Maybe it depends on your subject, but speaking from a design perspective, I think it's a good idea to regard your images as you would your writing and other sources of data. Every picture should be included for a reason. It should add something to the overall discussion and communicate something that cannot be done purely in words. If a pic is just an extra that provides a bit of visual diversity, but adds nothing to your argument, there doesn't seem much point in using it. I'm sure you justify each sentence you write, so maybe think along those lines for your photos too. I was more worried about negative reactions to having loads of pics in mine, as my examiners all come from different non-arty disciplines, but I'll see what happens! :-)

Hi Lara,

I'm still rehabilitating myself into normal life again I'm afraid, so not a lot of activity on the viva front. My examining panel was officially approved a week ago and the thesis copies for my examiners only went out on Friday, so I'm guessing my viva will be some time yet - May/June maybe.... it's difficult to start thinking about revising when it's all so far off. It is SO nice to wake up every day and not have to force myself to get on with the thesis though - it's still a novelty at the moment!!!!!!! I know that feeling won't last forever when the viva thing becomes imminent, but right now it's great and it's only been a couple of weeks since I handed in, so it's fair enough really.

I think today I'll re-do my cv. We've been warned of massive cuts recently, not quite compulsory redundancies but it has been mentioned, so things look fairly dire for the near future. And I'll sort through my clothes too. Both my sups and other research people have told me to just have a good rest at the moment, so I'll do that for a bit longer, maybe till the end of March then that'll be a month and starting to revise will seem more urgent, so I'll be joining you more regularly then.

It does sound like you're revising regularly, it's not like you're doing nothing so don't be hard on yourself. All these papers and questions you're working on are simmering in your brain, and you still need to have a life away from the PhD too. What more can you do while you're in limbo with no definite date even for a mock? Did you get a response from your sup to your email last week?

I evaded the issue by being told to replace the word 'data' in my thesis with 'source material' or 'sources', which apparently sound more art history.

I was like that. I kept realising there was no time to find a reference so I just deleted the odd clause or rewrote it so I didn't need a reference... at least I just omitted something rather than making a false claim. No point at that stage in adding stuff because it's interesting! I decided it was best to have 'minor' typo corrections like mechanical bibliography mistakes, rather than in my overall logic for each discussion that might entail massive 'major' corrections. I thought a type seemed more acceptable for some reason than a major intellectual flaw in my reasoning, though one wouldn't want any mistakes if one had a choice obviously! It was more about getting the thing in on time by then. Someone asked whether I was going to apply for another extension but I couldn't bear the idea of it dragging on even longer. I think my mindset changed over the last 6 months and I really wanted to submit at that time, so a bit of short-term misery and stress was worth it to knock it out.

Having said all that, I've no idea what the examiners will say. No viva date yet, but the current estimate is May or even June because of Easter. I hope it's sooner rather than later, or my summer will be spent doing corrections. At least the end is really in sight now, as it will be for you!!

I've just submitted and only put in specific page numbers for actual quotes and relevant sections of a discussion. For books where the whole work refences a particular subject I just used the author and year, in the usual Harvard style. Though I did misplace my copy of a book AND my written notes for one author, so I missed out actual page numbers for some references and am desperately hoping the examiners will think it's just typos on my part.... I got so knackered that it got to the point where I just thought ok, no time left and I know it's wrong, but that one can be a 'typo' correction, just so I could get the damn thing in on time.

Good luck with it! (up)

Hi Lara, hope the revision plan is going ok - someone here has their viva tomorrow and also reckoned Murray was very good for anticipating the mock viva - hopefully will be the same for the real thing.

This isn't work related at all.... did you watch CSI yesterday? Grissom's last episode, I was quite sad to see him go, he's the best of the main investigators, loads better than his Miami and NY counterparts. He does gory forensic investigation in a pleasant zen-like way that comes over as either wooden (NY) or pretentious (Miami) when the other 'Grissoms' do it. But Lawrence Fishburne looks good so maybe it will still be worth watching.

I love the way I can spend ages thinking about ideas, sometimes really obscure things like Smoobles said, and they're actually useful for something!! It sort of validates my previously possibly slightly aimless mental meanderings and when other people like them too then it's rather wonderful. If all that turns into a decent career eventually then I'll be a very happy person!

Lara, my decision to start revising isn't really admirable, more due to a touch of anxiety really.... I started looking at my thesis the other day and kept seeing mistakes, a word missing here, a typo there, odd sentences that didn't look as clear as they could be. That started me wondering what other bigger things might be wrong with it, and what with the easter hols imminent, it just seemed best to get on with it sooner rather than later. I don't like the way you really don't have any idea of what might happen, even if your thesis is perfect (which mine is not) you still don't know what the examiners will say. The only good things about the forthcoming viva are it will be over an awful lot quicker than the time taken to actually write the thesis, and it's another step towards the conclusion of the whole business. Thanks, I would like to look at your questions, will pm you! :-)

Hello! Eska, Misspacey, Lara, Heifer and Candle, it's ages ago now but thank you very much for your comments!! :-)

I've had a rest and am now starting to think about the viva situation - only thinking at the moment so nothing too drastic. I haven't got a date yet and am hoping I don't get given one at short notice after the Easter hols, so I should probably get on with something before that.... I'll get that book out that Lara mentioned.

Lara, I'm sorry you're having a bad time with it all, it's horrible the way one load of stress (submitting) gets replaced so quickly with another thing. It's weird being in this limbo and thinking over the various possible outcomes. I hope you hear from your sup quickly, a definite date even for a mock viva is better than floundering endlessly and panicking and putting stuff off. I think I'm going to start revising properly after this weekend, so will be around on here more. Look after yourself!

Misspacey good luck with your writing and reduced forum activity. I was on here a lot near my submission date but it kept me sane, I think.

Pam, that sounds a horrible situation to be in and it's not surprising you feel demotivated. It's great that you're getting something published though - surely that will give credibility to your methods as far as your negative panel members are concerned?

I might be wrong, but it sounds from what you've written that you're breaking new ground methodologically with your topic and perhaps challenging the way your panel members have worked up till now. Do you think you're damaging their academic egos because they're so set in their ways or rooted in particular disciplines that they can't (won't) see the value of new perspectives maybe? Apologies if I've got the totally wrong idea, but if I was supervised by traditional established dress historians rather than academics involved with the newer critical interdisciplinary fashion theory, I think I would have been in the same situation as you. I did replace an early member of my team because she was so restricted by her own background that she was completely blinkered to what my project was doing and was more of a negative hindrance than any help.

I hope your supervisor can find a way round this so you get your motivation back. Is it possible to replace any of the panel members or add another from the same way of thinking as your supervisor, to balance out the feedback?

Omega Monkey and Armendaf, thank you! :-)

Yep, I'm resting, surprised at how much sleep I seem to need at the moment but it's SO nice to have given it in!!!

Armendaf, let us know what happens about your viva next week, won't you? Unless they spring it on you without much notice it looks like we might be having vivas at around the same time.

See you soon! :-)

Hello there!

Just to say I submitted ok yesterday afternoon, thank goodness!!!! I had to print it out on Friday and take it to the binders, then picked it up yesterday lunchtime to deliver to Research HQ. That made it a few hours before my official deadline, which was cutting it a bit fine, I suppose. It's all been a bit strange. I was really pleased with myself on Friday, though I was instructed to go straight home to sleep after printing it, as I looked so pale and knackered and felt quite sick from lack of sleep. I was still pleased with myself on Saturday, but by Sunday I started wondering what mistakes I'd made on top of the ones I actually know about, what the examiners would pick up on etc. I dreamed that I accidentally switched my bag of theses on the bus with someone's Tesco bag of food shopping so I got to Research HQ to submit on Monday with no theses and it was too late to sort out, but that didn't happen in real life, luckily!

I feel a bit flat now, to be honest. People keep congratulating me, but it doesn't really feel like I've achieved anything at the moment as it's not completed yet. I've slept a huge amount in the last few days, as all the stress and days with only 4 hours sleep affects you eventually. It's quite weird knowing I can have normal weekends again like other people without always having the thesis niggling away in the back of my mind making me feel guilty.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to celebrating properly this week and forgetting about that thesis for a few weeks at least!! Is that possible or does it still haunt you, I wonder??

Lara, thank you so much for you for your encouragement in the last few weeks, it's really helped! :-) And Armedaf and Heifer too, it makes such a difference to know you're not completely isolated in this weird academic rite of passage. Apparently my viva should be around late April/May, so I'll be swotting up at the same time as you probably.

Hope Lara had a great birthday in Madrid and that work is going ok for everyone else! (up)

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I've got quite a disparate range of chapter lengths (arts and humanities), though overall size of thesis is about 80,000 words. Several are around 6,500 while the longest is 14,500. I had to justify in my methodology why they varied, but I explained it in terms of how they related to the research questions and the range of data available. It worked ok, I think.... I'll find out in the viva, I suppose.

Alice, I completely agree.

Bug, another thing to try to do is learn to not beat yourself up mentally because you can't do everything you want to do into your timetable. So much of this PhD for me has been about learning how I work and not to be hard on myself when I can't do everything I want to, even though there's a gap in my diary. Sometimes you just need a rest, mentally and physically. We're not robots and can't just flip a switch when a certain hour strikes, to make us change mindsets and do something completely different. We frequently grapple with quite complex ideas and bodies of knowledge, so it's a lot to retain in your mind and use effectively, only to switch over 4 hours later into a completely different set of ideas for some other purpose. It's cumulative too.... the longer you do it, the more stuff you have floating about in your mind and the more juggling you have to do. So don't be hard on yourself, just modify what you're doing and your expectations of yourself, and as Alice said, see the bigger picture and be less fixated on the numbers of hours you do. You'll get there in the end, but don't make yourself ill with an inhuman workload in the process.

You might have to change the way you divide up your Phd workload. Save writing for days when you've got several consecutive days to devote to it, so you've got more continuity of time and thought for whatever you're working on, then do other stuff like reading papers/books, bits of online research, things that can be completed in small chunks of time that you can tack onto your paid job days that don't need a huge amount of dedicated time and thought.

I'm sure you are very good at what you do, but be careful about getting up early and working late all the time on top of a job, as you don't want to burn yourself out - you've got ages to go yet! I've always worked p/t while doing mine, but found it next to impossible to do any substantial meaningful PhD writing on days I was at work. It wasn't a timetable thing as the time was there in theory, it was more a problem of switching my mind back and forth from job to PhD mindset. I tended to save job days for going to the library, photocopying stuff, seeing friends for lunch in a vague pretence at having a life, squeezing a meeting with my sup into a lunchbreak, reading short papers etc, then the rest of the week for solid PhD stuff. It's not ideal, but you don't always have much choice.