Thanks for the replies - I'm not sure it would work introducing it bit by bit but introducing it at the beginning might be good - I don't know why I hadn't thought of that (although sometimes you can't see for the wood for the trees, can you?!).

I'll give it a go and see how it fits - thanks all! (up)

Morning all,

Well done for all those who achieved their goals yesterday - I managed to get my nightmare chapter finished on Weds so I had the day off from my computer yesterday, rearranged the office, spent the day mooching round town and catching up on household bits and bobs. Today though, it's back to it with a vengence!

Today's goals are:
1. Read over chapter from weds and correct any obvious grammar/spelling errors
2. Make a list of changes that need to be made to chapter 4
3. Start restructuring chapter 4

I hope you all have good days today - Linda, I'm sorry to hear about your bad news yesterday and I hope the chocolate helped - I know it always makes me feel a bit better!

Hi all,

In my thesis, I have three literature review chapters and the theory from each is combined to form my conceptual model (which then guides my data collection). I'm just having issues with where to introduce the model in my thesis. My supervisor has suggested maybe at the end of the third literature chapter (although he hasn't read all of my literature review) but to me, that sort of implies that it is more related to this third topic than the other two which isn't the case.

I'm more inclined to put in a chapter on its own, between the end of the literature review and the beginning of the methodology but its only a couple of thousand words so I'm not sure thats appropriate either (my lit review/methodology chapters are 10000-12000 each).

Is anyone else developing conceptual models based on their literature review? If so, where did you put yours? Even if you aren't, I'd be interested to hear any ones thoughts on it...

Thanks a lot!

Huge congratulations!!!!

Have fun doing lots of non-PhD things now!! (up) :-)

Oh Button, what a nightmare - these internet companies are rubbish sometimes! When we moved house, they tried to charge us a £70 disconnection fee to leave our old flat and then another £70 reconnection fee for the new flat! We were going to stay with the same company but they were just taking the ****! After lots of stroppy complaint letters, they finally let it drop. I'd have been livid if they took multiple payments like they have with you though! I hope today is a smoother day for you and you get your article done.

Today, my goal is to get this chapter finished. I need to:
1. Write summary
2. Read through and check it all makes sense
3. Add references into bibliography

Happy writing/researching all!

Morning all,

Right, here we go, today's goals:

1. Finish writing section 3.6
2. Draft a plan for chapter 3's summary and introduction

Hope you all have productive days today :-)

Not sure if this is the one you mean:

http://www.academicjoy.net/StrugglingPhDstudent.pdf

I have had the most frustrating day and am only now sitting at my desk to even look at my PhD work - although my original uni meeting was only meant to be a couple of hours, I ended up stuck there until gone 3pm and then bumped into some other PhD friends I hadn't seen for a while so we all had a bit of a whinge and moan about how stressed we all were! It was quite nice really - and reassuring to know they are stuck in write up hell too!!! :-)

Anyway, my goal for tonight is to write a clear plan for tomorrow's work so I can crack on first thing and catch up on the work I missed today - I desperately need to get this chapter finished by Weds at the latest.

Hi Mog,

I think it depends a bit on how you have laid out your results and the rest of your conclusions/analysis but for mine, after my general discussion relating my results back to previous literature, I have literally spelt it out to be clear of how the research has met each objective - so I have a subheading of objective one and then discuss how my findings relate to it, then objective two etc. My supervisors are keen for me to really emphasise how I meet my objectives and what my contribution is and they've suggested this is the best way - although admittedly, it may not be best for everyone. 

If you do go down this route, I think if you haven't found anything new for the first one, that's exactly what you should say under that objective - the fact that you have not found anything new may be significant in itself?

Then maybe after you've done each specific objective, have a separate bit for other findings where you can put your other main result.

Not sure I've helped you much but it may give you some ideas!  Good luck with it Mog :-)

Morning Button & everyone else,

I'm here too although not because I want to watch the football - I'm glad its on though as at least it keeps hubby busy while I work so I feel a lot less guilty for being sat at my desk in our spare room!

I have to go into uni this morning for a meeting at 10 so that will pretty much wipe out this morning, but this afternoon's goals are:
1. To start on the final section of chapter 3 (already have a rough plan for it)
2. If goal 1 gets done, start drafting out the introduction and summary sections of the chapter.

Hope you all have a productive day :-)

Hi Donzy,

I completely agree with you although I am not near submission as yet - I was hoping to submit in Oct but that's now been pushed back to the end of the year/beginning of next year. I am due to start a job in July though and at first, I was really worried about juggling my time but now, I think it will actually do me good and make my time more structured. At the moment, I am tired of being on my own writing up for such long periods and its soul destroying when I get so little accomplished in a day. I think that loneliness, combined with the perfectionist in me makes tasks so much bigger than they probably are - I'm hoping that by being re-integrated into the real world in my job, something will click and I'll just get it done! Although equally, I am bracing myself for being incredibly busy!

I agree with Smoobles & Pootle - your viva may not be as bad as you think - think positive! :-)

Good luck on Monday

(up)

Well done everyone!

I managed to get my plan done this morning and have written 5 pages (not sure of word count and have shut my comp down now!) of the first section - it looks like the whole thing will be considerably longer than I thought, although at least if I get it all down I can then cut it as needed!

Have a good weekend all :-)

Morning all,

Sounds like you are all making good progress...

Today, I'm working on a complicated bit of a chapter that is all jumbled up! I know what I want to say but the sections all intersect so much it's hard to find a way to split them into sub-sections. So I'm going to spend the morning planning it out and then have a crack at writing it this afternoon.

Hope you all have productive days!

:-)

Morning Espresso & everyone else!

Well I wasn't planning on working today but my husband is still sound asleep and I was awake at the crack of dawn so thought why not!

Wow, Espresso, it seems like you are so close, with examiners nearly sorted, dates set and a draft nearly complete. I'm very envious - originally I was planning on submitting in Oct but now I am due to start a full time job in a month and so need to cram in as much as possible before then and then juggle work and phd until it's done - I'm hoping early next year but at the moment am just taking it one day at a time otherwise I'll freak out with how much I have to do!!

I'm sure you'll be fine, just keep going with your daily goals and you'll get there by August!

For me, as I'm not sure how long I have until my husband wakes up, my goal is to sort out some admin - return a couple of emails and start my agenda for the supervisor meeting I have later in the week. Exciting stuff!!

Have a good day all :-)

Hope everyone had a productive day!

I had a bit of a frustrating day - I managed to complete goal 1 but in doing so, found that I need to redraft over half of the chapter (about 5000 words). It's annoying because I thought it was better than that (although I did write it over a year ago) but I seem to have left out bits I need and included a load of stuff that is now irrelevant! Oh well...

Am off for the long weekend so will report back on Wednesday...

Good luck to those working over the weekend.

:-)