Thanks guys. i've got it back. tried undo and everything and it cut off more sections. i hate Endnote! i've gone back to old school citing. on a deserved five minute break now.

@cata.. that must feel horrible! especially when you've had one of those rare creative moments...

i just got thro a paragraph and then pressed this option on Endnote and it disappeared. am soooooooooooooo mad! rewarding myself anyway and redoing it again. :-(

I thought it would be interesting if we all posted what we were doing right now. perhaps that would make me feel better about today's lack of progress... and am sure it would brighten someone else's day in one day or another.

so i'll go first:

am trying to get myself to work today, trying to cox myself with a reward after each paragraph i get through. my reward now is to come on and post one here. yay! one paragraph down!(up)

be careful.

i once had a private chat with the director of research about my supervisor (which she didn't respons to) and then shortly my director of research went on maternity leave and weeks on my supervisor followed suit on parental leave. turned out they were carrying on. be very careful before you chat to anyone about someone else that you know the relationship between these people!

sigh.. i've learned too much from my phd experience.

just stay away and be friendly to your second supervisor. act like you don't know about it. then the day he raises it.. say you have never sent such an email. that will be an indirect by very effective hit on your supervisor without causing you any harm.

if i were you, i would pop in happily into my second supervisors office to ask a question and act like i don't know about that email and hope he brings it up. if he does, i play my card. lol. i love drama.

good day.8-)

i would say present.

i once presented a rubbish paper which did not even flow, so i used slides and handed the rubbish draft out to the participants at an international conference. am now happily cutting and pasting paragraphs of that now 'published in a peer-reviewed journal' paper, which would not have got to that level had i not dared to present it into my thesis. just mention to them that the work is crap and you are presenting to get feedback to establish where the missing link is. if you mention this at the beginning, people will be very helpful. it's not always about performing. it's about learning from each other. it also shows you are a mature researcher. just say you want one last set of views before totally disregarding it. that shows them you actually know its crap and shows them that their views are important.

let us know what you decide.

all the best.

@Sue - that's my plan as well. to mention that as a way of convincing them of my credibility. :p

i like the idea of maps to shape your analysis.. my methodology is very 'unserious' particularly because in my field - law - it is enough to argue. you don't really need to justify method that much. i discuss it as i go along but i don't defend it at all.. i will probably critique it in the end and talk about generalisations here and there..

thanks. i'll do that during my next break.

the second case study is so hard. am trying to work smart instead of working hard.

currently am wading through previous drafts trying to come up with a final draft instead of reading again. a lot of cut and pasting and streamlining..

Sorry guys.. i've been away from the forum for some months. since i've come back and i've been hearing all about stars. I thought the stars thing was a joke.. but it seems i have some stars to give. How do i give stars?

nop. that's normal. they only get back to you after all reviewers have looked at it.

take it easy. you'll be fine.. 8-)

you're wasting valuable tears you'll need during writing up :-).

take it easy and 'grow up' .. grades only matter to little ones. at PhD level you have nothing to prove and with time you realise your latest grade is what matters - for you that's whether you pass your phd or not. not what happened at masters level.

you get a phd by perseverance, not by how bright you are. we are all intelligent, that's why we're phd students. but can we all persevere?

that's what you should be thinking about.

am doing exactly that with only 3 months to go as well. you can't plagiarise yourself. am planning to state that part of this thesis has been published in x. making it seem as tho i wrote the chapters first and then published. ;-)

rejections are usually upfront - the first time you hear back from them.

usually if you work on the corrections satisfactorily, your paper is not likely to be rejected.

Sue - am trying your method. i think that's what am trying to do. i keep revisiting your post to clarify what am doing in my mind. thanks! :-)