I do really feel for you - and I totally understand how things can slip so that a small stretching of the truth turns into a lie that you feel trapped by, especially when there was so much else going on in your life at the time. This is going to be a difficult situation to deal with, but I think the best thing will be to talk to your supervisors about it. Be honest, be logical, try not to get upset when yuo talk about it (difficult, I know, when you're feeling so much pressure about it). I think being relieved of the fear of being exposed and the burden of having to keep up with a lie will take a great deal of pressure off you, and that will help you face whatever you decide to do next.

As to whether you should take the diploma or try to get the dissertation done and get the Masters, I really think that's going to depend on how much work you think would be involved in doing the dissertation, whether you think you can do that work now after this gap in time, and how that will sit with your current supervisors and current workload. I don't know if you have the kind of relationship with your supervisors where you could talk through these options and see what they suggest - if so, they may have some ideas about what would be better for your career long term.

Whatever happens, I think you do need to come clean about this now with your supervisors, and relive yourself of the burden of trying to live up to this lie, especially as it's clearly going to be revealed soon. Get in first and claim the moral high ground, and it may even be that your supervisors respect you for the way you handle the situation from now on.

Congratulations Dunni, that's fantastic! Definitely time to enjoy a lovely relaxing weekend....

And good morning everyone!

I went to bed really early last night (9.30) and slept really well, and now I'm cracking on with work. Goals for today:

1.) Sort out structure of journal article - DONE
2.) Identify key bits of literature to discuss - DONE
3.) Send a couple of emails about an event I'm organising - DONE
4.) Start drafting journal article - this is the big task for today
5.) Do laundry, washing up, tidying in small breaks from work (my flat is a right mess at the moment...)

I agree, pink_numbers. I mostly work from home too (two days a week on campus, the rest at home) and there's something about starting the day by setting my goals and stating them here, and then seeing other people working towards their goals, that really keeps me going.

Anyway, I'm running out of energy today. I've been pulling together all the different elements I need to include in my re-worked journal article, including lots of literature. When my brain's clearer tomorrow I'm going to sort all these bits out and fit them into my structure, and then get on with writing. But my brain is fried, so I need to move onto some easy admin type jobs for the rest of the day, I think.

I'm definitely planning to get a statistician to check my work! But at my university they have a Statistics Support Service where you can book appointments and they'll go through your stats with you to help you choose the right tests and to check you haven't made silly mistakes. I haven't been to any of the appointments yet but I assume it's them explaining/showing what to do and you then going away and doing the rest of the work yourself (and coming back again if you get stuck) - very different to sending off your raw data and getting stats and a cheat sheet back! That sounds outrageous - I can't imagine having the front to present something like that as my own work for a PhD!

Anyway, I'm gritting my teeth because the person sitting next to me has brought a friend over to discuss whatever's on his computer screen, and they've been talking about it for the last hour. But they're not speaking English, so I can't tell what they're saying, and somehow that's even more distracting than being able to understand them and block them out!

Gah. Back to working on my journal paper.

Glad you sorted that out, I'm not confident enough with stats to be able to advise anyone else about them yet!

First goal for today was to go swimming, which I've done - feel nicely invigorated now. And like I've maybe pulled a muscle in my shoulder. Ho hum.

Other goals for today:
Email second study hosts about arranging initial interviews
Plan out new version of journal article structure
Start writing journal article background/lit review section

I've realised the journal article I had planned to write is rubbish and if I'd only looked at my MSc research results properly in the first place I'd have seen a much better article was just crying out to be written. Gah. (How did I not notice this when writing up my MSc dissertation?! Just shows how much I've learnt since then!) It's good, in that it will be a much better journal article, but bad, in that all the planning I did for the previous version was a waste of time. But I probably should trust my feelings a bit more about these sorts of things - I've been really struggling with the other version, and deep down doubted it was good enough. Hopefully this newer version won't be such a struggle to get going with!

Also took time out of realising all of this to send lots of emails to different people at one of the organisations hosting my study, and now have nearly sorted out some site visits, an initial interview and access to some useful data. Yay! Progress!

Oh well, back to the main goal of today - making good progress on my journal article.

Good luck Wally!

Congratulations! I think you've earned a little holiday after that!

Heh, Teek, sounds like you got back some of your mojo - long may it continue!

Only three goals for me today, but one's a biggie:
1.) Do some tasks for the voluntary group I chair
2.) Phone up about doing a tour of one of the places I'm studying
3.) Get as much as I can done on the first draft of a journal article I'm writing

======= Date Modified 01 Feb 2011 15:21:25 =======
Bleugh, mind-numbing supervision session. My supervisors are great and fab and give me wonderful support and advice, but just occasionally they do wind me up...

I quite often produce a bullet-pointed summary of the main things I've been thinking about since we last met, and we use that summary as the basis for discussion. Today's conversation went:
Supervisor: So maybe you need to go back to your aims and objectives here?
Me: Yes, I have done - you can see that on the summary I gave you, it's the very next item
Supervisor: Well, you probably haven't looked at them since doing your first year report
Me: No, I have looked at them, look, they're under the heading 'Items drawn from aims and objectives'
Supervisor: Yes, but these aren't from your aims and objectives, are they?
Me: Yes, they are. I've listed them and then related them to the gaps in the literature, as you can see on the paper in front of you.
Supervisor: But it looks like you've expanded the aims and objectives?
Me: No, I haven't, I've just added in details of the gaps in the literature that they relate to.
Supervisor: Well, do make sure that you go back to the aims and objectives, because it's easy to drift away from the focus of your research at this stage, so make sure you look at them....
Me: (aarrggh, bang head on desk)

Anyway, my final goals for today are to write up the notes from that meeting and then go swimming. I don't have the brain power for any more work than that!

Good luck star-shaped! And morning everyone else.

I'm still feeling fired up and enthusiastic, which is a good thing. I have a seminar for an hour at 11 and supervision at 2, so need to prepare for both. So, goals for today:

1.) Prepare for this morning's seminar (DONE)
2.) Make notes on latest thoughts to discuss in supervision (may take a while!!)
3.) Go to supervision meeting and then write up notes afterwards
4.) If there's any time left over, look at revising questionnaire
5.) Go swimming

Sounds like you are doing well though - hope you can keep it up, I somestimes find a productive writing day can be followed by an unproductive one, especially if I really push myself.

Met my goals for today, and I really feel like I've made progress. It feels good - I hadn't realised quite how muhc of a slump I'd been in until now. But I have a meeting for a voluntary group I chair so have to stop now. Feel like I deserve a relaxing evening of telly after the meeting, and then a nice early night :-) I am such a saddo....

Yikes, I agree, that's very productive working!

I've done goals 1 and 2. Just tracking down a few new journal articles that I heard about and then I'm onto goal 3 - yet more work on my questionnaire. I do seem to spend a lot of time on this bloomin' thing!

Back at it already today. Need to get my head around a new theoretical approach presented at a seminar I went to on Thursday. I've read most of the paper that discusses it, slowly so I can properly understand it. But I have other work to get on with too - yikes, why can't there be more days in the week?!

Goals for today
1.) Finish reading paper explaining new approach
2.) Think about implications for my own work
3.) Go back to questionnaire and continue revision work

Feeling a little more fired up than I have done recently - a big relief, been in a bit of a slump, but a seminar I went to on Thursday reignited my enthusiasm for my subject. So I'm actually planning to get lots done today, instead of just dragging out a little work to make myself feel less guilty!

Goals for today (similar to Friday, but I didn't quite finish on Friday):
Goal 1 - finish writing up notes from Thursday's seminar
Goal 2 - read paper about major issue raised on Thursday that I need to understand
Goal 3 - think about implications for design of my own study