schedule looking like?

I used Turnitin. At my uni we had an account where we had 5 practice attempts where I think Turnitin doesn't recognise it as an official submission so it doesn't remember it, and then we had the real one for when we were submitting the thesis.

I don't think it would matter though if you submitted it through uni software and the uni found the previous submission, because they don't just rely on the % score it gives back, they investigate the findings (although this is done by the admin team so not sure how effective this is!).

When it finds some plagiarism from a university, all it says is 'student assignment submitted to x university', so if this was your own university and the % score was 80-100%, I don't think it's a problem because obviously it would be your own work because unless you copied someone else's thesis you wouldn't be able to get a score that high.

I'm not sure what would happen if say you borrowed someone else's software and uploaded your thesis and then upon submission the uni ran your thesis through the software as well, because it would obviously detect it and it would look suspicious.

I think my score was around 10% which is pretty normal. My friend's was 25% and he was still fine.

Thank you TreeofLife, that's very helpful! I think mine would come up high because of my journal papers, some parts of which are almost exactly the same. I think I'll probably put the chapters in seperately then.

Sounds good! I have until end of November for 1st draft but I want to get it finished by September. I think I'm going to have quite a few changes to make between first draft to final draft, so I want to give myself extra time.

Your uni might be able to set something up with Turnitin to give you access. Ours did last year and I submitted a draft literature review (which got a score of 2% similarity!), but they set it up to have 'assignment dates' which have long since expired so it won't accept anything else now - I might ask if they can repeat the process this year.

Thanks, I'll try and see if something can be arranged.

Hi, is anyone a bit of an expert/experienced with stats? I've just had a chapter back and I need to do an additional calculation (final one hopefully!) and I'm trying to figure out which method to use ... Thanks! :)