Arrrrrrrrgh

Logging in, this is one of those days I dread, where I go round and round in circles looking for the right words. Despite all my planning, progress is only 885 words, some of which I am still unsure of. I always have the same problem getting started

OK, Lara, maybe I'll take a leaf from your book and set myself a bite size objective for the next 1.5 hours. .. 3000 words edited in 1.5 hours from now (can't work in 10-min frames, mind's too slow). So, check back in with you then ....

Yes, clowning, with most of your work published and hence, peer reviewed, it sounds like a viva would be no problem. Good luck.

No formal requirements for a presentation for a PhD here. Just 80,000 words examined by an expert in the field.

Guess I'm luckier than I realised.

Haha, know what you mean by not understanding. When I read through my work sometimes I have to wonder who I was channelling at that time. I guess different influences come into one's work that can change how one writes. However, that is what the rewrite is about for me, using my own words and my voice to delineate my work. Pity it's taking so long...It's cold tonight here and all I feel like doing is curl up in bed with a good book.

A viva...we don't have that where I am, cannot say I fancy the idea as it sounds real daunting *sorry* But how does one prepare for a viva? Is it, as I heard, literally a defence of the thesis?

Just did my naughty thing and slipped off to a game of tetris. That's what I used to do alot of before I found this forum.

Am most glad of the company too. )

Hi Lara, it's coming along very very slowly.

HOw about you? What's your objective for this day?

So, taking your advice, I shall state now my objective for this day is:
to edit the intro to the chapter as well as the 1st and largest of four sections. Roughly six thousand words. Highly ambitious I know and I'll probably not make it but I like to aim for the stars so even if I fall halfway I still land close to the skies.

Thanks Lara, thanks Smilodon.

Thanks for the tips. I've done most of that and spent last night planning, highlighting and re-structuring with beautiful A3-sized mind maps.

I guess my problem is a lack of wanting to get the task done. Faced with a chapter I'd already written and slaved over I feel very daunted by the idea of having to work on it all yet again. I prefer the task of creating to the task of reworking every time and tend to procrastinate until things cannot be put off any longer.

Far as I know, your thesis is marked A, B, C with A meaning straight through to award without amendments, B - with minor amendments and C-more amendments that examiner may require to sight before passing thesis.

Again, far as I can tell, to get an A you need to be spot on with everything, from theory and data down to referencing and punctuation plus use of language.

Just embarking on the editing of the above by deadline as I have heaps of marking of undergraduate papers awaiting me. The chapter was last updated at the end of last year and I have new material to add but am also reshaping things for greater coherence and bringing important points to the fore.

The husband's away though and it's all down to me at home too. Arrgh. So, talk me through this please, will you guys?

As we are about the same age (yes, I'm pretty ancient) there were times when we could almost have been friends but I did remind myself as she did too and after a while we both arrived at a level where we could be friendly without being best buddies.

There was a point where she was shaky because a senior academic had made some comments about my work. I was hurt and angry but did manage to work my way past that to see that the comments were not totally unjustified. In the end I learnt that for my supervisor to have confidence in my work I need to be convinced of its value myself.