Hi Globe_trotter, I know exactly how you feel!

It's totally understandable how your emotion could become dictated by your supervisor's feedback. We feel our lives depend on it. However, don't forget that in the end, it is not your supervisor that decides whether you pass or fail, it's the examiner who decides on that.

It is always wise to listen to your supervisor's advice, but it's far healthier to remember that your life and career does not depend on your supervisor alone :)

By the way, I didn't get any feedback for my last 3 chapters either. I think they see us writing the last few chapters, and think 'ah well, I'll just wait till they give me the whole thing', so I wouldn't take this too personally :)

Quick questions, if you were submitting early summer, would you go on a 6 weeks tour of Europe between your sumbission and your viva? Is it even wise?

I've heard that theses sumitted in summer doesn't get vivaed until late September, but you just never know (I don't know the viva date yet...)

Or would preparing for the viva take 2 months? (in which case I am happy to nto go as my PhD is obviously my first priority).

What would you do?

Absolutely, I too get the 'not good enough' feeling. I do think this is normal and quite logical though.

I don't know about anyone else but my PhD ended up being just a fraction of the 'big dream' I had when I started the PhD. I had big ideas, but the work became smaller and smaller as time went on and deadlines loomed. I believe it is ok for this to happen, but compared to where I thought I was going to be by the end of the PhD, it's a lot less.

Morning! what a miserable day outside! ah well, good thing I'm stuck at home editing my thesis :)

Right, so my first goal is to edit the next chapter in my thesis today. There's three studies reported in the chapter, one of which is published so I am tempted to cut that study out and say 'see publication'.... is that allowed?

Hey, thanks Ady, Slowmo and Dunni for your feedback, I really appreciate it :)

Assuming that my word limit is 80,000 (I have emailed to ask, no answer yet but that's normal), I was 12,000 over at the start of editing. I've managed to cut 4000, so 8000 more to go, with three more chapters to read through.

I am noticing that I have been using a lot of fluff such as 'in order to' when 'to' will do, and 'that was used' where 'used' will do. I have started to keep a list of these bad writing tricks, and when I finish my first edit, I will search for these terms, and see if I can cut them out. Does anyone else have these writing habits?

Thank you BilboBaggins and Corrine for such a speedy advice. Yes, I'm not quite sure why I didn't think of that, I'll email my department straight away (I have read the guidelines on thesis from the department but it didn't state it clearly).

I absolutely agree about distance. I've booked a 3 day trip to Isle of Skye for when I hand in my first full draft to the supervisor. I really feel I need a mental break from the thesis before I can do 2nd editing, and I can't think of a better way to have a break than 3 days in the scottish highlands :D Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of leaving it for weeks as my registration time is up in two months.

Congratulations Ady! That's wonderful news :D

It's so good to hear that many of you are in the editing stage. I'm currently 91,000 words, including the bibliography. Do you guys count the bibliography int he word count? Mine's about 11 pages, so there's quite a lot of words in there that could make a massive difference to the word count.... Still, I have a lot of waffle that I can and should take out.

Does anyone have any editing tips?

How is everyone these days?

I have one good new this afternoon, I've finally drafted all my chapters!! wooot!

okay, so they all still need a lot of work (particularly the research method chapter, I'm still very lost on that), but I don't have to write another chapter from scratch again! That makes me feel so good.

Well done to slowmo for finishing her first draft too, it's such a relief isn't it?

Fm - your gants chart scare me! one of the negatives of my thesis is lack of diagrams and charts. My supervisor says 'you're not the picture types are you?' when reading my chapters, which is not true!! I just don't know what charts and diagrams to put in. So I admire you for being able to create very useful charts for your thesis.

Dunni - I'm sorry to hear that you still have no viva date. I can understand how hard it'd be to get into work mode after the many BHs and no goal date. I hope that skype meeting with your supervisor will be useful for you :)

finished writing the bulk of the intro section... now need to go back and fill in the gaps like refs and particular years.

Need to finish writing my intro chapter today. It's been going sooooooooooooo slow. :(

Right, first thing I need to do today is read up on how to write the intro chapter. my intro chapter has lost its way totally, so I need to figure out how to fix it first.

Hope everyone's day is going well :)

woooo congratulationss keenbean! That's great news! and I am so glad to hear that your supervisor is behaving better again. I really hope things stay well with her for you, because it's the last thing you need. I have one set of data that is like yours, totally unexpected and I have no idea how to explain it... so you have my sympathy!

It did feel a bit weird coming back, like, I felt guilty for 'moving on' when people are still suffering so much. But I realised that me completing my phd is the best thing I can do for my family, because they want the good news that I finished. So I guess I have to plough on.

I still do have a lot to get done, my intro and 1st lit review chapter is still in pieces with absolutely no direction. A few chapters needs a good editing & additional bits written. My conclusion chapter is so weak at the moment I am worried that it might just curl up and die on me while I'm not looking!! I have no idea how I am going to get it done on time.

Hi Keenbean, nice to hear from you, how are things with you? I see that you are super busy writing 4 papers simultaneously! I wish I was as good at multi-tasking as you are. How are they all coming along?

Hi Ady, lovely to speak to you again! How have you been? How's the writing going?

Wow Dunni, congratulations for submitting, I'm so proud and happy for you! I do hope you hear about your viva date soon.

hi all, I'm finally back!

Today, I want to design the basic structure for the conclusion chapter and write the main points I want to cover for each section.

Happy easter!