Tractorgirl, how was your weekend?

eeek it's 1st of september today! but we still have 3 whole weeks to get it all done.

so you really have to submit by 30th of september? what will happen if you don't? i know for me, my uni will terminate my registration if i dont submit a thesis (and hence i will no longer be elligible to submit a thesis and fail by default).

what did the uni tell you ?

What are your plans for this week? do you know when you will be getting your feedback from your sup ?

hope you're okay. we still got plenty of time, we can do this!

i read that we shouldnt worry about making it perfect, because the examiners will always spot errors, so just gotta make it as good enough as possible and submit it. i wish i could get an extention though!!

Hi everyone!

Armendaf, sounds like you're doing really well, well done on working on the sunday!

Ruby, thats brilliant you sent it off, well done you, for meeting your deadline, and dont worry about it being incompletel now you can work on it further.

Celesmai, wow few weeks to go! good luck! I really admire you, being pregnant and working on your phd. I hope everything goes well for you, and thats great you taking time off from your phd to spend time with the baby.

Armendaf - wow you have to prepare lectures? ontop of the phd stuff.
that's great you dont want to stop, i like your momentum !

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my update: well i finished all my reading, finally, there are probably more papers i could read, but I have to stop now and start writing.

I read/scanned through about 16 papers yesterday! How much has gone in my teeny tiny brain i cannot tell you lol

i was falling asleep at around 1.30am, took about 5 papers with me to bed. and then i slept for a few hours and woke up around 5am and read until 6am and finished them before going to sleep again, and woke up at 11am.

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so far have not done anything for my thesis, i had to send some data and stuff to my 2nd sup regarding my 2nd paper.

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but now my horizon is clear and i can start writing.

in order to stop me freezing up, i have told myself to just write and concentrate on writing a zero draft today, "mad man" stage.

so in that respect, i don't mind.

my plan is to write until 6.30pm
then go for a bike ride, then have dinner, and then tonight,after i've relaxed abit after dinner, work on it abit more, if i dont feel up to it, then maybe work on the results section and transfer that to my computer.

okay i have 4 hours to get some writing done!

good luck everyone!

ps i've had my long messages deleted many times, so now i write my message in notepad and copy paste it.

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Hi everyone!
a late start for me, woke up at 12pm, oooops, went to sleep around 3am, even took 3 papers with me to bed!
in total did about 5 hours of productive time- reading.
and read/scanned 8 papers.
i think in my dreams i was trying to think of connections lol
i heard that the last thing you do before you go to bed, tends to get stored in long term or something.
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anyways.. still got a hefty amount of papers to get through, about 15, but most of them, i will only need small sections of info. i can't afford to print them all out, so will just copy paste the relevant bits into word document.
then after that, i just have to read/scan a few more papers, so then i definately will be done with the reading, and can start putting together a discussion.

i know i keep saying everyday "today is the last day of reading" but today is definately going to be the last day of
reading!
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Ruby well done, on your progress, 5000 words is a very good amount of word for a chapter.
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Armendaf, hope you got a good nights rest, and exactly what else can we do, just gotta keep at it, everyday.
Although i do have fantasies throughout the day, of just chucking it all in, and refusing to submit my thesis or finishing it on time, and just failing by default.
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Mira thank you so much for the kind message, you're so very welcome, and glad we could help! Nice to see your motivation for the report coming back to you! and wow going to India for field work, that is exciting.
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lol Ruby, love your analogy, yah it's like a cult.
and Thanks, yeh I slept abit too much! was so tired, couldnt get up, but glad i am well rested as a tired brain just makes things harder. better to sleep abit more than be half awake.
yeh the thundering woke me up, was cool , i love thunder and lightening hehe.
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Well good luck everyone! it's so nice that the weather has cooled, yesterday was soo humid and uncomfortable. it's much cooler today in my study room which is nice.
i am going to do some reading and then take a lunch break..

immediate aim:
read/scan through 15 papers.

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logging in - its 20.36. well i've done nothing since my last login. *hangs head in shame*.

my lunch break turned into a whole day break! i ended up taking a nap, i felt tired. and then didn't want to face the mountain of papers i have accumulated - that were waiting for me to read. but i have dragged myself back to my desk and going to plough through all the papers tonight. i only have today left to finish all the reading.

i am going to work late to make up for my unproductivity today. no excuse, i've just been lazy and just couldnt face all the papers i have to read and understand. it's a new subject to me, so i have a hard time understanding it. my sups threw in the project at the very end of my phd, because of "political" reasons, but trying to understand this topic without being taught anything, is taking some time, more than i anticipated.

i hope to get in about 5 hours of productive time , i will work until 2am.

stars *timer* I will report back after every hour to confirm that i am sitting at my desk reading papers.

i just need to get all the reading done today, so i can write the discussion section tommorow.

======= Date Modified 30 Aug 2008 13:49:25 =======
Good luck Armendaf! wow that's dedication reading a paper over breakfast. good luck with the section!

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it's 13.45, and my original plan of just making myself work for 15 minutes turned into 2 hours.

from my last login - in the past two hours, i have trawled through the internet and pubmed looking for articles on cancer stem cells, which will form quite a big foundation to my discussion. got loads of more papers to help me understand the theory, concepts and get a good understanding of it.

next aim will now be to read through all the papers and highlight good bits; but taking a lunch break now, because i am hungry:p

Hello everyone! especially Ruby and Armendaf! glad you guys are working this weekend, don't feel so alone!
it's a beautiful day, bright blue sky, i have a nice view from my study room :-)
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Armendaf - well done on getting through a couple of papers before bedtime, and good you had abit of down time in the evening, we all need to rest.
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Ruby, good luck with your sections, sounds like you've got a great plan! and happy i am not the only one that gets bored. and thanks for your message :-)
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well my aims for today are, finish off researching relevant articles/subjects for my discussion, read all the papers. i am only giving myself one more day, and then tommorow i am going to sit down and write a zero draft of the discussion. i wish i had more time, but like Ruby said, unfortunately we don't have unlimited time, so just gotta do the best in the time allowed.
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my aims reading loads of papers!

will come back periodically to update on my progress. i might just do about 15 minutes to get the ball rolling today, and then have lunch.

good luck everyone!!

Hey Mira, how are you feeling?

Tractorgirl, have a fab weekend!

TG, you deserve to take the weekend off! you worked so hard, you got all your chapters done. so that's a good idea to just do bits and bobs if you find the time. i hope you have a good weekend :-)

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well folks, i am calling it a night. i have no more will to read anymore papers! there still loads more papers i need to find and read. but today, in total i have read through 13 papers.

i am giving myself one more day (sat) to read as much of the literture i can. and then write my discussion on sunday.
abit behind schedule. but writing this discussion from scrath, i need to do alot of careful planning and reading and make sure i have all the background information and understand it.

night night - see you all tommorow! i can't believe this week has gone by so fast!

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Thanks Rubyw:-)

4-5 hours is excellent! well done.

yep get a good nights rest, our minds tend to wind down in the evening, time to relax and unwind and start again bright and shiny tommorow.

"periodical relaxation - relaxation precedes perfect concentration and mental freedom"

i am like you, i like working on paper on my chapters, find it so much easier.
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okay my update from last time which was at 18.20 . read 2 more papers, in total of 1 hour.

i am getting bored now..

i have so many more papers to read and get through and then i come across even more within the papers i am reading, it's never ending.. :$

feeling tired now.

so far today i have done: 4 hours and 50minutes of "productive time" of reading.


okay taking a 15minute break ..

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Good idea about getting refuelled Armendaf! hope you have a nice dinner and get some time to unwind before writing again.

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I have a question everyone. When you come across information in a review article, but they have cited a bunch of other articles, how do you cite the information? is it okay to just reference the review article?

or do i really have to say Smith 1999 , Bob 2000, John et al 2006 , as reviewed in Davis 2008. and then i just put Davis in my reference endnote, or would i have to put all the other ones, but i havent read those. and i know you're meant to read every single reference, and cite the original= but sometimes thats just not practical.

okay just looked through my handy book of tips and notes, that i've collected over the months.

and i found this bit of advice ages ago

"what should you do if you want to use information by writer X that you have found quoted or paraphrased in writer Y.

Find the original paper and read it. you cannot attribute the information to Honda, as that writer was not the person who did the research, and you cannot attribute it to Smith (unless you have read Smith's study). instead you write:

Previous research supports this argument, since it has been found that (Smith 1990, cited in Honda 1993).

now my question, would i then have to put include the Smith reference in my bibilography list?

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okay i found this on the net:

"
Secondary referencing, or citing authors whose original work you have not readA secondary reference is used in cases where you have not read the original source, only what another author has written about it. In Harvard you could say:
The work of Colin Smith (see Gibbs and Carroll 1978, p.28) is very interesting because…
Then, in the references at the end of your work, you would give the full details of Gibbs and Carroll but not Colin Smith because you have not read the article and your readers can find reference to it in Gibbs and Carroll. The rule of thumb is: cite the piece of work which you have actually read."

http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/insrv/educationandtraining/guides/citingreferences/faqs/faq.html#faq31

and

"Citing of Secondary Sources
If you wish to make reference to articles which you have not read, you should indicate the sources form which you learned of them, e.g.,
Mathies reported in 1978 (cited in Sadava, 1968a) that bearded men are a hazard in cell biology laboratories.

okay i think i have answered my own question, lol

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Mira it might help, if you tell us, what the report is about, (general stuff, you can even say X and Y if you like)...

how much you have done, and how much is left and what you need to do to finish it, and what is your absolute end deadline for this report?