I'm also writing each chapter separately, but I have used the 'headings' option in word to make all headings compatible, so I can change them en masse when I get to the end - at the moment they are just the default settings. I have sort of started a master document, but the problem I find with this is that you have to set it up for every place you have saved your documents, so if you have told the computer to look for, say, your introduction document on your computer because that is where you are building your master document, you can't just put a copy of that master document on, for example, your memory stick as it appears unable to realise if you are using a memory stick it needs to look for that file on the memory stick, and says it can't find the path. This is a bit annoying, but no-one I have asked has been able to solve this one.

I have my references in endnote, but only as a sort of store. I've a word document with them all in, everything I have used is there. I've copies in several places, plus a hard copy or six (:$) and will upload that one into the final document.

The contents page is a good tool, but it took me a while to get it to do what I wanted, you could try it out with a dummy run and a dummy set of documents, figures etc. to make sure it works for you - before the deadline looms. Its not something to start looking at at the last minute!

you be miffed if you want to be, we've all been there, given in something that we thought was good, only to have it pulled apart. Throw those toys if you need to, but don't stop writing because of it. It is just a little hitch upon the way. A bit of 'that bit is good' would probably have changed your perspective a little, but what's done is done, it can't be undone, but you can rise above it . Every time I hand in something I fear the response, but so far it hasn't been too bad, my supervisors make lots of comments, most are positive, with ways to improve what I have written, some are a bit off the mark, but tend to show where I need more explanation to make the meaning clear to those not so immersed in the subject. (some comments suggest where things are in need of total rewriting of course :$). onward and upward I say, keep going, cast that particular paper aside if you feel like it, but don't stop.

My research also has material from very different places. What you probably need to do is get some clear idea of where you are going, that is a rough list of your chapter headings - if you have your proposal you should have an idea of what areas you need to include, you could, as a first attempt give each area you are looking at its own chapter, doesn't matter if you change it later. You also need to find out how your supervisor likes to work (a bit of this depends upon your subject area, mine, being education, hasn't really got a prescribed layout, yours may have one :$) we use quite a bit of e-mail contact, it suits us both, then we have meetings every so often, yours may want a more formal arrangement. We had a discussion about where to start, and I decided which chapters to start with, yours may want you to look at certain areas first. The first few months were spent on general reading too, and I think that is quite normal, but what I am doing at the moment is concentrating on two chapters, with excursions into others as stuff appears. I have created a file or two for each chapter and when I come across something I bung it in the appropriate file, sometimes I read it and make notes, sometimes I just put it in - that's mostly newspaper cuttings and the like. This means I'm collecting material for all chapters, but just writing the two in earnest. The others are not entirely neglected though I'm formulating their structure in my head and collecting material - I've filed it away like this so that I don't forget what I've done with some very interesting bit of info, it saves me losing or forgetting about it!

with references, I don't put any reference in my list until I use it, but as soon as I put it in I add it to my reference list straight away. This is an essential thing to do, not only does it prevent you having to have a massive reference entering session, it also means you don't forget to put it in. I have the list stored on several memory sticks and my main computer, and I also have it in endnote, but I'm not really a fan of this. However it does mean if you ever have to change the structure for a different system/publisher, its quite easy.

I also bought a copy of office at a discount - I got mine from Pugh, which was reccommended by someone on here some time ago and also by some universities. They need proof of student status, but have loads of other stuff - including endnote at student rates. i thought about using open office, but decided I would stick to something that I know would work in most places without a problem - such as when doing presentations etc., havinga non-functioning presentation is not good!

This may be of no use to you whatsoever :$ but have you looked at the kind of action research that is quite common education at the moment, - of course fine art covers a lot of fields so it may not (probably isn't) of direct relevance, but on the other hand maybe the stuff done in junior schools may be worth a quick glance and may spark off a few ideas concerning your contribution

this is a difficult situation, and one that needs thinking about carefully. When you say you had no meetings for 15 months, do you mean you had no guidance - or just you didn't have face-to -face contact with your supervisor? Some of us rely on e-mail rather than personal contact because that is easier, no contact at all suggests either they were ignoring you, which is something that your director of studies should have been told about, or you were not contacting them - sometimes you have to make the contact as they are busy people and they may forget that they haven't heard from you for a while! The chances of finding someone who knows a lot about all of your research is low, although they should have some inkling of your area, my supervisor is no expert in my specific area, but can still guide me when it comes to exploring different areas, so maybe they just wanted to make sure you were progressing before they went hunting for someone? I think maybe you need to try to talk to someone, your student representitive, or whoever deals with the admin side of research degree work at your university as starting point to find out if the report you submitted was as required, then you need to talk to your director of studies. They should be helping you to get through this stage, it does not reflect well on a university for students to fall by the wayside, so I think they would try to avoid this if they can. Is it the university who have said you have failed - or just these submissions by the supervisors? Could this be because you have not contacted these supervisors? Maybe you just need to resubmit an improved version? Find out what you need to do to get back on track, there will be a way through this I'm sure.

Which proposal are you thinking about? The first one where you are looking for a place - or the more detailed one once you have secured a place? My first one was more of an overview of what I wanted to do, with some ideas about the way I was going to do it. The next one was more detailed and one of the problems I found with that one was that they said 'only about 1500 words' and then wanted loads of details which pushed it up to getting on to 5000, and it had endnotes and an appendix! you should get some guidance from your handbook, if you have one, or fellow PhDers at your uni. This is another exercise that seems to vary from place to place. Mine wanted a bit about my main ideas for the research, something about the methodology and methods, and why I was taking that approach, the ethics section had to be fairly detailed (my advice for this is to look at the ethics section af a few universities, it will give you some good ideas) the aims, the research questions and why i thought it was worth doing. It didn't have a massive amount of literature review, altohugh I mentioned a few 'names' in the field, but that might depend upon your proposed area. you probably need to get something in and see what they say, the experience at this uni seems to be that it takes a couple of attempts at least for them to be happy with the proposal anyway.

I do sometimes wonder why you never hear from the orginal poster, but as others have said, if they get the answer, then they might not come back to the site, or not visit regularly enough (how can they not do that - its a great way to procrastinate - sorry, allow your brain time to process your latest idea so that you can write it down and amaze your supervisor :$) and it might just disappear into the depths of the list and be lost.

ruby, is that the one where they have a cloud crossing in front of the eye, and you think, oh, is that all they are going to do, that's not so bad - and then they come in with the slicing? - Incidentally when I worked in the labs, one of the instruction books said 'keep an eye on this machine'...so we did (how awful was that :$)

If they have suggested waiting a bit longer, but you don't want to do this, perhaps you could e-mail again. Presumably you now have some more stuff to show him, perhaps you have updated what you have already sent? If you have neither of these - and I expect you will have-, get something more done, if you are looking at journals for example, mention some articles you have read with your comments, send him a new chapter layout, tell him how you realise the bit you wrote about X is not as good as you would like, and offer a new alternative, anything to suggest that you are eager to get going but not implying that they are being lazy by not having looked at your work. you could mention that you see he is back on campus/ is around a bit more, and suggest a quick meeting, over coffee in the canteen or something maybe? somewhere that is non-threatening is probably best, and you could mention how you realise that this is a very busy time for him, beginning of the new academic year etc. and maybe suggest a couple of areas where you would appreciate his guidance, maybe give him a couple of alternatives that you have in mind. Keep it all low key, make sure you do not sound at all accusative, and be sympathetic to the heavy workload that probably comes with the beginning of term. Patience will be rewarded I'm sure. :-)

Mine is also for the thesis:-
1. get an idea of what is going into the chapter
2. get some post-its and write some headings covering the areas I think I should be including, stick on a board in some kind of order
3. get some books that looks like they might have something in, go to journal search engine and find (hopefully)some journals, print these out. -for some chapters documents will be the main source of information. make sure I put all of these in my references NOW
(at this stage I think things are going well :$)
4. put sub headings into chapter based on post-its, adding to these as I go along. Have yet to set up the final master document properly, but use the sub headings in preparation
5. Have a quick look through books and journals and find bits that look as though they might fit in chapters, write these on more post-its and stick on others so i have an idea what goes where. Read those books which look promising as major contributors, read documents etc. write some notes on these.
6. start writing using headings as a guide and delving into books etc for the quotes that match up with what I'm writing.
7. Try to get the whole chapter into some kind of shape before I start editing, fleshing it out etc.
8. print out a copy and read it, try not to wince too much at the grammar, spelling etc.
:-(, send for books that appear quite often in these books that are not in the library - I manage to get one really cheap from amazon that was nearly £50 new, that was a good day!
9. write new draft by moving bits around having renamed document to keep original.
repeat 8 and 9 until it looks reasonable adding more refs and bits as I go along
10. send to supervisor
11. correct using comments of supervisor etc. jiggle it around and then add proper intro and conclusion.
12. feel it is OK, but have to poke it every so often, just so I don't get too complacent about it and add bits when I find things in other places.
I guess there will be more revision before I'm finally happy with it, at the moment I feel that its never going to get there!

I think this must hapen quite a lot, but as long as you are not doing exactly the same thing, getting the same results, writing it up the same you should be OK, and you have data at least that's the impression I get. You just need a bit of originality when writing, for example although X has published Y about this, my approach looks at this aspect, which x has not covered, and/or which looks at y in a different way. Get hold of the article and check if it really is that close to your own before you do anything else, its probably not that similar :-)

It is quite difficult to offer advice as its obviously not quite the same in the UK, but I've often found that initial preceptions of this kind of situation are often the ones to go with. Therefore I would go with option B, but I would also check that they know what they are doing, For example, ask them what they know about any of the people you have chosen, and see if they can they find out what 'the word on the street' is about their approach or their particular likes and dislikes when it comes to looking at work presented to them. If they are doing their job, - and let's face it, someone who has enthusiasm for what you are doing is worth more than someone who is indifferent whatever their reputation is - then go with them. By the way, it might not be that the other people are better than you, it could be that this new person is considered the best for your studies, look upon it as a positive, not a negative! :-)

I think the idea is that the chapters should be of similar length so the whole thing reads well. So maybe you could divide the chapter you have into two? Perhaps one is more like an introduction? have you sorted out your overall structure of your thesis and decided what goes where? My thesis is going to have an introduction/lit review chapter but each chapter in the main body will have its own mini review. At least thats what I am aiming for at the moment!

the only people I know who have done this are lecturers who have a fair collection of publications to their name, and are just doing it to get the title because they need it for the next stepI suppose. The publications have to have some theme or other I think and you need about five. However the ones I know about are not in the sciences. I'm not sure how it works for others who are not in academia. Best thing would be to contact a couple of universities and see what they say.