Thanks Eska, Ultimax & J Stanley for your responses. I had a break on the weekend by picnicking and cycling in the park. I returned to my work yesterday morning and have managed to write some 800 words...yikes ! I guess I will try to do a little bit everyday. I also have looked into ways to do things which do not cost much money, like visiting the museums, window shopping, nature trails and hikes, that sort of thing, to help me keep my spirits up. I just hope I'd be able to have the bulk of my work complete i.e 80 percent before I finally run out of funds ! It is indeed scary but I'm determined to get through it !

Sorry guys, just a general rant from me. The weather here in Scotland has been absolutely great for the past 10 days or so. And I've been spending time in the uni library almost everyday trying to re-draft my work.
Can't afford to go anywhere for a short holiday due to a) lack of time and b) lack of funds. Trying to write as much as I can in 180 days or so. Sigh...is there anyone who is feeling as dismal as I am about his/her work ?

Hiya Pixie, you are not the only one. I have 6 months of funding left and I'm trying my best to optimise my time and money. Some days I feel so eager to finish my thesis, pack my stuff up and head home ; other days (like today and yesterday) I feel so weak, more so as I'm down with sneezing and cold. Ah, the wonderful British weather ! :D
I've more or less drawn a schedule for me to finish up : 5000 words per month for the next 4 months or so will bring me to a total of 70K words. Then I am going to start polishing and refining my work. Hope you can do the same. At the same time, be kind to yourself and take short breaks. Take care !

Hi Albatross
Gene Nat has given very good advice. At this stage, you can't think of turning back You will have to do your best to complete your dissertation. Like you, I have my moments of doubt : whether I will have an excellent thesis or just a so-so thesis. The main thing is, we just have to finish our writing and then move on with life. Good luck, I'm confident we will be able to finish our thesis !

Hi anon007

I had to prepare my transfer report some 2 years ago. At that time, my hubby was not around ( he was working in Middle East), and I was stuck with three small kids. I was freaking out big time ! After a few icecreams and coffee, I decided on a plan of action...
What I did was to take care of the kids during the day and really focused on the transfer report at night, when the kids were sleeping. Lots of cut and pasting, Googling, referring to the thesaurus, that kind of thing. The references at the end were a bit of a pain because I initially followed one format and my Sup wanted another format. Phew...Thank goodness I got through to the end.
Above all, remain calm at all times. Good luck !

Thanks very much everyone for the responses. I will try to write more per day, maybe 500 words. And I will also try to take a break when I feel stressed up. I will be seeing my SV this week so I will let him know some of my worries.

Thanks everyone for the replies.
Pjlu, I think I need a break of about a week. I hope to come back refreshed after that.
Dr Jekyll, editing is indeed the hardest part.
In terms of writing new stuff, I will try your method of writing for 30 minutes, then a short rest, and then write again.
Bilbo, I feel like stopping when I reach 70K words, honestly ! Hope my supervisor can agree to that :D

Hiya guys, I have roughly 6 months to go before I wrap up my humanities thesis. I have a few chapters so far, but they have no proper conclusions. My current word count is just under 50K.

I am dragging myself to add to my work, edit it, refining it. etc etc. I thought I was close to having 60K words last week, but after a closer look, it was just a slight improvement of work done during Christmas and Easter.

I can only manage something like 100 words per day. I'm really plodding along; if I keep this up, I might have 20K words or more, which is just enough for the 80K word limit for the thesis. That of course does not count the stuff that would be crossed out by my supervisor !

Wish I could write more, but I just can't...argh !

Hi Emaa and others.

Sorry to hear about your decision, Crelansley. I remember reading about your problem and I did reply to it. I hope you will find a better career option. As for me, I have about 7 months to go before I wrap things up. I am trying to juggle family and Phd work (as usual), and as it's the Easter break, I am not doing anything productive at the moment ! I will try to disappear to the public library tomorrow to get some writing done.

Hi guys, I managed to write half a chapter (5k words), so I will try to write another 5 k words after the Easter break.

I am so not loving the cold snap at the moment. I thought we could turn off the heater now that it's almost spring.Summer seems so far away at this moment...sigh.

Sorry but can you try to do your work somewhere else, maybe the public library ? Maybe that could help you focus on a few things ?

Hiya, I need to show my supervisor something which looks like a whole thesis in October or November. So at the moment I'm doing my final chapter (gah!) for this month and next month, then re-draft my other chapters from May to September, after that, try to get a mock viva in late autumn. I am trying to be calm about the whole thing but sometimes can't help but freak out !

Hiya, I would think it's normal to feel worried at the last minute about some unresolved issue before submission. I would be quite nervous as well. Can you get your supervisor to give you a few hints on how to make your arguments sound convincing ? Or could you look for thesis which focus on the same topics and try to emulate how the researchers make their arguments ?

These websites may help you in your work :

I think you already know some of the answers to this problem, in that you do need to adopt a certain register for academic writing. I am having this problem too; I've been told by my sup that my writing doesn't sound academic enough. So what I'm doing in this short time that I have ( 6 months) is to read a few thesis in my subject area and try to write sentences which sound like those in the thesis. Yeah it's kind of short notice, and it's also a copycat method as well. I know what you mean by 'pretentious' because I'm doing that now, trying to sound 'academic' in my writing when I myself am not sure of my subject matter !