Bit of a rant here

I sent more or less finished chapters to my two supervisors in September, and heard nothing. After an intervention by the prof in charge of the faculty, one supervisor managed to get some comments back on the chapters I sent him, by the end of November, and I have duly changed some bits, and explained why I haven't changed others . The other one finally said, in November, he would be looking at the chapters after the end of term. On Sunday this second supervisor asked me to send him the chapters... suggesting that in over two months they haven't even downloaded them or printed them off. The first super has arranged for the upgrade viva based on these chapters, which should have been done by November for the end of Jan. (Something which again appears to be a far more complicated that everyone else has had)

If this second supervisor asks for loads of changes, which is possible as they have a different angle on the whole thing due to their specialisation, how can I possibly get these done in time or argue against making the changes when I doubt if I will get it back before the second week in Jan, I work full time, I am going to have to be at work longer as I will be short staffed for the rest of the school year, and have a load of A level pracs to deal with, and of course I will need to get the revised versions to the others who will be at the viva?

I was going to phone up the postgrad secretary, but I'm not sure what that will do, I don't want to send an e-mail to the one in charge in case it gets passed on, but feel that they are not doing what I pay them for (the other prof made this comment too, so it isn't just me who thinks it.) This is the last bit they have to do to a timescale before the final thing, and I feel that it shouldn't be me doing all the pushing and there should be more support from their end. It is bad enough being part time and unable to be in uni when it is open, but its worse when they are not doing their bit. :-(

See if anyone you know at your uni has contacts at other unis who might be willing to fill in the questionnaire and/or recruit other students to do so

No turkey, everyone is veggie in the household. 'Sausage rolls' don't have real sausagemeat in them! When I cooked turkey for others I always cooked it on Christmas eve as someone told me once that there could be a loss of power on Christmas day when everyone else is trying to cook their turkey too so it would take longer to cook! It got a layer of mashed potato in the cavity, just about an cm or two, and then some quarters of orange, this created steam inside and together with bacon rashers on the outside, this resulted in juicy turkey.  (my sisters in law used to put theirs in overnight, as they thought this was necessary to kill any nasties, and ended up with something so dried up you could play football with it, but they thought that was how it should be). It cuts better cold, and once you have gravy on it, no-one can tell the difference. We are having mushrooms cooked in wine and winter spices in a choux pastry case, plus, as a tribute to Vic of Dibley Christmas special, as many different types of veg as you can fit on a plate.     :-):$

you can get round this a bit by putting your general assertion- for example 'many authors consider that under five education is essential [boyle,2003; Matthews, 2005; black,2010] whilst a few suggest this is unnecessary [peston,1998; gould,2000; mills,1995] and so on, this shows you know there is a lot of stuff out there, but you don't have to put quotes in. The lack of citing is annoying, some of the material I am using is quite old and often all you get is Mr so and so said xyz, no quote and no reference :-(

It isn't quite the same now the kids are older and therefore there is no santa, so I've stopped putting out stuff for Father Christmas and the Reindeer. However my middle daughter is getting a Hello kitty knitted toy- even though she is much too old to have it really - so I'm busy trying to finish that whilst doing some work. Pressies are all bought, as is all the food, and Christmas officially starts when I make the mince pies and sausage rolls whilst listening to the festival of nine lessons and carols on Christmas eve. With all the snow about its been a bit strange, and not very Christmassy really as people seem to hurry about so they can get home. I haven't fished out the decorations as that used to be my husband's job, but we have a few traditional things, like the games after dinner - those who cook take the dog, those who sat do the washing up! Try brussels sprouts in a leek and cheese sauce, a dish that my student daughter brought back from uni - they had a chef in their flat- it is really good! (mince)

first remember he is only a consultant, and therefore not that important :-), second, complain, in writing to the hospital, you have the brains to word this correctly, and will be championing all the other folk who have had the same bad treatment, but cannot put into words what needs to be said, or who are too much in awe to question his actions. Don't forget to mention that you have it on good authority that this is not the first complaint, and ask what action will be taken. They have to take notice of complaints. Follow the letter up if nothing has been forthcoming in a week, and if you have started low in the chain of admin command, go higher and cc in the first point of contact, also tell the GP what the consultant said about him, and ask for a referral to someone else. Do make sure you do something positive, for yourself and all the others who get treated in this way by people who think their status lets them get away with things, he has a boss who needs to sort him out, you are the one to poke that boss into action - go for it!

Best not to do anything at all to your work, you will only be discarding it later. You may do a little light sorting of the lit journals, if you feel up to it, otherwise give in and  go and watch the TV or something and indulge in your favourite snackette. You may find that your brain will be working away on its own and when you are better, you will have loads of ideas just waiting to go. that is much better than being confronted with pages of stuff which make no real sense and which you will have to rewrite anyway. You will feel much better in a day or so, and will probably get over it sooner than if you try to battle on.

my supervisor put the whole of his methodology in an appendix in order to meet the word count - on the other hand one of the others here had a 2 volume thesis, but I think it was when there was no word linit. I've put part of the discussion of my methodology in an appendix, in order to keep the word count within reason, super wanted an elaboration, but I had no words left for that section. there is also a lot more to go inthe appendix and I think it could easily reach the same word count as the rest of it.

If you have followed the method to the letter - and it might be worthwhile re-reading it all and checking this is so, then you have found what anyone else following the method will find, which will not go down well with any journal as they would expect that the given method would work, so the fact that you have picked this up is important, not a failure. If you can set up a second run now, I would do so, just to check you are doing things correctly and to have a second set of results sooner than if you wait for completion. Write out what you have to do yourself, then you can see if you have missed anything, and if it still doesn't work then you have perhaps discovered an error in the script.

I would like 2, but actually I have no time to read anything that isn't connected with my work at the moment. 1, would be nice, but like most people I have to nibble when I'm working, so would not be good for the waistline :$. 3 could be interesting, but possibly highly embarrassing, likewise 4.

What I would really like is a 'good gift' or similar for one of the charities I support. This year at work I have persuaded my team to join with me and we are going to get a gift or two from the charity books, possibly one to do with providing clean water, or a starter pack for a former homeless person getting their own flat, and a goat/chicken/bee or two from Farm Africa instead of buying the usual box of something.

If I were you, if things are really complicated I would do them on another sheet, get them right and then cut and paste them in, this means if they send everything else haywire you can have another go. Also make sure you save everything before embarking on the insertion of equations, then if everything goes wrong you can abandon it and still have the rest of the document intact. It might help to put them in a box, this doesn't need to appear as a box when you have it right, just right click and select no line, no-one will know what you have done then!

I think perhaps it might be a good idea to take a little bit of time out from writing and get your plan for the thesis sorted out. You need a framework for the whole thing, and a breakdown for each chapter. Start with the whole thing, you will know what you want to say, what methods you used, and what your results are if you have completed a survey, so get some paper, either a big bit for everything or one sheet per chapter, and write these down, this is your basic but pliable structure. In my case I have seven chapters at the moment. You know how many words you have available, so divide the words between the chapters, you now know how many words you have for each one, this may look like a lot, but it isn't! You have some writing already, so either print it out and attach it to the relevant chapter heading, or put it in a separate file, or  you may want to just put the title on the appropriate chapter list. Organise what you have so far, then look for the gaps, and/or use mind mapping or something similar to work out exactly what else you need for each chapter. Some might be easier to start with than others, your methodology for example, as you know what you did and why you did it. Start with an introduction that tells the reader what you are going to tell them in the chapter, tell them, then summarise what you have told them, in my case I have also put in a couple of mini summaries as I have gone along. Use the last bit of one chapter to lead onto the next. It took me ages to get the provisional chapter headings worked out, and I used several books, Clough and Nutbrown and Hart especially to help me sort out where I was going - which turns out to be somewhere different to the direction I was expecting.

You can do this, just don't panic, be logical in your approach to the framework and even if you don't get a chapter written in a suitably polished state, you will get one that will provide a basis for discussion with your supervisor. Good Luck

Well I really don't care, but then they won't care that I don't care will they? - It was quite interesting to see the reaction of certain other royals though, and the choice of ring what was that really about... I am looking forward to a day off though - if we get one, as I could do with the time to get on with my thesis. It will bring all the toadies out of the woodwork won't it, and I wonder who will suddenly become a royalist for the duration?

how about 'there is an opportunity for' or' X suggest that y might be a fruitful line of further enquiry' or  'it might be advantageous to consider further work in A to enhance/develop support these findings by expanding this  particular concept' ...or - gimmie the money and I will continue the research further myself :-):$

I don't think on the whole standards are slipping, I think you will find most people on here would not unknowingly allow spelling mistakes and other things through, and I would guess that goes for most people. You don't embark on this process and think, 'I'll just throw a few things together, that will do' it is a long, hard path. The trouble is you get so familiar with your own work that it is easy to miss these things. True, the examiners could/should have picked them up, but they didn't, that's human fallibility maybe, together with a bit of luck on the part of the student. You only have to pick up books, or journals to find mistakes that should have been spotted, so a thesis is unlikely to be immune. I think standards are as good as they have ever been, a bit of who knows who is involved sometimes, but all thesis are a result of some solid graft by the writer. Thing is though, only the best ones will probably get a book etc. out of it, same as before.

Personally I don't think I could go down the publication route as my thesis is way outside the normal education area, and is unlikely to get anywhere with education journals, it will need careful airing in other places first, and it is something I'm not considering until I finish the PhD in case anyone else pinches it! :$