My sup has had similar comments. Make sure you spell out what you want to say. What are you going to do, and why are you doing it. And just say it as simple as that: I am going to do X which is important because it leads to Y and Y is the main framework for this chapter.

Oh my, that is really fast. I agree with Sneaks and Stressed. Better get it over with and be able to relax next month. 2 weeks should be sufficient to prepare, I'm sure. At least your thesis is still fresh in your memory now.

Relax, take a deep breath, and from tomorrow on you can start preparing for the viva. Try to relax tonight.

Good luck!

Hi Satchi,

I'm also extremely impressed by your patience. I would have moved out or bought a bed myself a long time ago. I do agree with the others, seek advice. Citizens Advice Bureau would be good, or maybe your University? Our students' union has an advice centre that helps (among other things) with housing problems as does our residential service, even if you're not living in halls.

Whatever you do, don't withold your rent, that's illegal, methinks, even if you are in the right. Could you contact the landlord directly without going via the agency? Or is there someone else in the agency with whom you can speak?

Keep us up to date!

Goal sorta done. I'm saying it's done, but the review is not as good as it could be. Need to spend some more time on it tonight. So goal for tonight: re-write and re-structure review so that I can print a decent version on campus tomorrow and start revising from hard copy.

Second goal for tonight if I feel like procrastinating: do admin things, book flight to go home in August, find a proofreader.

Awww, poor dog and poor Sneaks. I know how distracting these things can be. Hope she'll be ok soon.

As for my goals today:
Sigh... I'm guessing I should fiddle around with my lit review more. I'm a bit confused as I've put the rationale for my topic, my contribution to knowledge statement, etc. in my intro, but I think it should go in my lit review. But that makes my lit review veeeeery long and my intro veeeery short.

Bit confused now. But I really need to get this lit review in a decent form finished by tomorrow eve as my mom will come and visit for a few days on Weds.

Right, let's get this show on the road.
Good luck today!

Oh yes, how's the dog Sneaks? Poor you and Sue.... Hope you're both alright, and the dogs too.

Goal-wise:
Goal 1 is done, that's another 1000 words to either my lit review or introduction. I planning to cut words rather than add them... Oh well, better too many thatn not enough.

Goal 2: decide whether these lovely words go in the intro (have already started something on the topic there) or in the lit review (is it a review of, erm, "literature").

Goal 3: update bibliography.

Hi guys, mind if I join in? I'm currently re-writing and need to build up stamina to keep sitting behind this laptop until tasks are finished.

Had a bad start of the morning (had a threat yesterday that gas would be cut off because of non-payment. Spent all morning on the phone to a certain gas company only to find out it is for the same flat number, but on the other side of the courtyard where I live. Sigh...)

So, goal 1: write final bit (on biographies, which I know nothing about, except that they're fun to read) to add to lit review.

Thanks Sneaks! Hope it works out.

For the second publication, can you not just paraphrase the method and then reference: Sneaks, publication 1, forthcoming. If publication 1 isn't going to get published, you don't have a problem. Otherwise, you have referenced yourself. (I wish I could say that ;-)

Does that make sense?

Run Chris, run!! You can do it! Let us know how it went today (after you crash and celebrate, no celebrate first and then crash). (up)

That's great Bug!!! Go celebrate now! ;-)

Stressed: we had Henries in halls of residence during my UG because that was (according to estate services) the only vacuum that could clean the filth of UG students, ha ha.

I hope everybody got some work done today (whether or not writing up). I got feedback on my final (main) chapter (yay!) yesterday and have started integrating that today. Hopefully I'll get that all done and dusted tomorrow so that I can actually move on to revising the whole thing and see if any of my arguments still hold... (keep fingers crossed that they do or I'll need to do even more re-writes than I thought).

I just started to write a "what do I know about this topic/who said what and why is that good or bad" lit review. When I handed it in (it was the 1st proper piece I'd written), my sup said it was ok. I am now in the "let's revise the whole thesis and see if things that I wrote more than a year ago still make sense" stage and obviously need to review my lit review (pun not intended). And it actually doesn't seem too bad.

I hated to write it too, but just got it over and done with and it makes revising it a lot easier, just because there's something on paper (even if it is not quite what it's supposed to be:$ )
So all I can say is: just start writing something about what you're reading, what is the topic, how does it fit (or not) with your research, etc. Once you have that down on paper it's much easier to revise and restructure things, methinks.

Good luck!

You can do it Chris! You've written that whole thesis, you can write the 500 words. Very jealous of you... Well done!(up)

Hi Akui,

Various students (most non-UK students actually) begin by calling their sups Dr. First name or Prof. First name. That makes it less formal than is usually the case (I just call mine by his first name), but still gives the student the idea that they are being respectful (not that calling your sup by his/her first name is disrespectful).

Re finishing in 3 years: I guess it depends on the subject. Many sciences manage in 3 years, most humanities (and social sciences) take between 3 and 4 years. But again, I guess that also depends on the person.