Hi Latte,

I can relate to the stage which you are in writing your chapter. I've been in similar situations for all my chapters I think, and I found the best way to tackle it is this...

First, don't worry about the length for now, but try to do your reading and looking up more sources now. Add these in to your already massive document! Once you are comfortable you have the all the information and sources you need in there, then it's time to start editting.

What I find helps at this point, is opening up a new blank document and having it side by side with the massive document. I then work through from the start, copying and pasting paragraphs/sections in one at a time and editting them as I go along. I find it much easier that way to tackle the large document, and its good to know everything in that document is already in editted form. In the original document, I usually end up with sections/paragraphs/sentences that I decided weren't good enough, but I keep them just in case I change my mind or need them later on!

I hope this makes sense and helps?! Good luck with your writing!

Thanks Hugh, you're right. I would definitely rather make the changes now. And thanks IntoTheSpiral, I'll check out your blog :) I have one last final to do list to get through, and I'm just spending the next couple of days working through it.

Hope everyone else's writing is going well!

Hi all! I'm a bit late in joining this thread, but really in need of some motivation at the moment! This final year of PhD has been the worst year of my life probably, and I never thought I would ever see the end of it. But at last, after several months of carrying out a whole set of experiments for my final chapter during the day, data analysis in the evenings and writing up the thesis during the nights... I'm finally due to submit my thesis this coming Friday!

I have a complete draft of my thesis, but after having spent months and months working so hard I just have no energy or motivation to work on the changes people have suggested. I feel so drained, and I know I've worked so hard and that I'm almost there... but I kind of half feel like just being lazy and submitting it as it is, without making the changes.

I thought maybe talking about it here, maybe someone would give me some motivating advice or something! Or maybe I'm just procrastinating.

How is everyone else's writing up going? Anyone else feeling similar to me?

Hi OkeChi,

I'm not sure if I can be much help but I'm also finishing up my PhD in Materials Engineering at the moment, although my research isn't on metallurgy. It's difficult to provide a template for research design as it will differ depending on your problem.

What is your overall research question for your PhD? You need to have a research question defined rather than just performing experiments without reason. What experimental data do you need to be able to answer this research question? Yo should then design your experiments to collect this data in a structured way. How does the data you have already collected fit in to this?

For preparing a one page dissertation statement, I would probably first introduce what your overall problem/research question is. Then try to split the research question into 3 or 4 smaller objectives, discussing briefly the data you will need to collect for each, and what methods you will use.

I hope this helps in some way?