I feel like this too, but we have to carry on somehow! Once you have submitted give yourself a bit of distance from the text before you prepare for the viva, and perhaps you'll come back to it with more positive eyes! good luck :)

Sobering reading for those in the history field (and probably relevant to those in other humanities)

http://historians.org/Perspectives/issues/2008/0810/0810pro1.cfm

I'm currently working on creating a exit strategy for teaching secondary school level in autumn 2010 as a professional backup plan to allow myself a year of potentially fruitless job applications. Cheery topic I know, but after a couple of dead end job aps and talking to postdocs and junior research fellows at my institute I'm getting a bleak picture of the job market even after one, with hope, gets a postdoc.

I would take the funding you have to another supervisor and work on a new project that has the potential to interest you, or interests you already. Your supervisor is clearly not normal in applying so much pressure on a recently started new student, most would be delighted to have a fully funded new student, so take you qualities (and money) elsewhere to another supervisor.

Good luck.

It's a bit of a "how long is a piece of string" question. In theory one can complete a PhD without any papers. But papers show examiners that the work has already been peer-reviewed as publishable quality, and in a competitive job market papers are vital to getting a postdoc or job. As for the number, that will depend on the perceived or measured quality of the journal in relation to others in the field: one great article in one of the best might be seen as better than two in middling journals. Who can say, really? I guess with two you're doing well. That would certainly seem to be on course with my own peers in the humanities. Perhaps it is different in the sciences, but it would be rare to finish a 3 -4 year humanities PhD with "lots of papers". I have 1 average ranking journal, 1 good, and 1 excellent - and certainly won't be squeezing any more out until I finish my PhD!!

There is no "should" to having papers since it is possible to get a PhD without them, it all depends on what kind of career you want afterwards. Chill, 2 seems fine. :)

I shall transform this into my accountability thread after reading some of the other postings on postgraduate forum. a space to mark off as I go along.

In 9 weeks time:

1) Redraft introduction
2) redraft chapter one
3) redraft capter two
4) redraft chapter three
5) redraft chapter four
6) redraft conclusion

The hand to supervisors before Christmas for comments.

9 weeks after that: hand over thesis to examiners to viva.

TASK FOR THE END OF THE MONTH 31: MUST COMPLETE THE REDRAFT OF CHAPTER FOUR.

I am going to stop reading and just cary on with writing - it would be sensible to assume that if there really are secondary literature gaps, then they can be filled as per examiners comments after the viva. I'll have dinnner and then sit down and start sketching out some main points. I spent most of the day hiding under the quilt, so with hope after a meal inside me I will have a more positive work attitude. thanks for you posts people.


Re: the clio advert - lol! I think exactly the same when I am on the underground here and see trendy twenty-somethings with their friends getting on for a fun night out! Whereas I am returning to work and mope! We sound so bitter! :p

I am due to hand in properly in Feb 2010, but need a complete second draft by Christmas.

I have first or second drafts of my chapters, and some has been published in 3 articles and a future contribution to a collected edition - so I know some of it is of publishable quality . BUT I am having so many problems writing...I don't feel like I have a central thesis and some of the chapters are more nice stories rather than any argument per-se. I really need to sort this out as Christmas is only eleven weeks away!!!!

In addition to that I am lonely living abroad and just feel depressed at the job market when I finish, having been recently shortlisted and not accepted for a postdoc.

If I need help wth one thing - I need advice on how to just stop reading and trying to plug gaps with secondary literature and just accept my thesis as it is with all the limitations therin. :(

A bit of a pointless rant this - hmmm, file under : phd life . writing-up tantrums! :$

I am also in another European country for the last six months of my PhD, and it is lonely without a partner or friends.

I can really empathize with you, I try to fill my time with work, and going to museums and galleries and wandering around the city I am in - but of course it doesn't feel like home. Since you are were you are long term you need to develop some kind of coping strategy.

I would also make a real attempt to learn the language of your host nation (you say you don't speak the language). Clearly, unless you are a very talented linguist, you will not be fluent in the two or three years you have left of your PhD, but it will help you feel more integrated and you might be surprised to find that you reach a generally acceptable level of intermediate conversation.

Could you suggest maybe starting a reading group or something in the early evening around 3 or 4, so that afterwards you can go for a drink or two - and tempt some people out afterwards for a meal/coffee/drink?

I guess when I feel down, I remind myself that it won't be forever, that the experience of working and living abroad will look great on the cv and has lots of benefits to (cultural awareness blah blah blah...) I know that these thoughts won't keep you sociable on a Friday night, but they are true all the same.

Take care, and good luck.

So so (somedays poor) . I have to have a complete second draft by Christmas, and submit in the end of Feb. I am currently regoing over chapters and filling in gaps with secondary literature. Some of the arguments I have been making earlier have been superseded by work published in 2008 and 2009. So now I am unclear how special parts of my argument are, or indeed what my overall thesis argument is.

It would be a total disaster, but at least with three publications there is something of publicaton standard in there. I don't really have much confidence in the thesis itself though and expect corrections to perhaps major level. So depressing. I just want it to be over. I have come this far and now I just feel like the bottom is falling out of my thesis and I don't really know what I have done!

I am now 3 years and 2 months in - and I have been lucky enough to get an extra funding award abroad for six months, which runs out in early 2010. So whatever state my thesis is in then, it will have to be submitted as such.

Fabulous. Congratulations!!!!!!!! Best wishes for postPhD life!!! :) (up)

I would like to speak German fluently, have a research, academic, or related job somewhere, and a satisfying social and personal life. Not all in that order obviously!

I wondered if anybody here was working on putting forward humanities postdoc proposals for various institutes and fundign agencies? I am working on a number of vague ideas, including one that is fun but a long way from my current research. i just wondered if people kept near to the area they know normally, or branch out into new (but related) area i.e different time frame, different technologies, etc etc )?

I paid for my MA myself with a CDL and was only given a fees studentship for the first year of my PhD so paid for living expenses myself. The last two years of my research have been paid for by funding bodies (AHRC in UK & MPG in Germany)

Here am I on an all nighter to finish journal corrections due to wit the editor tmrw. Anybody else?

it seems like if you can make a good enough case, then it is possible. the goodwill of the insitution you are transferring will definately help as you need their permission etc. i copied and pasted this from this years ahrc award holders handbook:

. Can a studentship transfer to another course or Research
Organisation?

Transferring to another course or Research Organisation

2.1 Studentships are awarded for a particular course or programme of study at a particular
Research Organisation as identified on the student’s application or nomination form and
approved by the AHRC. The AHRC shall consider any request to transfer to another course or
organisation only in exceptional circumstances, and only if the reasons are fully and clearly
explained. In most cases appropriate circumstances would be the transfer of a student’s
supervisor to another Research Organisation.

2.2 If a student is considering transferring to another course or organisation, permission must be
sought in advance from the AHRC. Failure to do so will lead to the AHRC terminating the
studentship and requiring repayment of any grant already paid. It should not be assumed
that a request to transfer a studentship will automatically be granted. All requests will be
considered individually and on their merits. The AHRC will require letters from:

• the student formally requesting the transfer and setting out their reasons
• the registry at each Research Organisation agreeing to the transfer
• the supervisor supporting and explaining the request

The receiving Research Organisation will be required to accept all the terms and conditions
relating to the studentship as it was made, including its start date and length, registration
requirements and (in the case of a doctoral student) submission date target. Please note that
the AHRC will be unable to approve a transfer to a course or programme of study that falls
outside the AHRC’s subject domain. We are also unable to approve a doctoral student’s
transfer to a Research Organisation or department that was ineligible to submit applications
for doctoral awards at the time of their application or nomination.