Offer them a brief report on your findings?

OK so you admit that you haven't been as focussed as you might have been recently but you should not be in this situation. Don't you have annual reviews with an independent person who looks at what progress you have made and what supervisors say. It really shouldn't have got so far down the line before he raised his concerns but it does sound like he is basing his opinion on what the editors have said. I would think that you have gorunds for complaint about the quality of supervison (after all he must have know what your study size was / what your experiments were etc) but I guess that is a tricky route to go down. Maybe you could contact NUS for advice or go and see someone else in the dpartment or another contact. I'm not convinced that people in industry are always able to judge what is or is not enough for a Phd.

If you want to work as an accountant then the professional qualifications are what matters -I'm afraid your master's won't count for much other than possibly giving you some exemption form some of the early stages. You need to decide which of the accuntanty qualificatiosn you want as they are not all the same but usually an employer (which should pay for your classes and exams as well as give you some study leave) will generally decide - if you want to go into practice then ICAEW/ACA (Chartered Accountant) or the Scottish or Irish equivalent is what the top firms (and most of the next tiers) will go for. If you want to go into industry the ACMA (Chartered Management Accountant - CIMA) will be the preferred option. ACCA is generally a mix of the two and often taken by people at small firms. CIPFA is taken by people who train in the public sector.
You need to do some research on the various options. I worked in industry and did ACMA

I am so bad with paperwork that I now scan and save anything remotely important :-)

Hi There
I think we all go through something similar.  I am only 6 months in to a part-time PhD and have just submitted my proposal. I went through so many tears though that I was ready to quit - the feedback I had from my DoS was brutal and unhelpful (eg "Yuk" "Get rid" "improve").  I figured if I couldn't write a proposal how on earth could I do the thesis. But I got there.  I remembered that the worst mark I got for my MSc was my research proposal so I decided I just had to do somethign that was good enough. My supervisors have been pretty much hands off as well which from my perspective is not great - as I work full time in a different university if I don't have deadlines the PhD always gets pushed to one side in favour or lecture preparation or marking.

Hang in there - we are all here to support each other. Don't make a rash decision about quitting - if you still feel you want to quit then do it in a positive way.

I started in December (part-time) and haven't even started my lit review.  I've completed my research proposal and have presented a paper at an international conference and so can demonstrate I am engaging with the literature but apart from some vague section headings have nothing to show for it.

Have you tried inter library loans which will get pretty much anything (excpet conference papers) from the British Library - most unis subsidise them for students and my uni gives PhD students vouchers to get them for free.

When I did my Msc I got books going back to the 1950s and articles from the 1970s. It's a pretty efficient especially with articles which they send direct to you; books have to be collected from you own library.

Not sure those of you stuck in labs doing experiments want to hear this.  Five weeks combined holiday and fieldwork (well for me - husband and children it's just a holiday) flying to Denver and then taking in National parks (incl Yellowstone and Grand Canyon) for research, Las Vegas, Route 66, Santa Fe. Mixture of camping in national parks, posh hotel in Vegas (got a very cheap deal) and motels everywhere else (with all of us in one room).  Sometimes I am very glad that my subject is tourism!

I'm also considered a harsh marker (I think it is becuase I did 16 years in industry employing graduates and I expect that someone who got a 2.2 would be able to string a coherent sentence together, be able to proof read and would be able to be able to marshall a convincing argument - apparently though I have unrealistic expectations).

There are too many people who "don't want to fail anyone" which is leading to (and I'm sure I will get verbally shot for saying this) a devaluation in degrees.

I'd echo KBs comments about a structure - if you can get your supervisors to agree that then you can break each section down further until you have a very detailed plan which you can then just break into chunks.  I'm in a similar position - I have to write lit review but am struggling to get started so I have started a detailed plan (including references so when I come to write it I can remember what I was going to add).

I would also speak to your supervisor and be honest about struggling _ I know when I have undergrad dissertation students I would much rather they came to me and said they were struggling rather than wait for the next meeting when they produce nothing. They might get a bit of a rant but then we will sit down together and come up with a plan to get them back on track.  Is there anyone else you could sit down with to come up with the plan. When I was doing my proposal I got stuck and couldn't see what I needed to do but a colleague was really helpful even though she knew little of the topic (and in some cases that is better).

I love the idea of good work stickers - am def goign to get some of those.

At the university where I work they are concerned about the grade imbalance (too many senior lecturers) and so are offering them redundancy which they will back fill with post-docs.

At the university where I work they are concerned about the grade imbalance (too many senior lecturers) and so are offering them redundancy which they will back fill with post-docs.

OMG he sounds like my No 1 supervisor - I'm at v early stage so only had research proposal approved but the first draft of that came back with comments like "Yuk" "get rid" "don't like" "change this" "improve" with little or no guidance eon how it needed improving or what he didn't like.  One of my colleagues at work (different uni) said he seems really picky but that it will stand me in good stead for later on. I think there is an element in some supervisors in points scoring and finding fault (to justify their existence) and if they can't criticise your methodology or findings they pick holes in your writing.  Do you have a second supervisor you could seek advice from?

Well I'm not so great on the relationship advice front but here is my two penn'orth since no one else is helping you. I would try to be cool (I KNOW that is easier said than done) but backing off a bit might make him see what he is missing. If you are in his town then drop him a casual text about meeting up but keep it casual. I'm was never good at this but they do say "treat 'em mean to keep 'em keen"
Keep us posted!:-)