Hi Lara, no need to apologise for having a life!!! Sounds like you had a great break, and very well deserved too, if I may say so!
See you around here again soon, no doubt! :-)

Thanks Tokyorabbit!

Actually I didn't have a choice of pushing my deadline, as I needed my supervisor's feedback before they break up for Xmas. I can't afford not to make best use of the next few months, as I have to submit in Feb, there's no alternative as I've reached the end of my registration period. I'm horribly aware of what I didn't manage to finish though, I ended up putting footnotes in that showed where extra things had to go, what I've not done but know I must do, so at least they know I'm aware of some of the gaps. 6 weeks sounds a lot of time though, for all your images, formatting etc - it depends on what you've done so far, I'd imagine? I had a few extra pics to scan in and edit, but there were over 100 in the end, that I'd already done for past chapters. I didn't embed them properly in my text for my draft though, some were slipped in as extra pages, but I got sick of it as they kept moving about in Word and I ran out of time (and patience!!!!)

Can you still get a draft to your sup before the mid December? It might be worth trying, even if you know it's not complete, but it's never going to be complete as it's a draft and work in progress. I hadn't had feedback on some chapters I did before the summer, and got quite anxious about them for this draft as am not sure if one of them works or not - I did feel like deleting the whole chapter at one point, as I decided it was crap! I didn't delete it in the end, but am prepared for a LOT of feedack on it.

To be honest I feel a bit ill now, I'm so exhausted that I feel like I'm sleepwalking and really need a few days proper rest, but there wasn't any other way to do it, as time is limited now for me. Plus I have to go to work, which isn't restful.

Do what you can though, but you might feel better of you get feedback from your sups sooner rather than later... cuts the anxiety down and you know where you are with things.

I think it depends why you're having trouble getting access to literature. If it's due to your university not having adequate facilities for you to get access existing articles or books, then it's an institutional problem that you should discuss with your supervisor, as Aloha suggested. Your uni should provide facilities for this, whether online or in university libraries, if you're doing a PhD with them.

However, if the problem is that you can't find anything because it doesn't exist, because no-one has written about it, that's different. In fact, that could be quite useful for you, as it means you've picked a really good subject to research. If you've picked a new area for academic research, then you can define your project to a large extent. You might have to look at your topic from different angles or read related literature and then try to apply it to your subject. eg if it's halal meat you're interested in, read sociology of food literature even if it's not meat, plus stuff about the meat industry, production and marketing, are there different influences in different countries, are there historical differences compared to now that you can find, how do religious, moral, legal or ethical issues affect it or not, etc. Maybe do a mind map to see how many ideas and different bodies of literature relate to it, and see if they throw a different perspective on your original ideas. I wouldn't give up at this early stage if it's something you're interested in, maybe you just need to adjust the focus of the topic or something. Good luck!

Armendaf, how are you getting on with your viva prep? I was wondering about you, Lara and Tractorgirl.....

======= Date Modified 03 Dec 2008 17:48:26 =======
No, it was tired but happy and relieved waffle Armendaf, nothing worth reading really!! Which poses the question 'why write it?' Well, because I gave my second draft in yesterday!!!!! 8-) Am knackered but pleased with it, and it was quite a good trial run for the final thing in the new year. I decided to do a cheapo plastic spine bound version and had a bit of a scary moment nipping up to kallkwik in the rain, as I dropped the box that all the printouts were in, and felt quite sick as I watched all the copies of my thesis slither onto the wet pavement. Luckily a nice passerby held an umbrella over my head while I scooped it up in the right order, and the wet bits weren't too crinkly when they dried. That's a new unforeseen problem for anyone submitting - accidentally pulping your thesis in the rain, with no time to print it out again!!

Lessons I ought to have learnt from these stressful few weeks???? (ought being the operative word....)

*Don't back up work by copying files backwards and forwards between my various USB sticks late at night, as mistakes can happen with overwriting new stuff with old stuff!!

* Try to change the habit of a lifetime by pacing myself a bit better with the time left after I get feedback - well it's definitely worth a try, I know I've said it all before but *must* be strict with myself or I'll make myself ill.

It's funny really, but doing that draft is the first time I feel like I've actually got something tangible to show for all these years of work. It's the materiality of it, someone said! I think it's the first time I've thought yeah, that looks like a PhD thesis, loads of work to do on it still, but hold the fraud squad back because I no longer feel like an academic imposter! Well, and about time too. So now I am very tired and looking forward to getting an early night without feeling like I have some urgent PhD thing nagging away at me to be finished. I think I'll get feedback from my supervisors in the next couple of weeks, so will have a PhD rest till then. And I'm also going to lump that big fat draft off home with me to show my nearest and dearest, to prove I really have been doing a bit of work now and then!! hehe!!

:-)

It's a really difficult question actually, as ideally you need both - the supervisor for support, expertise etc, and the topic to keep you interested and motivated through what is a fairly long and often difficult process. Good luck with making your decision!

No one in my family makes a big deal out of xmas, except my brother cos he's got kids. Also, we all live fairly near each other so there's no need for big journeys to stay with people in other parts of the country either, so no chance of the festive season denting my seriously essential PhD time. To be honest, I'm finding it really easy to ignore this year, more than usual because of my looming submission date, and I'm actually looking forward to spending time away from work and on my thesis. I'll still send people cards, get presents and all that, but Christmas definitely won't take up much time, energy or money this year.

I agree with Neena. The supervisor is so important, the wrong one can make or break the whole 'PhD experience' for you'. I've got a great topic and supervisor, but needed a second supervisor as well to cover a different angle of my research. Unfortuately the 2nd sup turned out to have a boot-camp way of doing tutorials, I used to really dread them and eventually decided I'd reluctantly have to give up the whole PhD if I had to keep that team, even though my project and main sup were great. I did manage to change that sup eventually, but my confidence was really dented and the whole business wasted lots of time. That sup has a reputation with other students of being a bully, so if students think that potential sup has problems, I'd find out more first.

Would you need a completely different supervisor for the fascinating topic, or could you get round it by having the supervisor you get on with and supplementing her with another advisor/ 2nd sup? It would be great to somehow wangle it so you get both topic and supervisor!

Congratulations! Nice of your examiners to attempt to alleviate your worries by telling you that you'd passed too!

I'm sorry you're feeling lost - it must be hard balancing your different responsibilities. Could you give a bit more information about what you're having problems with so people can help you? It's a bit vague at the moment.

Very saucy for a PhD! The audience liked it, didn't they!

======= Date Modified 03 Dec 2008 15:09:04 =======
============= Edited by a Moderator =============
where's my post gone??? Did I hit a word limit or something???? Can I be bothered to type it all again??? Hhhmm, no I think I'll have some dinner instead.

(ADMIN and RUBYW are working on this together to solve this problem)

I'm really glad they're not!! The original article about the competition said the man who got the best marks in the competition was wearing a translucent loin cloth... that's a step too far for me!! It reminds me of dance classes when I was at school unfortunately, I hated them and think pretending to be a tree or doing a dance of the vampigs has put me off that sort of thing for life.

Yes, it is great for that, I wish I'd found it ages ago. It makes me feel normal, when there's not a lot about a PhD that is normal really lol, it's just such a weird experience in some ways - I had to go to a physiotherapist a few months ago about my knee and she had not long finished her PhD, and it was great because she just knew what it involved in all its obscure strangeness, not the same subject as me or anything, but still a very odd shared experience. I'm quite fond of all the regular people on here now, such different personalities and I like the way people are quite grumpy and sharp sometimes too. I wish there were more off topic threads sometimes though.

ooh I find that quite weird, with real life and this forum getting mixed up. Sometimes at college I wonder if any of the other students come on here, and I'm sure I must be giving them shifty looks or something. Some people would probably benefit from it so maybe I should mention it... I'm sure other people there peer over my shoulder when I'm on the computer and see what I'm doing, maybe I should ask them outright! It's not as if I'm horribly misrepresenting myself or anything.... it's just he thought of a certain slightly annoying person in real life being on here too, there would be no escape.