Hi!

I am new here, I am also aiming to submit in one or two month time.I have been following this thread, everyone here is so supportive. When I was down and felt so alone,reading your posts often made me feel better by knowing that there is hope and I am not doing this alone.

I handed the first completed draft to supervisors early August. Have done revisions for Introduction, conclusion and one chapter. Still have 5 chapters to revise.I try to stay positive but I am scare of the amount of work ahead. I am so frustrated how come I spent so much time on this project, writing up alone took me 1.5 year, but there are still so much to revise and restructure. It seems a never ending task. I was aiming to submit by end of September but now doubt if this is a realistic deadline.

Sorry for the negative post, I am feeling a little bit down today (weather is not helping). Hope you guys are having a better day than me.

Squaredot, I hope your mood picks up but the knowledge you've just earned your first star may help ;-)

Just keep remembering, you're not alone...and you can do it.

Thank you, Delta :-)

Hey squaredot. You're in exactly the same position as me.

I'm re-drafting the lit review today. I have another 5 chapters to re-draft and a discussion to write before the end of sep when I want to submit.

I'm just taking each day at a time and trying to get as much done as possible

Batfink, glad you're feeling better and I hope doctor's appt went ok. Get well soon! I'm impressed you keep pushing yourself even when you're poorly as I'm completely rubbish at working when I'm sick but thankfully it doesn't happen very often.

Hi, Squaredot! I'm sorry things are not going well your end. To be honest, I found this forum through googling something like 'struggling with thesis' and I too found comfort in knowing that I wasn't alone. I guess no one ever prepared me for the amount of work I'd need to put into, the stresses, etc so it was nice to find out that others feel that way too. Not sure what others around here think (other opinions are welcome! I haven't been around for that long...) but it seems to me that most of the difficulties that we believe only happen(ed) to us, happened to others too so it all becomes part of the process of the PhD.

I think feeling overwhelmed is completely normal at times as it is hard work and there is a lot of it. I have those times too - even had a little cry last night - but then I remembered what one of my sups said. I mentioned to him that I was feeling quite stressed, overwhelmed etc and his response was 'I'd be concerned if you weren't'. He is really lovely and he didn't say that in a nasty way at all, he was just letting me know that it's completely normal and, indirectly, that I'd be ok too.

You don't say much about what other things you need to do on top of revisions and although it sounds like it's a lot, I wouldn't say it's impossible to do it by the end of the month. If you think about it, you've done 3 out of 8 so that's almost half! Is the 30th of Sept your absolute last day you can submit? Or is there any leeway?

Delta, what's the deal with the stars? Just noticed I have one too...

On a separate note, goalswise, I'm not doing too bad today. I've learned that I really underestimated how much work one of my chapters needs but I've drawn a little plan of action. Trying to be more positive. Done goals 1 and 2, off to 4 I think, will leave the dreaded 3 for last...

Hope you all have a productive afternoon/eve!

Thanks Skig. It was tests at the doctor's today, and I have to go again tomorrow for more tests, and then back next week for the results - I just hope I don't feel like this the whole time! (I have my second year viva this Friday, that'll be fun in this state...) Oh well, I am making some progress on the work, at least, even if it's painfully slow.

And Squaredot - welcome to the thread, and I echo what other people have said. I'm not at final write-up stage yet but from all the accounts I've read on here it sounds like your experience is pretty normal. Doesn't make it easier to go through really, but I hope there's some comfort in knowing it's all part of the process! Good luck with it all.

Oh, and stars - people who start threads can vote people who post on their thread as a helpful poster. I think you get your first star the first time someone votes for you, but after that they take progressively more votes for each star. I've been stuck on three for ages now!

I'm glad things are moving forward with your work and I'll keep my fingers crossed for you next week. And thanks for explaining about the stars, I didn't know about them so I had to go back to my posts to thank a few people, well, only one post really ;-)

======= Date Modified 06 Sep 2011 15:51:18 =======
Thanks, everyone for the kind replies. I haven’t been able to make any progress today and have just gone and had a nap, hoping I would feel refresh after a break. But there was no escape, I dreamt about discussing the thesis with my friends and telling them I really want to get this thesis submitted and be free this Christmas :-(

An overview of the stage I am in:
Introduction and conclusion: revised.
Literature reviews and methodology: Supervisors haven’t given feedbacks on these two chapters but said there shouldn’t be too much to do on these two.
Chapter 3: revised on first draft and submitted to supervisors. Have a meeting this week to discuss this chapter, but supervisor already told me there is more works needed to done on the revised version.
Chapter 4-6: In the process of revising, need to (1) make connections with other chapters. For example, applying theoretical framework from LR and statistical evidences to these chapters (2) reconstruct these 3 chapters to make the main themes flow better (3) each chapter has a couple of points to be clarified further, footnote or sections adding needed (4) Reference and data source information (5) polish the English: as you probably have already guessed, English is not my first language. So there are tones of grammar mistakes or inaccurate words needed to be corrected. I will have the final version professionally proofread but not on these drafts, the cost is too high.
Also I haven’t done abstract, formatting, bibliography, table list …….

Deadline:
End of September is not an absolute deadline but I really want to get this out of the way and move on with my life. I can’t believe I've been doing this single task for 7 years and still feel so far away from completing. I think about the thesis all the time and dream about it often too.

Thanks again for the warm welcome and being patient with my English. I will try and get focus now. My goal for the remaining afternoon: re-draft 15 pages of Chapter 4.

I'd suggest giving it to someone else for the grammar, its a job you could get someone else to do relatively easily and takes the pressure off you.

What I have to do for end of sep.

- complete re-draft of lit review (will probably take another 2 days)
- re-focus methods chapter and add a lot of new info in (i.e. go off and research areas and add them in).
- change entire study 1 i.e. move info out of intro, change method and re-structure results and conclusion with different arguments
- change study 2 results section (qualitative so will take some time)
- divide study 3 into study 3a and study 3b, write a new 'overall discussion' section
- write a discussion chapter

Phew!

oh plus grammar and referencing whcih will be a complete nightmare, currently trying to outsource them.

I agree with Sneaks, pass the grammar job on to someone else! Proofreaders will charge according to deadlines so if you give them 3 weeks, they'll charge you less if that helps ;-) I could recommend someone to you but I'm not sure that's allowed?? Well you can pm me if you'd like their details? Alternatively, could you ask a friend or colleague??

As we're all sharing what's left to do, here's my list:
1) Final look on my lit review
2) Finish editing one chapter - major rejig required - hopefully will be done by Sunday
3) Finish analysis, write results and discussion - no idea how long this will take
4) Finish editing another chapter - hopefully done in about 3 days
5) Write another chapter from scratch
6) Do appendices eek
7) Organise it all, format it, etc
8) Referencing. I don't use Endnote or any other software but do have the wonderful habit of adding refs as I go along so many will be there already, but I always miss a few so there will be a mad hunt for these

I probably have more but I haven't found out about them yet lol

I'd like to add points 6-8 to my list too haha. I haven't formatted it and HATE word :-s

RE proofreading, I'd get a first year PhD to do it and palm it off as 'understanding the process of thesis writing' or 'how to structure a thesis' which will be useful in future years for them and therefore they should do it for free :p

======= Date Modified 06 Sep 2011 16:41:10 =======
I on the other hand HAVE proofread my thesis only for my supervisor to completely req a complete restructure of the entire 2nd half. I suspect, nay know :-s that he got me to proofread it to give me something to do, like what you would get a small child to do if you were busy! "Go draw Mummy a nice picture while I paint this room..." What a complete waste of time:-(. I have checked my references however and that was a useful exercise; it took quite a while people...

Left for me is to thread a better narrative through chapters 6,7, 8, 9 and 10 and re-proofread those chapters as well :-( I feel ill:-(

proofreading is now outsourced to mum who was a secretary or something back in the day and learnt 'proper grammar' back in the 50s so understands verbs and stuff :p

Referencing is outsourced to hubs :-) just have to bug him to do it!

Oh, Sneaks, lucky you!

Ok, I'll add - 9) Proofread the work - to my list. I knew there would be more things to add to it!

I know I suggested getting someone else to proofread your work but only if you trust them to do a good job!! I'm not sure I'd trust someone else to do mine, either I do it or I'd get a professional (I had a few too many bad experiences in the past).

@Ady, do you mean you proofread it yourself or got someone to do it for you?

@Skig, I did it myself; I actually have a certificate in proofreading:$