Hi everyone

I wondered if anyone can give me some advice please? I'm approaching the end of my 2nd year now and I've been asked by my supervisor to write an outline of my thesis - chapter headings, state of work for each chapter etc and to be honest I really don't know where to start with it! I don't have chapter headings yet or anything approaching them, i don't know which parts of my research will go in which section or how to begin to structure it. I have several areas that are linked but could be dealt with and combined in numerous different ways and until I've completed the data collection I really don't know which would be the best recipe for success here. I also don't really know how many chapters I need and am feeling a little lost.

He wants to work out a timetable for completion with me which I'm more than happy to do - he doesn't want me to rush and is acting on my concerns about my progress (which he says is excellent) and how long this is going to take me to finally complete so its incredibly helpful to address, but I feel a little out of my depth as I don't really know how to approach this with still not knowing quite what I'm going to find.

I'm sorry, this is a really woolly post but its kind of how I'm feeling :$

Lol Livvie, they are pretty excellent - I've got 3 kids, 2 dogs, 5 cats, a parrot and a husband and its the only hoover thats come close to coping ;-) We also have a dyson left here by the landlady - I'd used them before when customers thought I'd love one due to the hype and I hate the thing with a passion - so much harder work lol - ahhh the joys of domesticity :-) Fingers tightly crossed for you!

Wally - never buy a dyson, they are utter rubbish!!! they look like a kids toy, are about as strong and are crap - you want a hoover get a Henry (take this from someone who until recently did cleaning as a job), but get one with a power head, amazing piece of kit

anyway, yeh, no, its not worth continually burning midnight oil, I find my productivity drops - better to get a relatively early night and then go for it first thing :-) Unless you're a night owl, in which case ignore me ;-)

Sigh - so envy you being at write-up - back to data analysis...

Wow - you go girl!!! Much better to do it when you're fresh and rested (well, as rested as you can be a few hours before submission) so nearly over for you now - I hope that you have a huge glass of wine, massive bar of chocolate and heck, have a big chocolate cake too once you've handed that in :-) Gooooooo - final push and the thesis is delivered :-)

Massive congrats to everyone here :-) I'm so inspired by you all - its just brilliant!

Goodboy, the whole point of this forum is that its somewhere safe we can come and rant/cry/laugh/joke/support etc - and its anonymous for a reason - people say things that they can only say because its safe, we know each other by our user names, we don't need any more than that - its enough for people who've offered so much support and help to come here and say Yay, I did it - we don't need the details, that would destroy the anonymity and therefore the nature of this board where you can say exactly what's on your mind with no fear of it getting back to anyone and any repercussions. If you're that bothered then pm the posters and ask if they'd mind sharing with you privately.

Today has not been a waste because:

I sat down and thought through exactly what I need to do next and worked out a loose plan for the next couple of months.
I worked through a lot of data inputting - still loads to go but I'm getting there
I feel that I'm actually starting to get somewhere which is always helpful!

Definately go for a good supervisor, someone who is well known, respected and will get you through this. The chances are that if you do an MA with the supervisor you want then moving on to PhD afterwards provided you do well is pretty much a certainty. The thing is that a PhD is such a long slog, such hard work and the supervisor is so central to the whole thing that going for the quick option could be a disaster - you must make sure that your chosen uni has someone who is experienced in your field and in the area you're wanting to study or you're going to be miserable.
Obviously we don't know which unis your considering but if a good one is suggesting that they feel that you simply don't yet have the background to tackle the PhD in your chosen area then I'd be concerned if another uni said yeh, come now - are they just after fees and completions? Its not the uni as such (although there are some we'd all shout NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO at lol) but who you're working with. My supervisor quite literally wrote the books in my area, he's THE expert in the field, as such there is nothing that he can't guide me on, no question I can ask him where he can't give me good advice and is involved fully in my work and extremely supportive. I'm not at one of the top few (although we're top 10) but I wouldn't want to be in any other uni as I couldn't have that level of guidance and help - that's the difference a good supervisor makes - not to mention you say their name and others will help you out too. Think supervisor, not so much location :-)

I've certainly not heard of this - very strange. Maybe they had a lot of unsuitable candidates in recent years and felt that this was the best way to see how they work in person - its expensive though and a strange way to recruit their post-grads... I'd also be interested to hear where it is!

I'm not at the writing up stage yet, but I work exclusively from home - I don't use our postgrad office - its noisy, quite a distance away, and I figure the extra couple of hours here working are better than being stuck in traffic :-) With my sup I tend to send in work (I do see him regularly too) and he will use the word comments facility, scrawl all over it and email it back with an email with extra comments so we don't even use the post! its the way I've always worked with him since he was my sup for my BA dissertation.

You don't need a desk but do be careful - when I was moving last year my desk was packed up and moved ahead and I wrote a paper on my laptop on my lap - I somehow strained the muscle in my shoulder which in turn trapped a nerve running up my neck and into my head and I spent the whole summer in agony - make sure if you work without a desk that you move v regularly and that you ensure that you sit correctly - the nature of my chair meant that my shoulder was slightly raised continually and that's what did it apparently - I suffered big time for months - its no fun.

======= Date Modified 28 Jun 2010 11:09:05 =======
Hi there,

I think where you are now most of us have been at some point - heck, I'm still there sometimes - its the first year blues (you then get the 2nd, 3rd, completion blues lol). We all have times when we really couldn't give a flying monkeys about our research, but it passes. Ask any of the people here in completion and I think that most of them will tell you that they are at a point where they hate it with a passion, on the surface, but deep down they are driven on to do this thing.

I'm not one of the young ones lol, I'm 40, and one thing I've learnt is that there is nothing more painful, more difficult to live with than missed opportunites - heck I haven't stuck at a darned thing until now!!! I've let things go, let them pass me by and yes, I wouldn't be where I am now if I had stuck at it, but they've been difficult to live with. There is nothing harder to cope with when you look at yourself in the mirror or wake in the morning than 'what if'. The other thing I've learnt is that you never ever know what's coming, what's around the corner, I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up lol - I'm not sure my future is in academia, I'd like it to be, but who knows? There are days I hate it with a passion and other days I get really excited. I'm not even a scientist - you are lol - my area of research will make no difference to anyone beyond possibly a handful of academics and that concerns me sometimes, i wonder why I'm bothering, but I'm not going to let it go!! People ask me what i'm going to do when I finish - I don't know... but what I do know is that through doing this I'll have developed a massive stash of transferable skills that will help me in the future, I'll also have the self believe, self confidence and the knowledge that I've done it, I've actually seen something the whole way through and that is worth so much to me (remind me of this next time I go on a downer lol)

We can't tell you what to do, some quit and are happier for it, others just plough through it, see it for what it is, and seeing the sheer elation and joy of people you get to know graduating and achieving their goal for me, personally, makes it all worthwhile - I want to feel that too :-) Whatever nothing is wasted, nothing can be, whatever you're doing your building you, your knowledge, your personality and that can never be a waste :-)

Oh KB, I just want to second what everyone else has said, I can't say anything new but it needs to be said to you over and over again :-) You are amazing, you just astound me with the amount of work you do, your openess and honesty and the way you support and help everyone else and now accept the massive group hug you're getting :-)

Take the week off, don't work, force yourself to get out there in the sunshine and fresh air, sit and relax, read some really cr*ppy magazines, watch rubbish tv, dont' do a darned thing academic - give your body and your mind the rest it needs. The rest of the world don't expect to work 52 weeks a year without crashing and burning so why should we? This will pass, you are on top of it, you just need to sit back, catch your breath, allow your new med to start to work and then kick back in :-) Don't worry about the corrections and feedback, it will be there and when you've had a break you'll cope with it so much easier. It good that you have a sup who cares so much, ok so her way of doing it is a bit warped lmao, but she's interested in you and she is determined for you to succeed and girl, if anyone deserves to succeed its you!


Enjoy your time with your family, don't check your emails, just don't 'be there', you're away on holiday, enjoy the feeling of not having to do anything cos you don't - a week is going to make no difference at all to the end result, none whatsoever, but without that break it could make a big difference. look after yourself, be kind to yourself and yes, this too will pass xxxxx

Lol Algaequeen, I was thinking much the same ;-) I was wondering if I'm just not academic enough to understand goodboy's posts (sprout)

Akui, you'll find that the vast majority of people here are just lovely and will be more than willing to help you through anything - we go through so many ups and downs on the PhD rollercoaster that this site is invaluable in getting you through - if nothing else knowing that your worries, concerns are shared and that people have come out the other side is just great - a PhD can feel pretty isolated at times, but the advice is fantastic and there is nothing so good as seeing someone struggle through and then come out the other side a Dr - gives us all a huge lift :-)

I'm hiding my head in shame - awful, just awful, although I'm still spitting feathers about that Lampard goal! Something needs to be done about that and fast, and I'd say the same if the Germans had been put in that position - it would have been very different going for the winner rather than going for yet another equaliser. And yes, I'm sad, I've watched every game apart from yesterday when I was adoring Bon Jovi at the O2 lol. I hate football, never watch it, but love the world cup :-) Goooooo espana!!!

Lol Akui, Goodboy's posts are often a little cryptic, he's a deep thinker. You can normally tell tbh if you have a supervisor that likes to be addressed formally, you can tell from their emails - some have an auto signature that will state their full title - but most will sign themselves how they wished to be addressed. Also, if you feel more comfortable its fine to call them Prof.... or Dr.... and english people will often say in a friendly way, please, call me John or whatever their name is. I have a masters student that I'm helping supervise and she insisted on addressing me as Mrs Stressed (insert my real first name lol) and after a while I got through to her that I'm just me :-) I find formality quite hard sometimes, I don't like being set apart from people who are just the same as me, just a few years behind in terms of their training.

And lol I chose my name while I was waiting for news on funding and was extremely stressed ;-) I still am lmao so it seems to fit!

Hi, welcome to the mad world of PhD life ;)

I don't know of anyone who's finished in the 3 years, its actually a question I've been discussing with my sup in the last few days, I too will find it hard to survive after my 3 years is up next year! I'm hoping to get done in well under the 4 allowable years but I can't see me being done within the next year.

I always call my sup by his first name - all of the other academics in the dept introduce themselves by their first name too - its far more informal than you might think. There are times you would use their full title but normally its just first names, it can be a bit awkward for the first few times as you aren't sure how they want to be addressed but all the profs and drs that I know prefer to be on first name terms - you're more a collegue at PhD level than a student, but even then the 1st year ugs will use first names after that first couple of times - normally when the prof laughs and says for goodness sake, my name is ................ :-)