Your university should specify what the rules are for counting them.

Generally though appendices and bibliography don't count to a word count, but footnotes or endnotes do.

Check with your supervisor again for clarification.

You should ask your supervisor. I'd suspect not though. PhD theses don't generally have percentage over-run allowances like undergraduate essays.

Don't give your examiners any reason to give you more complicated corrections. It's better to cut out unnecessary words before submission than after the viva in a corrections period. 2000 words should be easy to trim out of 82K.

When I login I tick the keep logged in box, but it doesn't seem to be remembering for any length of time (a day or more!). So I have to keep logging in again and again. Which is somewhat exasperating. Would be grateful it it could be fixed. Thanks.

Congratulations! Really pleased for you.

When I click on a thread it takes me to the start of it, not to the latest posts. So I end up having to click again to see the most recent posts, especially in the longer-running threads. Could this be changed? Or maybe I'm clicking wrongly ;)

I had this in mine. It was fine. The chair ended up asking some questions purely out of interest in the viva, but they weren't examining me themselves. All the arranging side of the viva was done through them, so they let me know the date/place, received corrections etc. Having them there was a pleasure.

I think the new design crashed the mobile Safari browser on my iPod touch the other day. It seems to be more intensive / loading, and the wee device was not happy. I've since used it a couple of times on the iPod, without crashing, but I only used it for a really short time. It's sort of putting me off using the forum ...

Examiners want PhD students to pass. There is no good reason why if you do the corrections requested you will not pass. Trust me! Anyone given corrections, of even the most minor typographical nature, could technically fail. But it is extremely unlikely to happen. There are good reasons why the examiners and your supervisor were so happy with your outcome!

I did my corrections on my own. By this stage you should be able to stand on your own. Follow rigidly the list of requested corrections, and draw up a short summary document noting the changes you have made. And then send these in. Normally if an examiner isn't happy with something at this stage they would send it back to you for clarification/a small rewrite. It's not a one shot process, but more fluid than that. And they want you to pass.

Think positive. And congratulations!

Oh and if you want to get your research "out there" it's far more likely to be read in the form of a series of journal articles than as a monograph which virtually no-one will read. Not least because of the cost of those monographs, which academics would have to shell out for themselves, whereas at least their universities will normally subscribe to the relevant journals. Just a thought :p

I asked my examiners for advice on publishing at my viva. They recommended publishing as articles, because it's quicker, easier, and requires much less rewriting. I've since been doing just that, and am getting published as a single author (very common in humanities) in the most eminent journals out there. Result!

Monograph publishing is very much in decline in humanities. I sometimes see people whose books have been "published" by the quasi vanity press like German "publishers" out there. Avoid this like the plague. Publishing with them doesn't give you any kudos, and will not be well regarded for career/promotion purposes by academics with any know-how. In fact it's likely to make you look really daft, and will backfire. If monograph publishing go with a proper university academic publishing press, or nothing. But personally I think articles are fine.

In the last few years of my part-time PhD, when I was doing the writing, I was on no more than 5 hours total study time a week. Those hours took the form of 1 hour bursts spread throughout the week. I had to work this way because of my severely disabling progressive neurological disease.

My supervisor always said to me what's important isn't the quantity of time you put in but the quality of the work you do. And to be honest if you've been doing it as a 9-5 job, even alongside some other admin/non-PhD things, that should be more than ample.

Trust your supervisor. And good luck for the final push (you are so nearly there!), and the viva afterwards.

Well that's encouraging news. Things are moving on, making progress, and you should hear something 'soon'.

And as awful as the wait has been I'm encouraged that you weren't anxious opening the email. You'll just be glad to get the result now, so hopefully it will be less stress for you. Although obviously you could have done without the long wait reaching that stage.

Don't panic. Friday afternoon isn't any sort of sign at all. You're reading too much into this.

I'd view it positively: after it's all over you get the weekend to recover too!

Do your preparation as planned for the viva. And best of luck with it.

Glad you finally got a date. Good luck with the viva preparation.

I wore smart casual, so a smart top and my usual comfortable black (not jeans) trousers. I was originally planning to be smarter, but I had to use my wheelchair on the day, and comfort and practicality was more important.

So long as you don't turn up too informally dressed - i.e. jeans and a t-shirt - it should be fine. They are examining your PhD/thesis, not how you are dressed.