======= Date Modified 03 Oct 2011 13:18:25 =======
By write write write for 1st draft - I meant you must have written wrtiten written throughout and got feedback. My sup read 3000 words essays every fortnight in the first yr and a chapter in each in the second year and then the "first" draft which was actually really compiled revised chapters - so my first(technically 2nd) draft came exactly the way yours came, after chunks had been fed back on - my point was - get it all drafted as soon as you can. Of course every chapter in my 1st draft had already been read by sup once at least, through year 1 and 2.

Yes - I have taken great care to thank every single person who contribvuted to me and my life in these 3 years in my acknowledgements -everyone who heard me speak, sustained me, read my work, worked with me, heard my silly gibber-gabber - everyone. I have even thanked those who turned away from me later, let us say, pre-viva, - but that doesnt decrease what they had already contributed in the making of the thesis :) I will forever be thankful for their friendship!

No not quite!!! :-)

I had sets of scribbled notes and other data as to what I was going to put down.   I would draft a chapter or broken down chunk, give to supervisor, draft up the next, supervisor would return first as I handed draft of second chunk, I'd correct first chunk, supervisor would hand back second chunk, I'd correct as I handed over my third chunk, supervisor would go through my third chunk as I drafted my fourth chunk, etc. and so on.   Supervisor's approach basically influenced this.

I had a situation where early parts of the thesis (up to results - normally two to three drafts per section or chunk) were in near-final form before the discussion was even started.   A similar pattern was followed through the discussion (with about five cycles of drafts for each segment) as final structure and establishment of original contribution took form.   This was slowed by the supervisor changing his mind a few times and him disagreeing with some of the technical content (I finally found a paper that proved my point and I addressed that in a later paper) as is per normal.

To follow the earlier pattern, there was a complete discussion before conclusions and further work took from my scribbling and the final content of the discussion.

By the time a complete draft took form, it was a near finished product.   My supervisor then grabbed the Introduction to the Current Work and reworded it to ensure objectives were clear. It's clear he had as clear a mental map as I of where exactly the thesis was and what needed to be done.

The bloke was extremely thorough and there was no way he would let a piece of work through unless he was happy that no more than minor corrections would result.

It was probably not a textbook approach, however, this do it in chunks turned out in the end to suit me. The thesis did end up with a conventional structure though.

I believe it ended up the same with my direct predecessor, with a very strong influence due to the preferred approach of the supervisor.

I've since seen another of my colleagues thesis (different primary supervisor) and he got away with a cobbling together of different self-contained modules / reports, an approach I was forwarned was not suitable for a PhD thesis. Another lad who followed his modualr approach didn't get away with it and got hammered by major corrections.

I am not seeing too much of a difference but I am rushed off my feet so maybe missing something. All i know is my sup read everythign with a microscope and was my harshest critic and while my 1st draft was a very polished version, it went through the microscope again and then again so my final draft was No 3 of the full compiled thing which means sup had read everything like 4 times or something! yikes!

Congratulations to all:-)

======= Date Modified 04 Oct 2011 05:19:06 =======
Dr. Mackem and Dr. PhdBug

I must say you folks appear to have been both quite lucky in terms of your supervisors. I had a very bad experience in my thesis editing/writing as my supervisor is one of those extremely busy and quite high profile people (Or maybe he just acts like one (down)). So, while I was writing, he never bothered replying to most of my emails with my chapter sections etc. and most of my correspondence was based on my (co-authored) research papers (which again he never got much time to review except in the rare instances when I was on phone with him waiting for hours as he got free from other emails etc.). Close to thesis submission, he probably spent a day or so with me pondering over the thesis and added/removed buzz words and other small editorial changes in my final draft (and that sums up his response on the thesis). Rest when I ran into troubles during my corrections, he did give me perhaps another 2 hrs or so (while I waited on him for almost 2 days). :-(

Anyways I am glad it is over now. And I am happy to know you folks did not have to go through this ordeal. (up)

All the best

Sorry to hear about this experience Mak :( it can be a real downer if the person meant to support u most does not!

My sup is an international superstar - high flying, super woman, 25 books (seriously) multi country projects, and still gave me so much of her time, responding to hundreds of emails and listening to every silly stumbling idea - I am indebted to her!!

Congratulations, Dr Bug! You've stormed through your PhD and you well deserve it! Good luck for your future, though I don't think you'll need it.

Remember us all when you're something like Vice Chancellor of the University of the Whole of the World, or some such.

(up)

hahaha Wallly you're here, long time!! Hope you are very well! Don't disappear off the forums :-)

Wow. She must be a real inspiration then. Must have been a great experience working with her. Am very happy for you.(up)

Probably we're both missing something, but it's not important.

What's important is you're through. Congratulations on passing Dr. PhD Bug!!! (up)


Ian (Mackem_Beefy)