Hiya Louise, I could have written your post myself ! I am also doing a Phd in Humanities, and currently have 6 months of funding left. I have a really helpful supervisor, bless him, but I don't think I will ever be his favourite student. I did very well in my BA, but slipped a bit in my MA, and now I am just chugging along in my PhD. As a fellow student, I can only advise you to plough through your work. It is a bit too late to back off now, I think. In my case, I am doing a little bit everyday, trying my best to complete the thesis. I know I will never be someone famous in this field, perhaps as famous as my sup, but I am still determined to finish my work. I ask you sincerely, can you seek help with your depression? Also, can you ask for an extension period so you can have a little time for some rest ? Please feel free to pm me if you have anything to talk about.

Hiya pjlu, my lit review is about 10k words. My prof has advised for me to write for each chapter in about 10k to 12K words. I have the same number of chapters that you plan to have, so all together I think the word limit would be about 70K plus.

Hiya ttdan, yes, such things exist !

Thanks everyone for the input. I'm looking forward to attend the research seminars soon.

Thanks Emma for the insight. Actually I don't have the confidence to present a huge chunk of my research to my department staff. And I am still doing some analysis. Previously in the postgrad conferences. I presented a portion of my work. And to be honest, I am quite scared of the response that I would receive from people in my department.
HazyJane, yes, I do want to carry on with academia. I hope once my thesis is complete, I will have enough confidence to talk about it :)

Hi guys, I wonder if any of us have taken part in the research seminars held by the Department/ School ? To be honest, I haven't taken part in any, mainly because I live one hour away from uni and also because I basically spend my time doing research at home.

I've taken part in Postgrad Conferences but I don't think I have the confidence for the weekly research seminar. And besides, I'm still struggling to organise my work. I've got 11 months left actually to finish. (I'm a Humanities student.) Can anyone share their views on the departmental research seminar ? Thanks.

Hi Galgani, I'm also in the same situation as you. I have about 11 months left for me to finish writing up my thesis. I have roughly 40K words, in short chapters, but they are still disorganised. I think you already have a positive start because you have written two chapters, only you need to edit them here and there to fit in your thesis. Since I am also not good in statistic matters, I would have done the same like what you did and get someone to help with the data and such. Why don't you give yourself like, monthly deadlines to properly finish a chapter, that sort of thing ? I am also giving myself deadlines to tie up certain chapters. Hope that helps.

Hiya Tulip

I am a Humanities student so I suppose we each have a different approach to our thesis . However, we are all interested in the outcome in the end : the completed thesis. Unlike you, I have all my material to be analysed right here at home, in fact everything is within my reach, but because of some problems (some of them personal ones), I do not have a smooth journey either.

From what you have mentioned, you seem very serious and driven in your research, but you did not expect to be hindered by other issues. I would suggest that you consult the uni's postgraduate students' advisor, as you do sound quite exasperated about the whole situation. I do hope that you can find a solution to this problem soon.

Hi Emma, if you don't mind, could you share some of your experience of surviving your PhD. What were the main problems that you had in your studies and how did you overcome them ? What were the positive points ? I am interested to know your experience, as a fellow Humanities students. Thanks.

Congratulations Emma ! Time to celebrate !

For me, there's nothing more frightening than the thought that you haven't done much in your thesis but at the same time, you are seriously running out of funds ! Eeek ! That seems to work for me !

Whatever you do, please stay calm. You've come this far, while many of us here are still struggling with our thesis. I would advise you to think peaceful thoughts. Try to act confident, (even though you are a bundle of nerves), because you need all the confidence you can get for the viva. Call up someone you can count on to give you some last-minute encouragement ; it could be your parents, friends back home, etc. That's what a close friend of mine did 4 hours before his viva, when he suddenly felt all nervous and jittery. He survived his viva with minor corrections :) So, all the best and good luck !

Congratulations Pineapple...enjoy the celebrations !

Hi Lily

Well for starters, I think you ought to make a commitment to yourself, that you're going to finish the thesis in 5 months' time. I'm going to sound like your mom here (sorry), but you just have to pull yourself together. Let's assume that your thesis is 20000 words long, and we'll divide that amount with 5 (the remaining months that you have). So that gives you about 4000 words to write every month. Now we are going to divide 4000 words with 30 days...emmm, giving you the minimum amount of 133 words per day to write. I think that is a very achievable amount everyday. You need only to spend like half an hour at your writing desk to achieve this every day.

(I myself am working with this sort of schedule everyday. I have 40k words more to go and I have 10 months more before I run out of funds. Hope that this suggestion would be useful to you !)

Hiya guys, I hope to write some 3K words just before Christmas. Quite struggling by the way, with kids and housework. I just managed 300 words yesterday...yikes !