great advice Armendaf!!
and i totally sympathesise and understand about the whole attidude some sups have, been there myself!

that is excellent advice though , about not finishing it but making sure you get it in on time. sometimes that can actually push you to actually finish it, because you dont want to hand in an incomplete report when you know you just need a few more hours to get it to a satisfactory level.

wow working until midnight, that's really good.

i've glued myself to the chair, and wont get up until 9.30pm. want to get through as many papers as i can in the next hour.

and Mira, please don't give up on the report, screw your supervisor and what he thinks!! (i am so going to get censored by the admin hehe).

seriously, do the report for you and for us! just so that you are keeping us company, we're all in the same boat, and we just gotta keep studying, no matter how much we get done, every little bit counts every day!

so organise what you want to do, put up the aims, and do it bit by bit, and tell us what you have achieved. we're rooting for you!!!

i know you can do this report!! (up) you just have to push through the psychological pain barrier, thats the only thing that's in your way. you're intellectually able to write the report, just those daemons in your head are stopping you, so gotta push them out.

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Hey Mira! nice to hear from you :-) yes, totally agree with you, the constant updates is a brilliant idea :-) and is REALLY working!! a gold star to Armendaf! i'd give you one, if i could!

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In reply to your questions, its a pleasure to answer them :-)

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First of all, how awful for your supervisor to say that!! :-s that is so unfair and uncalled for! i mean honestly how does he think that is going to help with motivation! really dont understand that, positive enouragement gets the job done, critisism and comments such as that, do not ever help!

I would feel annoyed and upset too if i were you, i dont blame you for feeling how you feel, if i were you i would feel downtrodden.

oh thats tough having to do marking work ontop of your thesis.

the only thing i can advise is, for you to concentrate on a certain aspect of your thesis, whether its reading papers, or making notes. when you concentrate on something, you're far less to dwell on what is worrying you. my supervisors had the exact same attidude, constant negative comments thrown at me, it really blew my confidence, but after taking a little break, had to pick myself up, and just concentrate on one thing, and tell myself, i'll prove them wrong! not do it for THEM, but i will do it for ME. and realise, i do enjoy reading and studying about my phd thesis, and whether i fail or pass, as long as i gave it my best shot, i can look back and not feel guilty.

so my advice, do it for YOU!

i know for me, if i've clocked in a decent amount of productive time, or have accomplished a specific aim. i enjoy a nice reward, of watching a dvd, feeling "yah i did study today!"
now your question how i developed structure for my chapters.

my phd is science based.

so i had 4 major experiments. each experiment results would be explained by a chapter.

i have my introduction chapter 1: background information , for people to get the basic knowledge.
chapter 2: methods that i used

chapter 3-6 results chapters, within each chapter, i have a small introduction chapter, results section and discussion.

i first organised all my results, and made a zero draft. which basically means just getting everything down messily, not worrying about order, grammer, or whether its even correct. just get my mad scriblings down.
then the next stage would be to go through the zero draft, and highlight the important bits, and start to put it in subsections, and then just slowly keep building up from there.

check out this website. it talks about the 4 stages of writing. hope it helps.
https://webspace.utexas.edu/cherwitz/www/ie/b_flowers.html

not sure if i answered your question.

maybe if you tell me a little bit about your phd subject and chapters you're thinking of writing and what you want to say within each chapter.


but please do check out the website i just showed you, it really helped me! (thanks to Olivia for bringing this to our attention(up))

hello folks ! (btw i am so loving this constant update throughout the day, its the ONLY ONLY thing that is getting me through the massive amount of papers i have to read and get through the day! knowing i need to give an update regularly so thanks Armendaf!).

just came back from the garden. read those 3 papers, in 46 minutes. (yes i am sad and i time myself lol its the only thing that gets me motivated).

i am just going to take a little ickle break and then get back to reading. just going to watch a dvd for about 15mins.

How are things coming along Armendaf? *hands Armendaf a tall glass of ice cold lemonade*

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Armendaf,you are doing so well! well done getting the section, its a great feeling when something is done,and you know you dont have to go back to it! yah good for you.

that was interesting to read about your paper reading and ideas. i know what you mean. sometimes i'm reading it, and i am like, oooh i can use that for such and such section. i dont write whilst i am reading. i used to make copious amounts of notes whilst reading, but realised most of the time i was just copying it verbatim, which slowed everything down.

so this is my new technique.

i have listed a bunch of key words and sections, that i want to cover for my discussion and introduction. when i read a paper, and if i come across a sentence of a subsection that touches on any of my "key topics" i put an asterix next to it, along with the number that corresponds to the section. that way i feel like those are anchors, so when i sit down and start to write my zero draft, i can find all the relevant bits to go underneath that section. its working out rather well.

i am reading the paper, just underlieing key words and sentences. even if i dont understand the full paper fully, i dont worry about it, and move onto the next one.

i went to the garden to get some reading done, i was feeling sleepy in my study room. so took 2 papers out there, and read the first 1 in 30 minutes and the 2nd one in 10 minutes. review articles always take longer to read. the 2nd paper was an original research article, where i will only be using a few sentences.

so far my progress today, have read through 4 papers.

still feeling sleepy, but will plough on, and maybe take a little nap later on.

i cant believe its 5.30pm already!

thanks for this idea Armendaf, its the only thing thats motivating me, to carry on, because i know i have to give an update regularly throughout the day!! nice one!

hope you had a nice break and something to eat.

okay i am off to the garden again, taking with me 3 papers, will report back when i am done reading them.

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Thanks so much Tractorgirl!! your messages and encouraging words has given me the boost, love how you always spin it to a positive way (up)

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Ruby, thanks for your message :-)
hope the accountability thread works for you! and glad you found my dream funny hahaha lol. I will join you on the deadline. because i have a deadline too, for chapter 5, my deadline is sunday also. i have to get: 3 sections done to final draft version: introduction, results and discussion. so we can spur each other on!

introduction is at 25% 1st draft version

results: 1st draft (which needs to be converted to a good neat 2nd draft)

discussion: 25% zero draft

today i am working on the discussion section. i too have loads of reading to do.

plan is:

friday: discussion zero draft
saturday: discussion 1st draft, and results 2nd draft
sunday: introduction 1st draft

my aims:

1. read all the papers relevant for the discussion section and make notes. but be selective and not get distracted by tangent subjects. stick to what's strictly relevant.

2. write a zero draft of the discussion based on the results i have shown and link it to the literture.
i think i have about 10 mini results/subjects to cover in the discussion section. i only have a vague idea, not exactly sure what i am going to say, but will just try the "writting messy" approach and see what words appear on the paper.


good luck everyone!

i'm using the old glue method today, but i will also take a 10-15 minute break every hour or so, to keep my attention perked up. i just got in the post today a girly chick lit book. guilty pleasure indulgence! so might read for 10 minutes or so as a break.


feeling hungry now, but will try to do at least 15 minutes before i have brunch.

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woohoo you finished chapter 7 TG!! WELL DONE!!!!! you're a superstar!! i am so impressed you met your deadline and got it done!! excellent work. wow sounds like you're very near to finishing your thesis. that's super!

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well had some family friends come over, so didnt get much done today i am afraid, just a couple of hours of productive time.

but tommorow i am planning on sticking myself to the chair. and you're so right. i got the whole day tommorow and saturday to meet my deadline. my final final deadline for chapter 5 will be sunday.

cause i have so much work left to do for all the other chapters!! yikes

but you're right, just gotta do it, and plenty of time. i wish i was at the stage right now where all my chapters were complete. and i was just phaffing around with proof reading, but am nervous cause i still got so much to do for all the chapters. but from tommorow onwards will just glue myself to the chair and just do it

a family friend has given me a deadline to complete my chapters 1-5 by next friday. so i am going for the sprint!

and then worry about chapter 6 the following week,the chapter which i dislike

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okay time to take drastic actions. less than a month now. i really have to start putting in the long hours and finalise each chapter.

recieved an email with good stern advice:

"you're getting nervous about the 30th -the nightmare has to end some day. Ok review the work plan for each chapter, make a list of what you need to do in each chapter and then tick it off when done. Satisfy yourself with everything, there is plenty of time. Just glue yourself to the chair and do it."

so that's what i am going to do now. glue myself to the chair and just get it done.

the way i see it, its only a month now, so can push myself harder now. and come october, will be home free... just gotta get through each day and think each day about finalising the chapters as best as can be done.

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aims for today:

1. read all the papers related to methylation (i think there are about 50-70) skim read, for the interesting bits, and make notes. get a zero draft of the discussion of chapter 5 done today.

2. write a zero draft for the introduction. (i feel i cant write my discussion without having a good solid understanding of the literture already out there)


so basically no matter how bored i am ,or how much i dont want to do it. i have to be really strict with myself now.


good luck everyone!!



*gets some heavy duty glue and sticks butt to chair* :p

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oh b***er just as i was telling you about how messages get deleted, just happened to me! gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa :-s

okay i cant be bothered to type it out again. but i had a nightmare about viva's ! basically consisted of 3 rounds of viva's with internal examiner, external, and finally the last round of both examiners. i had to pass each round of viva to get to the next stage!

and the first viva, the internal examiner was looking through my thesis said it was good. but it was like a 10 year old school project! a very thin A4 black book, with figures and tables literally glued in! and the text glued in ! i was thinking in my head, what the heck is this. i cant believe the printing shop did this. and one figure was upside down. i was so embarrassed!!

then at the end of the viva just when i thought it was over, he didnt ask me any questions just talked mostly and made pleasant conversations. realised he wasnt an expert in my cancer field and said there would have to be another internal examiner appointed and i would have to redo the viva! to get to the second stage.
lol the dream is absurd, funny, but scary!!