Good morning! I've finished goal one of the day which was to clean up my laptop as it was getting upset at the size of my chapter documents! I've got Skype supervision today so I don't want it freaking out half way through!

My main goals today are to read other phd student's methodology chapters to make sure mine is the expected standard, and then write my introduction/conclusion bits. I was really pleased when I found I'd done a lot more work in my first year than I thought I had so writing this chapter hasn't been too painful, it's the one I have to write after which will be a killer as I'm doing grounded theory and most of what I'll be writing about is as a result of my grounded work which = very little background reading!

Happy working everyone
;-)

Read, read, read and read some more! To save time, type everything too as it will save you doing what I'm doing now (re-reading and typing as I go, not fun!)

Make sure you pick something you're passionate about as you're stuck with it for 3 years! Ummm... I think that's it for now!

Thank you Dr Slowmo! I've been looking forward to reading your experience and I just wanted to reassure you too - I also feel like I am an imposter who doesn't deserve to be here so hearing you felt this way and you've now passed with minor corrections is a massive bolster!(up)

Good luck in your future career

:-)

Congratulations! Also, thank you for the detailed story and your hints and tips, I will hopefully be in your position in about a year's time (depending on whether I ever get my write up finished!)

Thank you all for your advice! Blackbyrd, it was really good to read your post as it seems like you're kind of feeling the same as me - I have a mountain of data which says something different every time I go through it! But we'll keep chipping away and we'll get there in the end! :-) Thank you Delta and Laney too for some great advice (up)

Hello all,

I have just started my write up of the thesis and I am terrified! I feel completely overwhelmed and like I will never get through it! I have two chapters already written (but these were done at the end of my first year and will need significant revision to be of a standard to go into the final thesis).

I've written a chapter structure and a rough synopsis of every chapter, and timetabled roughly a month per chapter, with the theoretical chapters being written before their counterpart analysis chapters so it's all fresh so to speak.

I just wondered if any of you out there who have just finished or have been writing for a while have any other advice you can give me before I spiral into a flurried panic? My thesis is predominantly qualitative with some mixed methods for triangulation so the word count is 80,000.

Thanks!
Lindalou

Congratulations! Looking forward to hearing the report! (up)

It sounds a bit like your supervisor has some mental health issues as this behaviour is totally unacceptable. I agree with the other's advice, you need to take this to someone high up in the instiution and get it sorted. You can't have someone like this supervising you. I thought my supervisory team were annoying sometimes but the stories I read on here really put it into perspective! Let us know how you get on!

p.s. is it just me or is it FREEZING today?!

I signed up to the three month thesis thing but I started to get a bit skeptical about his motives after I couldn't download that file! I managed to do a literature search this morning but I didn't finish going through all my supervisor's comments yesterday as they required more work than I anticipated! So I'm still working on that now but about to be distracted by the arrival of my fiance and small child! And it's half term now - I am so getting no work done over the next few days! How often do kids get school holidays these days!! I'm sure it wasn't like this when I was young...!

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I'm really not doing very well today (or this week, to be honest!) So far today I've only managed to upload a few articles into NVivo and skim read them. So to feel like I've done something a bit productive today I am going to re-read the comments on one of my papers that my supervisor sent me and address all of her comments by the time I finish for the day.

Here I go...!

Thanks both. I sent her an email with everything I'm trying to juggle at the moment which seemed to make the point that I am a busy chicken at the moment, so hopefully I won't end up (turkey) !!!

Chin up uncutlateralus, you'll get there! Sorry if I upset you - I genuinely didn't mean to, like I say I recognised the feeling and it was good to know I'm not alone! Sorry if it came across as sarcastic
:-(

It made me smile! I know the feeling well 8-)

Oooh looks interesting - I'm going to make myself a cup of tea right now and read it! :-)