Just me today?

I'm having issues - mainly because I've spent about an hour eating lunch and going to ASDA for paper. I've just been told my internal examiner eeeek so its now feeling real and scary.

MUST get on with this stupid discussion!

in some ways I'm more afraid of my internal examiner than external. I think it'll be easier to speak to that person than somebody I already know. My viva isn't even sorted yet and I am having nightmares about it.

I find the discussion bit of my PhD, ie the bit that's most important, the least convincing :-(

I don't know either - that's the problem. I would kind of like at least one of them not to be an unknown quantity - even if you think they're going to be horrible, at least you know, if you know what I mean? - its going to be scary going in not knowing even what they really look like or how they'll approach the thesis! Quite scared now!

hey sneaks,
Im here as well ... had a very late start today as had a really late night yesterday ...( the discussions in my thesis :-s) and now i have some errands to ran!! food is important if i intend to study some more- will be back for another late night tonight!!

Ady - I only know of my internal and not my external but the thought of any of it makes me sick to my stomach especially when im going through the discussions and thinking What am I doing here - does this correlate with my theoretical framework? did i pick the right one etc !!!!

On the positive- we have all come this far we can do it atleast getting the draft in will be a little booster (up)

I didn't know either of my examiners but felt more worried about my external who was an unknown in my eyes but an expert in a closely related field. I felt the externals questioning would be tougher as they know the subject area and could be quite critical. This is exactly how it was with my internal being really nice and complimentary. They were complete opposites really!

No time to worry about the viva yet, although having an idea of your examiners means you can see what research they have done, how it relates to yours and if there are any areas that they may pick up on (that you could fix in your thesis prior to submission :p).

Looking forward to hearing some submission news soon!

I had a particular external in mind and worked him nicely throughout my thesis (honest, it didn't hurt him that much!!) but when we came to contacting him re: viva he seems to have disappeared:-(, no publications in last five years so maybe he has retired or worse. Now I will have to shoe-horn somebody else's theories into my work!

Dunni, I know you're right but I can't help agonising over the viva. I didn't have to submit an intention to submit form (we don't have them at my uni) which does reduces pressure I suppose but also means that a thesis is never truly finished if supv and student can't agree. I am TELLING my supv next week I am submitting at the end of August.

i'm just about to send my intention to submit form in - early sep I've been given eeek! very scary.

Although today I'm going slow - I have a hubby off work - we can't go on holiday cos of the thesis, so he's milling around bored and wanting attention. tbh its really bad timing but he had to take the leave or lose it

Ady, a thesis is never a finished piece of work. At some point there can be no more procrastination on the students part as you will be sick of seeing the darn thing! It is difficult to work on something that has lost momentum and to me this is the time to look at submitting (unless you have loads of time on your side and can take a leisurely few weeks off and come back with fresh eager eyes, unrealistic?). So it is fair to put a deadline in place ahead of schedule, I did by submitting 7 weeks early. Your examiners need to be addressed though, preferably prior to submission so that you can adjust your thesis if necessary. Shame the external seems to have retired, do you have any potentials in mind? You must be very close to finishing now?

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I am close to finishing tbh; supv has 2nd full draft for last three weeks and I think we are meeting next week. Thesis is okay I think except for the discussion bit which I think is a bit thin and reads like I ran out of steam-which I did really! Assuming I get it back next week I should be able to do what's required so as to be able to submit at the end of August. That's what I going to tell him. I have Table of contents, title and abbreviations pages done already and all my references are up to date. I'm doing acknowledgements today!

Re: examiners - internals should be okay. Supv suggested sliding scale of who could do it and all of them would be okay really. External I am disappointed with but there are alternatives, a couple of which are known to my supv so really that should be okay.

Sneaks, looks like you and I submitting pretty much the same time!

Wow - I just tried that mytomatoes.com thing, and it's awesome. 800 words in 50 minutes, instead of my usual 12.5 words and two games of spider solitaire! :-)

I am a new my tomatoes.com convert 8-)

Heh, I do a version of mytomatoes myself at home with an egg timer, it really does force me to concentrate. Only works for me when I have a really specific job to do though, like writing a paper or something - otherwise stopping and starting just irritates me.

Anyway - hello everyone! I'm back, after a week away at summer school (a complete blast, and also very thought-provoking), two weeks on holiday in France (so nice!) and two days of lazy procrastination when I really should have been working. Hope everyone's work is going well - just read back on a few recent posts and it seems like people are making huge strides towards submissions - great stuff!

Feel super refreshed and relaxed but it may take me a while to get motivated, so I've decided to use the mytomatoes method today. I came back to an email from one of the organisations I'm studying, asking for major changes to my questionnaire, which is a bit of a nightmare as it's supposed to already be launched. But the relaxed post-holiday me is going to take this in my stride and not stress!

Goals for today:
1.) Look at the organisation's concerns and decide which can be addressed
2.) Look at making changes to questionnaire
3.) Do laundry and other housework!

Hmm, did I kill the thread yesterday? Oh well!

Goals for today:
1.) Finish reworking my questionnaire for organisation 1
2.) Confirm distribution of questionnaire for organisation 2
3.) Go to supervision meeting and write up notes afterwards

Morning all,

I have lots of work to do today, but hubs hasn't left for work yet so he is distracting me!

Goal 1- write about concept 2 for upgrade

didn't kill it batfink - I was carted off to see transformers 3, it was nice to have a break, but I only have 8 days until I need to post off my 1st draft, so need get cracking today.

I'm trying STILL to finish off this method section of this chapter. I've just put in another reason why I've foudn what I've found and its made a whole new load of work for me - but whenever I explain my results to me this explanation always comes up, so I have to put it in :-s