======= Date Modified 10 Feb 2009 22:05:00 =======

Thanks Armendaf!! but i've been slacking on the reading lately though , not been doing much i'm afraid :$ but i hear ya about familarising yourself with the whole thing again and re-reading here and there. i totally get what you mean about needing a plan, thats how i feel, i feel like im just wandering around aimlessly, i need a proper battle plan, havent quite figured out what it should be.

just feel that im drowning in papers at the moment.

ps its great to have so many people posting their aims and trials and tribulations !

miss spacey hope you're feeling better and that marathon session you had planned when went.

ruby how's it going? i had that stressed smiley face the entire time i was writing up. its so apt

possum welcome abroad!
===

okay my aims for tonight, so today isnt a complete washout.
1.read 6 pages from thesis.
2. read papers.

Hello all,

Well, I did actually work on my lit review and read the book chapter yesterday, so here's hoping for more success today. I'm going to try and write some missing paragraphs in the lit review then read a book that I borrowed off someone weeks ago (oops!)

Someone in the department ran a focus group on functional foods yesterday and dropped the leftovers off in our office so today I am officially powered by Yakult.

Armendaf - hope you get a viva date soon. How long have you been waiting? My research is on the civil service, looking at one department from an organizational perspective, hence the organization theory. I feel quite out of my depth (my first degree was in politics, so I've had to guide myself through the literature) but I love the variety of perspectives that people take. What's your thesis on?

Lara - I think you should go and find your journal article, might give you a boost to see your name in print
:-)

Missspacey - Did you get something done last night? take it easy and hope you feel 100% again soon.

======= Date Modified 11 Feb 2009 11:29:25 =======
Hi all,

I'm not lecturing today, so I'll try to catch up with work and if possible put some time towards my "re-familiarising" stage of Viva preparation.

Heifer, my project is a case study of the electronic health record in which I'm looking at the multilevel implications to organisational change and strategy. So, as you can see it is also related to the public sector. One of the theories that I found useful to explain some of what's going on there is "new institutionalism", which works well at the interface between levels of analysis and technology and human agency, if that makes any sense, that is ;-) I've been waiting for a Viva date since November.

Lara, the important thing is that as you re-read your thesis and those papers, the whole thing makes better sense in your mind and, if you think, that with this new understanding things could have been explained better in the thesis, then you should make a note on that and bring it to the Viva. The examiners will be interested in how well you understand the whole process.

Missspacey, I'm very sorry to hear that you are not feeling well. Take it easy and recover. You will be much more productive when you are not sick any more. No point on trying to juggle both, the work and the illness; it never works.

Ruby, I'm sure you are working on those final details before your submission. Go on, you can do it!(up) And then come back here and tell us how it went... we want to hear all the details ;-)

Thanks Heifer hehe i might just do that on friday ! I also emailed the journal where my 2nd article is going to be published asking if i can buy just the one issue, they said i could , cause usually you have to subscribe for a whole year! and thats way too expensive cant afford that. i just like the idea of having the entire issue hehe. its not out till april i think though.

Thanks Armendaf for the advice. you're right i need to understand the whole process.
---
you both sound very clever by the way when you were describing your thesis. went whoosh over my head hehe.
--

my aims for today:
1. read 6 pages from thesis: am on pages 67-72
2. read 3 papers
3. make notes for viva question of today which is " Why did you do this project?"
(i've decided to start making rough notes for viva questions, even if i dont answer the question properly/fully or accurately, it might help to jot down "something" and then maybe later on i might get inspiration to answer the question more fully later on - so i'm compiling a list of viva questions and rough answers in a word document).
4. make some notes from papers.

Me again, signing off - didn't make any headway with the book, just couldn't concentrate on it. But I did do quite a lot of writing on my lit review and, pending some tidying up, it's almost in a fit state to be seen by my supervisors. Yay!

Working at home with no internet access tomorrow and away at a wedding on Friday so will be back on Monday morning. Hope everyone has a productive few days!

Lara - sounds like a great idea going through possible viva questions - are you getting them from a book or from asking people who have been through it?

======= Date Modified 12 Feb 2009 02:05:57 =======
======= Date Modified 11 Feb 2009 18:56:21 =======
======= Date Modified 11 Feb 2009 18:51:33 =======
Well done Heifer, on getting alot of the writing of the lit review done. i hope you have a nice time at your brother's wedding! and see you next week and great that its at a level to show supervisors, YAH you!! :-)

thanks for your support about the viva qs ideas - well i have compiled a long list of viva questions from various sources, from people who have had their viva, from this board, from the book - how to survive your viva by Murray, and also various internet sources, especially one website that had a list of "nasty viva questions". i will be posting a new viva question everyday, so feel free to jot them down

well i'm clocking out for dinner and a long break :-)

so far , i read 6 pages of my thesis, read 1 paper and made a few notes on my viva question, dont think i answered it very well, but its a start
i will be clocking in again for the night shift later on.

how is everyone else doing?

btw thanks everyone for the support and encouragement to keep at it. it actually feels good to have studied today instead of procrastinating. i havent been studying all day long, hours on end though, but i did what i did. i made an excel sheet, where i "clock in" and clock out during the day, when i clock out for a quick break, i type up in one sentence what i accomplished during the "productive time" im at my desk.

so far i have studied for about 2 and half hours today.
--

edit. clocking out for today. going to bed now, dont want to up too late. i took the whole evening off! i just came back now, and quickly read through another paper, lucky for me, most of it was irrelevant so really only had to read 1 page that was relevant hehe.
nite folks, see you tommorow!

hello peeps. how is everyone doing?
i'm clocking in for today, been procrastinating for the past hour! so thought i better get my head down and do some studying!!

my aims:
1. read 6 pages from thesis
2. read 3 papers
3. answer viva question for today which is: "what is the most important finding in your project?"
4. make notes

Happy Monday everybody!

I would like to say I'm refreshed after a long weekend off but I'm actually knackered, and not in any mood to do work whatsoever! My modest goals for today are to do the preparation for a seminar on participant observation that I'm teaching tomorrow, and to work on my introduction ALL afternoon with no time wasted on facebook or freecell!

Hope this week is a productive one for us all.

Ruby & Missspacey have been quiet recently - hope this is a sign of much work being done :-)

Morning Heifer!

You've prodded me into posting again hehe. Glad you had a good weekend, maybe you'll have to ease yourself back into work gently. :-)

I'm on leave now from work to finish my thesis, but got a bit freaked out at the weekend about how much I have to do still. I tried to make a proper timetable for the days left but it didn't work very well, so I did a different one with all the various sections, what needs doing and how much time they should take (in days/half days etc) but not which actual days to do them as that seems too rigid at the moment. I woke up really early (5.30am!!) and feel a bit sick now, I don't know if it's the last coffee I had or a mental thing about my workload. Maybe both! I can't believe I'm still rewriting significant chunks of a certain chapter, but it has to be done.... I dislike that chapter almost as much as the methodology one, which is probably why I've left it so long....:$ Funny how you have favourite sections (or not.)

I think my aims are going to be a bit all over the place for the next week, as I keep swopping around depending on how mentally perky I'm feeling.
So today: I think I'll 'whack' another paragraph into the methodology chapter as advised by my sup, which will finally knock that off my to-do list FOR EVER. By lunchtime.
Then ring my sup about the other problem chapter 4.
Then either get writing that chapter, OR finish off Ch. 9 properly (as in submittable version, another one crossed off forever).

Well folks, good luck with today's work - see you later!
(up)

Hi Girls,

I've been going through the tons of paper which are now spreading across my office in the university, home and my office in the college where I teach. I can not believe I have so many versions of the same chapters printed out and with comments, either mine or my supervisor's, and that all of them are so bad. I really need to make sure that the chapters I finally submitted are some sort of improvement from those many earlier versions. I found a couple of very simple corrections that keep coming up on every version of my case study chapter I find, but apparently never addressed. I'm going to make sure that I did in the final thesis and that all other comments are indicated on a clean current copy.

Actually, I think that could be a good set of aims for these week:
-Read my case study again.
-Make sure that all recommended corrections were made.
-If they were not, write an addendum.
-Come up with my own corrections, if any.
-Write a second addendum.

The point would be to bring those addenda to the Viva with me as evidence that I'm aware of the shortcomings of the thesis and that I have already started to address them. Hopefully, the examiners will let me incorporate them as part of the final corrections. I also think it could be a good start, since I do not need to re-read any literature. I will however make me go back to the data, which will give me an idea about how to do the same thing for other chapters.

Cool! Now I'm excited this is going somewhere (up)

What do you girls think? How are you doing?

Talk soon 8-)

Hi Armendaf,

Well, they all sound like good plans of action to me! Umm yes and I can believe that you've got loads of copies of the same chapters strewn about the place, sometimes I find ones from years ago so presumably I'm not good at chucking stuff out.

I'm so envious of you right now, actually preparing for the viva.... sigh.... I never realised how vile the pre-submission stage was going to be, but it's UTTERLY HELLISH - there are no other words for it at the moment. But I bet you know that anyway lol! I've almost given up on posting on here, it's too depressing when I don't do what I intended to do at the start of the day and keep chopping and changing my plans... it makes me feel downright flaky sometimes, but there you go, that's my problem. So I'll just *sigh* again and sign off with a heavy heart, back into my bleak hellhole.... oooh, there's nothing like moaning out loud is there, even if no one reads it lol. Oh yes, it gets it out of your system, if nothing else! I've been doing the first sections, you know the official bits, acknowledgements etc as I stopped thinking usefully after lunch. It all helps in the end though, does it not.

Oh well, I'd better get back to 'it', it won't get itself ready for submission unfortunately and it may be a long night ahead .....:-s:-s:-s

How's anyone else doing????

Heifer, is accountability working for you, or is it a bit annoying or pointless in practice? :-)

Hello all,

Ruby - I do find it helpful, although I have started to use posting on here as another procrastination method! I'm very big on lists and targets anyway, so it's not that I need the forum to prompt me to set the goals, but I do like seeing them 'in print' as it makes me feel pretty guilty if I don't stick to them!

I did pretty much nothing yesterday as an old friend who did her phd here popped in and we all went for lunch, then had to go to library to pick up holds etc etc...then today had to do teaching prep and then teach a 2 hour seminar. I'm at the stage now where I know I can't get everything done that I wanted to do before sending it to the supervisors on wednesday and I'm kind of paralysed by that fact. I'm a real sucker for that - having so much to do that you can't do any of it! Think I'm going to go home soon and do a bit more this evening.

Armendaf - I have to admit I was kind of horrified when I read your post, but only because I know I will end up in a similar situation myself if I don't sort stuff out soon. I've got loads of folders with stuff like "Chapter 2 - June version" "Chapter 2 - NEW version" "Chapter 2 - version with edits" etc etc :$ Hope that you manage to reign it all in; sounds like going to the viva with some corrections already sorted could be a good solution.

======= Date Modified 17 Feb 2009 17:21:05 =======

wow lucky Armendaf! that you do not need to reread any literature!! that's really good. me on the other hand, have forgotten all the litertature i referred to in my thesis lol. i got millions of papers to read, which i am slowly going through, but sometimes when i read something it inspires me with an angle i might be able to use for a viva question.

i think its a great idea for you to make a list of corrections already for the viva. sounds like you got yourself a good battle plan!

It's nice to have you all back again :) this thread was getting very lonely and bare! nice to hear from everyone and your progress.

i am aiming to finish reading through my thesis by the end of the week, one week earlier than my own deadline. i just finished reading chapter 5, so just two more chapters to go. i too like Armendaf, are coming across corrections, and i find that i repeat myself alot!! i'm cringing about how many times i give the definition of something! lol oh well. i'm writing little questions in the margins, whilst i am reading through my thesis, and putting big asterix on particular interesting things i have said, that i might want to refer to - ie highlights of my thesis...

i've just opened a brand new A4 book that my brother bought for me, and i'm going to use it for my VIVA question and answer book.

the questions i'm going to work on and keep in mind for this and next week are as follows:

1. why did you do this project?
2. what is the most important finding in your project?
3. what problems did you encounter during your project?
4. if you could do your project again, what would you change?
5. if you were continuing this project, what would you do next?
6. do you think the project went well.
--
i will keep these questions in mind and try to come up with half way decent answers.
===


Ruby, hang in there. you're so very nearly there, and I know how you are feeling , it's not a nice place to be. but you will get it done, and it will feel so good to submit the darn thing!
Heifer. good luck with getting back into study mode again
:)

Well Lara, I meant that I do not need to re-read any literature for that chapter. Only because my case study chapter is based on the data; it is like your findings chapter. When I move on to another chapters loads of literature will have to be re-read, though. But I'm hoping it will be much more focused than it would if I just get straight to it. ;-)

Ruby, I feel for you. I remember those days and I still get frightened when I think of myself in that situation again; which will probably come when have to resubmit my corrections :-( Nevertheless, remember that no other crowd will provide with as much sympathy as this electronic community, so even if for no other reason, keep posting to let us know how you are doing. Keep going, you'll get through this.

Heifer, I know! I consider myself an organised person, but still I managed to make a mess out of all my files. There is hope for me though ;-)

Hello, morning all.

Lara and Armendaf, thanks for your support. :-) I know it's still near enough to your submissions for you both to remember the horror and that means a lot to me, as you 'get' the whole situation. My mum's great, but she always wants to know what I've finished when I speak to her for the daily update on my progress. It depresses me a bit, as I'm all over the place with it and it's just not straightforward at this stage. Armendaf, you are so right that of anywhere, this forum is the place where people have had the same problems and know what you're going through.

Lara, is your new notebook helping, and has your BL change of scenery helped at all....?

Heifer, I get paralysed into inactivity too sometimes when the realisation of the workload hits me - it's so horrible, and you know it's totally counterproductive, but maybe we have to go through these little phases to get us working again.... who knows! I don't think you should be too hard on yourself though, you did have a completely non-PhD related weekend, so maybe it's taking a bit longer.

So what do I think I'm going to do today then??????
1. I've knocked off a couple more emails for extra info from odd people. I've got 3 more to do and after that if I get no response then I'll have to just write around these gaps in my research. Annoying, but necessary at this stage.
2. Finish this chapter 4 rewrite and send to my sup. Today.

That'll do for now - if I miraculously get all that finished then I can do pics and check figs and refs for chapter 2.

See you later. Hope everyone has a productive day (including me!!!)