Hi Timefortea - good to see you are trying to make time for your studies around the twins.  It is very hard to get back into the commitment and it takes some time to establish your PhD routine. My twins and toddler tire me out during the day but come bedtime (7pm) it becomes 'me' time.  I always cook and eat with hubby before starting my PhD at 7.30-8.00pm. I put in 2-3 hours of work which is easier once you get immersed in the work.  Meanwhile hubby watches tv! To start with I got organised, made a schedule of chapters to write with subheadings.  A timeline to complete each task by. Then set small goal, easy writing first then as I got more involved adding depth to the writing.  My desk was set up with my work ready to go so didn't waste time getting it all out. By doing this most evenings it became 'normal' and I looked forward to being the 'academic' me and not just the 'mummy' me.  The things that motivated me were 'I have come to far to give up', 'I am self-funded so it would be a waste of money to give up', 'my chair doubted my abilities to complete once babies were born (he has twins arghh)', 'I hope my PhD journey will inspire my children to do their best'. It does get easier but if it has been a bad day with the babies then take an evening off.  I now work mon-fri evenings on this and have sat and sun to relax. The children go to childcare one afternoon a week for my sanity and my PhD!!  Hope this helps, you are doing very well in a demanding situation (up)

Ha-ha, Elsie, hadn't thought that my labbooks were extreme, does that count as an extreme sport!?!?!  I guess it stems from my employment in a research company where lab paperwork was meticulous with any errors crossed through with written explanation, signed and dated etc. Mine are not to that standard as they are my PhD books, but as asked by Joanna, this is an insight into my books.  Each individual can write/scribble/draw whatever they wish in theirs!! My main point that I found useful is to write things down as when it comes to write-up these little notes may mean so much more then in the bigger picture of your thesis.
:-)

Hi all,

Patience you have reminded me of my hideous journey with SPSS a few months ago.  I had alot of stats to run and was used to doing the stats freehand on the calculator or using excel (shows my age lol). I found SPSS to be incredibly frustrating and user-unfriendly.  I got a private tutor to refresh my training on the latest software version which helped as my training was two years previous. That said it still took me a while to become familiar with running the tests themselves, ie selecting appropriate data sets while excluding others etc.  I became much quicker at it by the end of the methodology chapters. I found that I also had errors in the previous stats so did quite alot of data cleaning up and re-run stats as I wrote up so then the figures quoted and stats were the 'final' version.  I think the biggest initial lesson I learnt was how to import my excel data straight into SPSS so that I didn't have to retype it all!! Perseverance is the key, you can do it!

Fm - well done on your publication, fab news (up)

How is everyone else's write-ups going?  I always found it a roller coaster where some days I wrote loads and others were very slow going.

I am still awaiting sups comments........feels so close to submission but the waiting is just awful. In the meantime I am proof-reading and have found quite a few inconsistencies with section title foramts etc and have reduced the words a bit more so still being productive.

The amendments have all been done so I am now going to spend the rest of the evening with my hubby (now home after working away). Will continue proof-reading tomorrow.

So I may be the only sad person working this evening but my goal is to amend my electronic version of the final thesis with the highlighted errors on the paper copy for ch3.

I think tired sore eyes need to go to sleep!!  It always amazes me that however tired we are the knowledge that there is lots to do still spurs us on to do more ;-)

My ch reading is slow going but I have just spotted a consistency mistake so must be still awake!

Evening Sneaks, I have proof-reading to do this evening as I am only on ch3 of 7! It does take some time checking it all through so I guess my sups are justified in taking time to read it aswell. So plan is to make spaghetti bologneise then sit down with dinner and my final draft thesis.

For plagiarisation checks the electronic thesis can be uploaded onto software accessed by the uni for detection of plagiarisation.  The examiners do not usually fulfill this role themselves but in conjunction with the uni.

The copyright details will be in the uni rules and regs but based on mine that they have copyright ownership for the first year before it is mine. This does not mean that he can publish without your name also on the paper.  I would suggest that you press on with your paper and see if he will read it and agree its publication while you are awaiting viva.

Thanks Ady and Batfink - I think that my institute has stopped moving :-(

However, I have addressed the paper thesis corrections into the electronic version and also enjoyed a chocolate break (yes I raided my toddlers chocolate buttons :$). Now I am going to start proof-reading ch3 which is the large, laborious methodology validation chapter.

I cannot imagine your supervisor has any malicious intent for your thesis, if you fail then it also reflects on them! I would be interested why he wanted a copy but to be honest my supervisory team have all had a copy of my final draft for reading. Could it be that he needed an electronic copy for your submission, plagerism checks etc?
I would also remind you before confronting your supervisor that as you have submitted the thesis it is usually bound under copyright and as such the institute generally has copyrights over the document for one year (at my uni). He (the institute) is therefore entitled to the thesis.

Afternoon all,
Wow, Batfink what a brilliant outcome from your presentation. I think you deserved a well earnt rest after that. well done!

Today I am going to;
1. Make minor editing/formatting changes to ch 1 and 2 on the electronic thesis after proof-reading the paper copy last night (it is so much easier spotting mistakes with a paper copy lol).
2. Continue proof-reading ch 3.

Still have no comments from sups 2 and 3 on my final draft :-(

Yes, I have read at least abstracts/discussions of the refs included in my thesis.  I don't necessarily remember exactly who said what as I have a bad memory for names! I am science-based so my ref list is probably shorter than other subjects though.

I keep copies of the refs as PDFs or hard-copies.  All the ones cited in my thesis will be collected together for viva prep in subject area and then order of importance to my study.

I think if an earlier ref is cited in a later paper you should go back to the original as it may have been misquoted.  The abstracts are usually available on-line for ease so that you can check the citation is truly relevant for your work. If you do take the citation from another source you can reference it appropriately to reflect this, however I think examiners prefer to see the original.

Oh, just remembered one of my sups would always look through my labbook when I had a meeting with him, I guess to satisfy himself that work was progressing. I suppose I didn't have to agree to him seeing it but I had nothing to hide. It was he who suggested copyrighting the books. So I guess you may want to be mindful of what is written (especially meeting minutes etc) incase you are also asked!

Emmaki, have you checked what is included in this word limit? For example my uni has a 40,000 word limit for science but that is just the main text and abstract so does not include contents pages, reference pages, appendices etc. If your word limit is for the whole thesis you will find alot more words in the 'other' parts of the thesis - mine has an additon 10,000 words not within the chapters.

Once the chapters are written and put together you may find yourself adding linking paragraphs or adding clarification/consistency which will bulk it out more. I would imagine the examiners being very pleased to read a shorter, concise thesis over an overworded, waffly one!!

Oh Sneaks that is even more depressing, not more work from your sup surely?  Are you getting any PhD time at the moment?

I have finished reading through ch 1 and 2 with a few changes but nothing major.  Will stop now as hubby phoned me (he is away working) and unfortunately has interrupted my focus. So off to bed and back to reading tomorrow afternoon and evening.

Hope you guys are not working too late!