Is there anyone working out there tonight??? Am beginning to feel that my life is sooooo sad... that I have to be glued to my desk on a Saturday night. Am reallllly in a self pitying mood pardon me for moaning. So far i had; a piece of cake. fish from a tin. an orange. tea. tea. tea. tea. next.... toast and back to my desk, well am being sensible not to drink lest the whole writing endeavour gets thrown out of the window.
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I was working for an hour or so earlier, carrying on dealing with thesis feedback corrections.

Good luck tonight Tsipat.

Thanks BilboBaggins, what a night...

Hi Bilbo and Tsipat

Hope things are coming along well for you Bilbo. And Tsipat, I'm here, altho it's not Sat nite but Sun morning. But if it makes you feel any better, I always study on a Sat nite - always, always. I like studying then, am fairly rested not having to do paid work during the day, so I don't mind. Maybe you need to treat yourself - if you know you're going to be in working, make sure you have a really nice dinner. Food becomes all important when there's nothing else. Cheer up, we'll all get there.

Thanks Sue, from now hence forth my Saturday nights will be spent on my desk. I usually write during the day but i have been working on something totally  unrelated to my thesis which has been eating into my time... so something has got to give as i haven't much time left... Next Saturday I shall make sure to treat myself to some nice food, some realllly good food and then get down to it! For now more corrections. Happy working Sue

Ok can't sleep at mo, so might as well have a bash at the abstract for my thesis. It's the last substantial thing I have to do, barring continuing to tweak the conclusions, and sorting out a few other bits and bobs.

Have a copy here of Dunleavy's "Authoring a PhD" and he basically argues that it should SELL SELL SELL (sorry my emphasis!) the contribution angle of things. So will ponder that. And also look at my university's examination report, which should clarify what the examiners are looking for.

Also have abstracts from a few other theses to hand as a guide.

Can't help thinking this will be the hardest 300 words to write ... :p

Hi Bilbo

I'm here working too, afternoon where I am. Dunleavy advice sounds v. good - I should have a look at that book too. Can't you just update an abstract you've already done with some findings? Will it really be that hard? But how fabulous you're almost there - Dr Bilbo is on the way!

All the best.

Hi Sue,

Nice to hear from you.

If only I had an earlier abstract to update! Unfortunately no. But I've been able to put something together, drawing on material from my intro, and obviously the chapter by chapter structure, and - most importantly - the conclusions.

It's exactly 300 words long and looks good. So I'm signing off for tonight. Want to get some sleep if I can manage it.

Good luck to you with your work. Oh and yes I recommend Dunleavy's book a lot. I wish I'd followed more of his advice, but it did help me a lot throughout.

======= Date Modified 01 Feb 2010 22:13:14 =======
Here I am, and will be until 3 am MEZ at least.

Must finish a particular chapter re-draft by early morning, or at least get into a state where i can finish it by lunchtime tmrw.

Anyone else up and working nocturnally?

I'm here. Just been editing my bibliography after getting a photocopy of 2 sort of relevant articles and reading them. And then drew up a final list of things to be done before I submit before the end of this month (at least 1 month ahead of my 6-year part-time university deadline). Eek!

Good luck!!


I feel like this thesis is being whacked together from old drafts, new material, bits and bobs, and isn't really working. so sick and tired of it all. Trying to get it to stick together nicely, but the unusual nature of my topic means that I had to be creative (i.e. resourceful in the archives, not falsifying! ;) )with the historical sources, and so it is all a bit messy!!!

I know what you mean. I'm a history student, and have been researching something that is rarely recorded in the surviving historical records. So I was not blessed with source material, and I had to work hard to make the most out of what little I could find. Huge methodological challenges. My supervisor gave me advice for how to pull it all together, but it's still a bit like a cake of multiple parts. But I just cross my fingers and hope for the best.

I'm signing off now and going to bed. Good luck with your work tonight.

Hello to all the nocturnal workers, since I have been staying up and working through the night I thought I would join in on this thread. It's great to see that some of the posters here are well through their PhD and about to submit. Best of luck with it i know it must be really tough the last stages but great to be almost there. I am struggling with the write-up and feeling really down on how I will make it. I am making small steps every day but I just need to take bigger ones to feel I am getting somewhere! I plan to write untill about 3am and then hopefully feel I have made some progress.

Thanks Bulbs. I hit phenomenal lows during my writing up. For many long months (I'm part-time so things take at least twice as long) I was on the point of quitting every single day! But keep going. You'll get there.

What's sleep. I don't need sleep! I'm up working on my conclusions again, and doing something else on my to-do list.

Ok it's not night time, but I usually post in this thread. Haven't had much sleep so it might as well be night time for me.

But I've finished my thesis, ready for submission! Wahoo!!!! :p

Need to email off the PDF for printing and soft binding, so will do that overnight, allowing me time for any last minute tweaks.

Wahoo!