Good morning Batfink, thank you for your advice on my thread! I've achieved some writing this morning so far and spent about half an hour doing admin type stuff so that's good, I feel less rubbish about myself now! I want to get another 500 words written and then make a start on my conference abstract now. Hope you're having a good day so far :-)

That is helpful, thank you Batfink! (up)

Hi all,

I'm having a bit of a crisis with my thesis at the moment. I know the general model is literature review where you introduce the concepts and theoretical framework, then your methodology, then analysis, then discussion and conclusion.

I'm a bit confused about the literature review/theoretical framework. My sup keeps saying I'm too descriptive in my approach and I need to critique more, but as far as I can see it, I've done my best to look at all the different angles and approaches to certain aspects of my study, compare and contrast then evaluate which one I'm going with and why. I don't really know what else I can do :-( I'm going on to fully evaluate the current literature in the discussion with what I've found, what other people have found and what this means. Is this completely wrong?! Is there something else I can do? I've tried to avoid sounding like a textbook but I don't understand how you're supposed to talk about other people's work without describing it?!

Any advice at all greatly appreciated!

Sounds like you had a great day yesterday Batfink, so well done you (up)

I'm up early this morning with the hope that I can get some more work done! My only goal, as ever, is to get some more of this chapter done!

Good luck to everyone working today!

Gosh Batfink, sounds like a busy day you have planned there! I've decided I'm going to submit an abstract for a conference that I've wanted to go to for ages so we'll see if I get anywhere! :-s

Hope you've had a good day!

Goal 1 completed, now awaiting Goal 2...!

Are you a Master's student?

It's entirely up up to you - I don't think this is something we can really help you with. It sounds like you're nervous about sharing your work with a wider audience, but I'm sure you can ask for it to be anonymised. I think I can understand where you're coming from - I'd be worried about people plagiarising my work or stealing my ideas but there are academic tools that can be used these days to sniff out plagiarism, and if it's an essay they use in teaching at least they'll be more aware of any academic dishonesty. I'd be chuffed if my sup wanted to share my work (can't ever see that happening!) so well done you, your writing must be excellent! Sorry if that's a muddled reply, I'm in the middle of writing up at the moment and my brain is fried!

Morning all, and welcome back Button! The lurgy has finally struck you Button, hope you feel better soon!

I was having a bad day yesterday in every respect so I gave up and went out for lunch with my step mum for a moan and a whinge! I feel better today!

Today's goals are:

1) Read chapter as instructed by DoS
2) Have supervision
3) Keep writing...!

Hope you all have a good day, today is a new day and I'm going to get cracking!

Good morning,

She didn't explicitly say, you must not go, but I've been advised to just get on with writing for now rather than spend time working on abstracts/posters/presentations. It's difficult for me as I'm so far away from university that I don't really get out much with regard to my degree. I might see if there's anything happening though as it would be good to spend a day away and see what else is happening in my field at the moment! I think I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm the "wild card" PhD who was taken on to fill a place, and they're not sure if I'm going to pass or not (having a dark day today, can you tell?!) so they're encouraging me to write so I have more time to make amendments later on.

I'm going to crack on with Chapter 7 today, even if it kills me! I must get this finished in the next week or so!!! I might try writing in a different colour today to make it more interesting than just black and white! I also have a chapter to read for tomorrow (I was only told about it yesterday) so I will do that this afternoon. Hope you all have a good day!

Sounds like you've had a good start to the day Batfink! I'm struggling to stay focused today, I think I get to a certain point with some of my chapters where I just get fed up of them! I would normally take a break and work on something else but I really need to get this one finished in about a week or so (to allow time to tidy it up) so I need to get on with it! Argh!

Hello all,

Sounds like you all had a good day yesterday, I managed to get goals 1 and 3 completed so I am working on goal 2 today, which is my only real goal at the moment. I'm hoping that once I have a complete draft of my thesis I'll be allowed out to conferences again! I haven't been to one for over a year now :-( Anyway, here we go, have a good day :-)

Afternoon (can't believe it's afternoon already!) I know the feeling well Batfink, I have days where I'm gripped with terror about how little time I have left - this year is slipping past and I still have tonnes to do!

Today's goals are:

1) Draw up a flow chart
2) Continue writing Chapter 7
3) Go over Chapter 6 one more time to make sure there are no stupid spelling or grammar mistakes!

Hope you're having a good day Batfink, one goal at a time and you'll get there (up)

Goal 1 is now complete, thankfully! Now time for a tea break before tackling Goal 2! I'm still :$ about the comments on the video!

Oh my god! :$ I totally didn't read the comments underneath, I just looked at the video! Oh dear...! I'm glad it made you laugh though! 8-)

Good luck with your work today Batfink! Sounds like you've got lots to do!

Good morning,

Hehe Lughna, yes the :-) guy does look like a squidgy stress ball doesn't he?! No, the powerball looks like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5cM84qSj5o they're a mechanical type thingy. I don't really know how it works but I think there has been some improvement in my wrist since I started using it, however I'm not religiously using it every day so I don't think I can really give it a fair judgement. If this was a trial then my results would have to be discounted ;-)

I did manage to proof my chapter yesterday but I woke up this morning thinking about it and things I might have missed so I'm starting the day going back over it today, and adding in the reference list! So my goals for today are as follows:

Goal 1: Finish proofing Chapter 6 and add in reference list
Goal 2: Conduct a literature search specific to Chapter 7
Goal 3: Write some more of Chapter 7

My wedding is inching ever closer and I really want to get Chapter 7 nailed by then, as well as a re-draft of Chapter 1! So I have lots to do :-( but I will get there, in the end!

Good luck to everyone working today (up)