it turns out that my acknowledgement is half a page long and i have only one sentence on my supervisor saying - I would like to thank my supervisor for their encouragement and support - which I don't even believe! How did you acknowledge your supervisor's contribution in your thesis or how do you plan to? that might give me an idea of what to say.. maybe saying more will cause them to read it on time and thoroughly.

J.

Question 1 down - 3 to go!

things are actually going very well - am almost done with Ch.3. i discussed a few things with a lecturer who was really helpful and i feel better now.

the problem is am so 'panicked'. been on FB for the last hour! just thinking about how to do it all by the end of today. anyhow.. the best thing is to get on with it. then hopefully in the end i can finish and hand in and forget all about the horror of thesis writing.

am going to divide my time this way: 4 questions to answer - a question an hour. when am done with this, i will only have 1 question left to address and definitions and i can consider myself done! yipee!!!!!!! but until then.... we keep pressing on.

Been unwell for the past 4 days... just getting back to work today. Hope to be done in a week's time. Today I will finish working on supervisor's corrections in Ch.3.

Hi all...

Coming towards submission am thinking about 'what to do next?'

Publishing seems to be the way forward while I wait for the viva to keep me interested in my thesis and to help me remember my stuff. Other reasons I want to publish is to improve my CV. For a while i have been applying for academic jobs and getting none. I have decided am moving to industry anyway and want to try and get into consulting long-term. I will also probably return to teaching at a point or teach part-time.

I think I can get a decent number of publications from my thesis - at least 4 - or more if I did short pieces. The advantage of this would be I would have this impressive CV that may just be what I need to get a job. I wouldn't need to do too much work on the thesis to publish as journal articles.

My second option is to publish a book. The advantage is a wider readership but the disadvantage is that it would take too long to do and I have only 2 months free during which I can concentrate on just publishing. I can also publish a book later as a consolidation of publications or just a totally new book when I am more free maybe in a year or two's time.

I do not want to wait til i have forgotten the stuff and then find I have to remember it to write a publishable piece.

What would you do?

Do examiners tend to offer advise or help with publications? My supervisor has been quite the snob on this issue and so far I have done it alone. What if I have already submitted articles to publishers and I get this examiner with wonderful ideas on where to publish? My 'what ifs' always turn out to be false alarms. My examiners may be too busy for that and therefore I shouldn't wait for them to tell me what to do next.

Advice.

Mixed feelings about today...

The bad part is I have made some sad discoveries - that new guidelines on part of my research have been published prompting me to put a dating in my thesis but also adding to any work I may have to do if I want to publish. That has affected motivation a little knowing am revising outdated stuff. But with a week to go, I can't do much about that. My plan is to know the effect of the new guidelines by the time I have my viva. :-(

The good part is I have achieved much:

1) I have been able to proofread and format Ch.1 - therefore, including Ch.2, so far I have proofread about 80 pages of the thesis which is about 270 pages without the bibliography.

2) I made the amazing realisation that I did not need to do more work on the methodology as I have defended it quite well already! Yipee!!!!!!! :-)

3) I have started work on Ch.3 and addressed two of my supervisors corrections. I have also been able to get hold of a lecturer to advise on some of the corrections and therefore I will be working tonight (this time for real!) so that they have the questions that I need assistance with by tomorrow.

I would be so glad if I finished answering all these questions by Friday (which is tomorrow! i don't understand how this week ended!) and if by Monday I would finish correcting content and have the thesis content ready for submission. I will take a few extra days though to sort out my referencing and Bibliography.

I also feel the urgency to submit and get on with looking at this new guidelines and probably just update one of my chapters and make it the 'hottest' publication going round on the guidelines and in so doing turn this doom into a good thing! 8-)

I feel a little unwell - i can't believe that PMS won't spare me this month! :-( For this I will be on a cocktail of drugs because I cannot afford extra days off!

Leaving the library now. All the best everyone!

PyloPhD - I don't want to sound negative. I'd say stay single til you hand in.

the phd process is very stressful!!!!!!!!!! someone once advised me that if you start married stay married. it is not the time for a divorce! if you start single, stay single! it is not the time for major emotional changes in your life.

Despite being advised I have dated 3 (or 4 - don't know what to call one of them!) guys during my phd!!! the first ended because I couldn't cope with my work and a guy in my life. my thesis was going really badly at the time and i needed all the space i could in my life to sort it out. no. 2 was intimidated by the time i spent on my phd and demanded i spend a lot of time with him which i couldn't given i was at the peak of figuring out the argment of my thesis. eventually, he just faded away from my life. no.3 was also intimidated by my phd as was the case with no.4. however, no.4 turned out to be busier than myself - which i interpreted as being an excuse to break up - and wasn't giving me the support i needed during writing up ( i needed A LOT of support!). he said he couldn't meet my expectations! what i can say is... if you can, avoid relationships. i think a phd student who is writing up - which you both are - really needs a lot of support and understanding. in this case, you may both be drained and unable to support each other as bf/gf and therefore a friendship may work better.

one thing i have learnt is that a person is not really themselves whilst they are enrolled on a phd. they are under very high stress and unless the other person is willing to make a sacrifice and accept this person with their unusual levels of stress then the relationship won't work. needless to stay stress is not helpful in the early months of any relationship!

all the best and sorry to hear about your dad.

J.

======= Date Modified 25 Aug 2010 18:16:23 =======
wow, i feel so relieved! ch.2 is done and dusted. at least at present i feel that i can pass with it. i didn't manage to finish yesterday because i ended up doing everything else but my thesis after posting. my biggest hurdle remains my referencing and bibliography. but before i turn to it, i need to deal with supervisors corrections and format the thesis as i go along. formating a document on Ms Word is a whole course in itself!

Tips: 1) start formating early at least at the start of the last term latest to avoid a lot of stress in the revision phase. 2) finish all your references before handing in work to your supervisor. it will help a great deal in the end.


taking a break now. will be back later tonight. am hoping for a miraculous cruise through chapter 3 which has the remaining supervisors comments to be done in a day or so.

fingers crossed!

hi all.

today is going quite well and i might actually meet today's targets earlier than expected. the hardest part so far is 'losing the juicy bits of the work.' the parts which i consider good but which could earn me a whipping in the viva. those bits that do not add much value but make the text more exciting if one gets the joke. sigh.. the rule: less is more is the most painful lesson of revision phase.

Lesson: less is more.

At this point am preparing the text for my examiners not for myself so I have to let go of some good bits to which i have developed a personal attachment and prepare the most formal text i can. :-(

i suppose i can still include the private joke in my book later.8-)

Today has been a disaster expectations-wise and i've only managed to correct one bit of the work (which is not supervisor's corrections) but updating my theoretical framework. My supervisor had said it was ok, but i didn't feel good about it and was not happy facing a viva with it so I decided to improve it. it turns out am still improving it.

A reasonable goal would be I will finish it tomorrow morning (later today - 24) but that upsets my timetable:

Sun 15 -DONE.
Mon 16 – Read through Ch. 3 -7 to get picture of whole thesis
Tue 17- DONE.
Wed 18 – DONE
Thur 19 – DONE
Fri 20 – DONE
Sat 21 – Polish final draft of ch.2 incorporate previous ch.2 and finish references.
Sun 22 – Address remaining supervisors corrections
Mon 23 –Address remaining supervisors corrections
Tue 24- Address remaining supervisors corrections (including V.)
Wed 25 – Finish methodology referencing.
Thur 26- Proofread & tighten definitions in Ch.1 & 2
Fri 27- Proofread & finish referencing in Ch.3 &4
Sat 28 - Proofread & finish referencing in Ch.5&6
Sun 29- Proofread ch. 7 alongside ch.1 & read through preliminary pages & format.
Mon 30- DONE.

am four days late and i may have to start giving up some things or thinking of handing in a week later which is not ideal! my formal submission date is 30th and the aim was to finish by 1st to give my supervisor 2 weeks to read it and allow one week if i have to change anything. then submit on time. but it now looks like i will have to give up the luxury of the extra week to correct anything because referencing and bibliography is turning out to be work and before then I can focus on content! besides my supervisor requires that i hand in, in early sept - maybe Monday the 6th?

Anyhow, I will try and push for the first because it is the sensible thing to do. And keep that option open if i totally cannot meet it. After doing my supervisors corrections I will prioritise referencing which is stressing me the most!

i had planned to do my revision in four weeks. including the extra week that would be 5 weeks. therefore the 6 weeks they recommend is pretty reasonable in hind sight.

my aim after correcting content is to present it well so that form justifies content. i need all the help i can get to pass. first impressions included!

off to bed now. too tired to do more.

======= Date Modified 24 Aug 2010 00:01:27 =======
plus mine uses commas not full stops!

thanks Walmin. I'd looked at those and it looks like nothing I have got in my thesis.

Mine is: surname, initials, year, title, journal, page.

am beginning to feel a little stressed about this. I may modify the unimelb one to suit what am doing.

my department does not require that we follow any style, just that all along i thought i'd be using Oxford. that was until i googled it and got the shock of my life!

thanks anyway.

Hi all,

Could someone please send me a sample of oxford referencing. My referencing style was based on this but now I can't even find the original sample!

Thanks.

J.

I managed to get a good chunk of Ch.2 finished but took Sunday off because I was really tired and needed to refresh for the week.

Today I have a very ambitious timetable to catch up:

Sat 21 – Polish final draft of ch.2 incorporate previous ch.2 and finish references.
Sun 22 – Address remaining supervisors corrections
Mon 23 –Address remaining supervisors corrections

This is what I need to do to catch up.

So I will organise my time as follows:

12noon - 3pm: finish Ch.2 content and checking flow.

4pm -6pm: Finish Ch.2 references.

7pm -11pm: Address some of the remaining supervisors corrections in Ch.3.