oops, sorry for the mistakes... I typed my message at 5 am, when apparently my right brain hemisphere was sleeping.

Hi there, yes, it's not easy to tell what the verdict would be in your case. When I had my viva the examiners said to me that there are issues with my thesis. They wanted me to add more bits and bobs, but to do that I had to turn a big part of the thesis into tables due to word limit, so R&R that was. In any case I would like to advise you to stay POSITIVE and please,stay confident. We are doing the PhD to learn, to make progress with our learning, making mistakes is humane. Also do not make the mistake and compare yourself to others, your PhD is different and may be more demanding than other doctorates in other fields. Good news is that you may not need a viva after all. I was told I need a second viva to start with, and now the supervisor says I won't need a second one as long as I give them a fool list of how I have handled my corrections. There are people on this forum who have made it after an R&R and they encourage us to carry on (pineapple, where are you?). Please feel free to contact me via pm if you need to talk.

You will get surprised with how much people want to help you. After I got the verdict I was given a full list of corrections by the examiners, I have had the supervisor's support (I was always in good terms with her and I know she did and does her best) and I was even given a copy of my thesis in which the internal had highlighted with pencil all the problematic areas that I needed to change. To conclude, just stay positive, do the work and don't argue about the result (unless of course you suspect that the decision was not fair). You will get more back if you don't argue, in my opinion (talking from personal experience here).

Such a result is more common that you thing (I have to resubmit too, along with at least 3 other students from my department). All I can advice you is you do the corrections exactly the way they ask you to do them and resubmit. You have given way too much money and time to quit after such a result.

Hi guys and girls,

I am re-formating my bibliographical list and I have cited a Van Wienter, a Von Letar and a Der Maruapian in my thesis. In the bibliographical list do I place them under V, V and D respectively? Or this is not the case? Also, I have a Müller. Do I place Müller after a surname starting with Mu[...] or before a surname starting with Mu[...]? And a Sørensen. Does Sørensen go before or after a surname starting with So[...]? Thanking you.

I also advise you to wait and follow the advice of the main supervisor. Your main supervisor knows its topic better than the secondary supervisor.

Thank you all. I made sure I know what is included; my limit is 80.000 words. I have about 5.000 extra but supervisor says they would make a nice appendix (appendix does not count in the word limit). I will also turn a few pages into tables as requested by the examiners and I should be under the word limit. I am getting there.

Also, just a few words to those who are resubmitting. It actually looks more frightening than it is. When I sat down and did the work, I re-found my enthusiasm about the thesis. Now I even enjoy doing the corrections because I know that I improve my work.

Footnotes? Intro? Appendices? Are we allowed an extra 5% over the word limit?

A year ago, when I discussed the matter with my supervisor, he had calmed me down saying that nobody's going to do a word count. I will have to have another word with her now, just because I need to be extra-careful with these things.

Help! English is not my first language and I struggle to understand what an inductive argument is. My examiners say that arguments in my thesis are inductive. Is it a good or a bad thing. I have tried to google and define inductive but with so many definitions, I am not sure what my examiners mean. Thanks in advance!

One thing that has helped me is moving away from campus (4 hours away in fact). Yes, it makes accessing campus and the library a bit difficult but working from home means that I do not have to deal with any co-students, hear their news and compare myself to others, get destructed or being offered to participate in projects that could consume my time instead of working on the thesis. Somehow, working from home on my revisions has calmed my nerves! Also, Pineapple is right about social networking sites. If you don't want to access them deactivate your account. It's all for a good reason! Also, make some ME time. For instance, work hard all week but on Sunday afternoon and evening switch off and spend some time with your family and friends. We are not robots to work 24/7. You can also start a hobby that is not very time consuming and you can follow when you have 10 minute breaks. I do gardening in between working.

I feel for you and all I can think of is 'speak to your supervisor about your worries'. Or, change supervisor ASAP. Or speak to your advisor about your concerns. I have had a similar problem in the past: someone was doing my PhD topic with the same supervisor to mine, although her research questions were slightly different. I was worried about it and I talked to my supervisor, who confirmed that my research focused on different data to hers. I was still concerned about how similar our theses would be, but a few months later I found out that she abandoned the course.

Hi Blackbyrd, I am not sure what to say. I feel very similar to you. My R&R deadline is one month after yours. Post viva, I saw my supervisor 6 times and she gave me directions and advice. I am also stressed about time, but please remember that as long as your major corrections are out of the way everything else will be slightly easier. I recently found out that I will not need a second viva, which makes me feel a bit more positive about my work. I am also physiologically worn out with the whole thing, and all I can say is that we can only do our best. Remember and repeat to yourself that we need to persevere. Quitting at this late point is NOT an option.

Dear all, after my thesis r&r I am making progress with my revisions and I resubmit in 4 months time. I found out today from my supervisor, who has been following my work, that I will not need a second viva, even though a second viva is the norm in my institution after an r&r (with exceptions). This is because the external was happy with my defence and clearly stated that a second viva is not necessary. Wish me luck. I try to stay positive.

I am in the end of my PhD in the Humanities and I am looking for a PhD student or early career academic who studies / has studied website creation and particularly virtual reality on the world wide web. If you are interested, please contact me and I can tell you more about the project.