I'm a part-time student and am allowed 6 years to complete. I've spent a ridiculously small amount of hours on the PhD though. In the early years it was typically 10 hours a week. Now, as I near the end, it's dropped to typically 5 hours a week. I'm seriously ill long-term, getting worse as time goes on, and have very few good hours in which to be productive. Still, I've nearly finished.

I ran into huge writing problems with my PhD years down the line (I'm part-time) when I started to write my thesis. My supervisor gave me scathing feedback about my writing, which devastated me, but then he sugared it by coming up with constructive suggestions about how I could improve. I felt that my writing had gone downhill since my Masters, though it was partly to do with methodological issues related to my PhD, and also to do with the trickier challenge of writing those long chapters - each one just about as long as my Masters dissertation. This downturn in writing quality was despite my producing a published peer-reviewed journal paper in the middle of this. But PhD writing was something else.

I got through it though, with more detailed feedback and advise from my supervisor. And I've nearly finished my PhD. Just doing the final polishing/rewrites now. So there is a light at the end of the tunnel. But you need your supervisor to engage more directly with you about what exactly is wrong, so you can fix it.

Good luck!

And signing off for the night. Very very tired, and the neurological problems have eased at last so I have a hope of getting to sleep now. Expect to be knocked out for the duration tomorrow. But on the plus side I'm now over half way through the easy thesis edits. So that's good going. But enough for now.

Ok folks. Want to sleep. Desperately want to sleep. But am going to be up for at least another few hours due to pesky medical/neurological problems. So might as well do some thesis edits! Eek. Good luck to anyone else out there.

Also Alpacalover don't feel guilty about going into work. I'm only annoyed with people who have been definitely diagnosed with swine flu spreading the infection unnecessarily - well as definitely diagnosed as anyone can be, especially if diagnosed over the phone like I was. And that's not you. Hope your overnight experiment works ok.

Good luck with the chapter Sue2604. Sounds as though you're making good progress too. Yes it will be really nice to have the drafts of your case study chapters sorted. Well done you!

Right, now, where's that highlighter pen ... :)

I had an enormous panic a month or so ago. My deadline is in March, but I'm part-time - extremely part-time - so it seemed to be looming hugely. I've now got back into the swing of things though and am feeling more positive.

From the sounds of it your main concern seems to be about the standard of your thesis though, and whether it will pass your viva. What does your supervisor(s) say about the quality? Are they happy with you submitting it as it is? They should be best able to reassure you, if they've read through it.

Also some universities offer viva courses to calm down students and warn them what to expect. Does yours? Might that help at all?

Good luck!

Look after yourself Alpacalover. Best to rest to get over the infection, rather than try to push through it.

I'm doing ok thanks. Still recovering from being very sick (literally!) at the weekend, but I made it to my supervisor meeting yesterday which is the really important thing, and am all set to do my final thesis rewriting. Feeling very positive about things which is great. Hoping to start on that in the next few days (well more likely at night knowing when I work best!), but for now it's more rest.

As a history student I'm used to titles where the first bit is a pithy phrase (often in double quotes), then a colon, then a more explanatory phrase, a comma, and a date sequence.

That's great news Alpacalover. It sounds like a really good job to me. Ok maybe the pay isn't enormous, but it's the sort of job that could be really enjoyable and very satisfying. Academic jobs are also harder to get at the moment, and can be very short-term. My husband has been working in academia for a decade since finishing his PhD, and has only ever had short-term contracts, so there is a bit of uncertainty always there.

You must take care not to burn yourself out though, fitting in finishing off the PhD as well. Establish a timetable and working pattern that works for you. Maybe working at the weekend might be an option? I'd just be a bit concerned about your continuing to do the night hours when you have the new job up and running as well. But that's a decision you'll have to make for yourself.

Meanwhile well done again and good luck with the rest of the thesis.

My uni is pretty cool about it too. Emails have been sent out to students advising them what to do if they have signs of the infection, but otherwise it's business as usual.

I was diagnosed with swine flu too, at the end of July. I'm very high-risk for complications from any flu because I'm permanently immunosuppressed due to chemo and steroids. My main flu symptoms lasted a week. I was knocked out for a month in total, and coughing for 8 weeks. But the knockout was probably due to the underlying disease. Had I been healthy I think I would have shrugged it off in a jiffy. It didn't seem as bad as previous flus I've had. I'm just very sick!

LOL! No worries. It isn't that easy to find really - I should have given clearer instructions at the start. You'd think the company didn't want people to find the hefty student discounts ;-)

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Are you in the UK? If so Google for Adept Scientific who are the UK suppliers of EndNote and sell educational copies direct to students. That's where I bought my copy from, at a substantial discount from the usual price.

You should double check the rules with your university authorities to be sure. At my university footnotes/endnotes are included in the total word count, but not the final bibliography or any appendices.