Thanks very much Ady, great advice and very gratefully received :-)

I'm just waiting for the go ahead from my supervisors and I'll be resubmitting asap - then I can get on with life and enjoy my baby son!!!

Thanks again (up)

Hi Folks,

I have recently completed my thesis corrections and I am hoping to submit asap - a summer graduation would be lovely! I receiver minor corrections although the situation was slightly complicated as I was 36 weeks pregnant when I had my viva so the examiners gave me 12 months in which to complete them. This was also because although they were classed as minor corrections, there was more to do than just a few weeks work - the discussion chapter required fairly substantial revisions and there was an additional statistical analysis they asked me to include also (my field is psychology). In the end it has taken me the best part of 4 months (although that has been working on it only in the evenings when the baby is in bed and my sleep deprived brain does not function as well as it did before!)

Anyway, I have created a cover letter to send to the examiners with my revised thesis, which is essentially a table with 3 columns - one listed the requested correction, one with the changes I have made, and one with the page numbers where the revisions can be found. However, I am unsure what else to put in the letter - so far it is just the table and I know I need a bit of blurb before and after but I just have no idea what else to say. So I was after a bit of advice from anyone that is in the know and who has written a resubmission cover letter that was successful in getting the changes accepted. Any advice would be most gratefully received, thanks! :-)

Thanks for the replies ladies, it sounds like something smart-ish but comfortable is the way to go :-)

I have a plain dress that I think I can smarten up with the right shoes, bag, jewellery etc., I'm just relieved to hear that no-one has said "you have to wear a suit"!

I'm pretty obviously pregnant now, as much from my waddle, swollen feet and massive eye bags as the hefty baby bump. Still, I'm hoping to be as discreet as I can possibly be about the whole pregnancy thing as I don't want it to influence the viva in any way, so the dress I think I'll wear is very loose fitting and hides the bump in the best way possible. As long as the stress of it all doesn't trigger labour, at least until they've said the result, then I'll be happy!

Thanks again for the advice (up)

Hi folks,

I have my viva on Thursday morning and I am stressing about what to wear as I am 34 weeks pregnant and finding clothes that look smart but are also comfortable seems to be impossible. Just wondering what people typically wear for their viva - whether they go fully suited and booted or whether it's ok to be quite casual? I think it's set to be quite hot on Thursday too so I want to take that into account. I'm a bit reluctant to go and buy a maternity shirt and suit that I'll only wear once, but I don't want to run the risk of making a bad impression by looking to informal. Any advice would be so gratefully received, especially from ladies that have recently had their viva - what did you wear?!

Best,
Hannah

Hi Nicky,

Interesting survey!

Thanks for the distraction ;-)

Hannah

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate your advice.

I still don't know what to do, because as much as I know it makes sense to include them at the start, I really feel like doing that will take something away from what I have done. Yes, my studies are slightly different from what they have done and add something new, but that difference is only small and not significantly new - not PhD worthy I don't think. I don't know if this dilemma is more about my lack of confidence, and I do think it is quite common for people to get toward the end of writing up and have a total crisis thinking they've got nothing new to say etc etc. But I just think part of the PhD is selling what you have done and framing it in the best light possible to maximise your contribution, and to me, putting them at the end would be a better way of doing that.

I really like your idea Joyce of mentioning them at the end of the literature review but then discussing them in more depth in later chapters. I guess this signals to the examiners that I haven't ignored them but hopefully it won't interrupt the flow of my argument. I'm going to try it that way today and see how it looks, see what the supervisors say, and go from there.

Thanks again for the feedback all of you, you've made a lonely and stressed out PhD-er feel much better this morning!
:-)

Hi All,

I have just come to the end of the third year of my PhD - my data is all collected and kind-of analysed(!) and I'm well into the writing up phase. 6 months ago I was aiming to have submitted by now, but things have taken much longer than expected and I've struggled with the writing up much more than I anticipated so I am now aiming to submit before Xmas. I really don't think I've got it in me to carry on after Xmas as I'm really running out of steam and finding the whole thing extremely difficult, so if it's not done by Xmas I'll probably never finish it!

Anyway, my problem is that in the last few months, 5 papers have been published that have done more or less exactly what I have done in my thesis. When I started out, there was nothing out there on this topic and it made for a really interesting and new thesis, so off I went to work on it and now I feel like all my questions have been answered by other people. I know that this is the nature of things, particularly when you're working in a fairly rapidly advancing literature, and it's nice to see that I can't be that far off the mark if others are doing very similar projects, but it feels like it's taken the originality out of my argument and there's a sense of 'so what?' about my thesis now.

Basically, I conducted a systematic review at the start of the PhD and this is going to form my second chapter (the first chapter is a more general lit review of the wider issues, then the systematic review is designed to identify and discuss the studies that have looked at the particular question I'm asking). I have been updating this review as I have gone along and now that I am writing the final drafts of my thesis, I don't know what to do with the recently published studies that fill the same gaps that the studies in my thesis do.

So I was wondering what you lovely people think I should do:
a) Include the new studies in my systematic review, in order to be comprehensive and not selective about the studies included, but highlight they are recently published and that when the research in the thesis was conducted they weren't available
OR
b) Date the systematic review as being conducted in Dec 2009 and therefore leave out the new studies, therefore giving a bit more justification and excitement to my work, but talk about them in the discussion and relate my findings to the new research in this area

I am inclined to go with the second option as I think this will make my arguments flow better and the thesis will show a gap in the research, a series of studies filling that gap, then a discussion of other new studies that support the findings of my thesis, BUT - I don't want my systematic review to be unsystematic and the examiners will probably know about the newly published studies so will wonder why they're not in there.

Arrrgh!!!

Any advice would be so so so gratefully received!

:-)

Hi All,

Thanks again for the fantastic responses - what a lovely bunch you are :-)

Those of you who have already completed it and who indicated that you would be willing to consider further participation will be getting an email off me today regarding participation in the next stage. It would be fab if you were able to take part in the follow-on phase, but don't worry if you are too busy - I know how hectic PhD life is so finding 20 minutes to spare is often impossible (and when I find 20 minutes to spare I like to spend it drinking tea and eating biscuits and doing nothing that requires my brain!).

Thanks again for the support,
Hannah

WOW! Thanks so much guys - I was away from my computer for most of yesterday so just checked my survey site and I'm so chuffed with how many of you have responded. Thank you so much.

You have all made this stressed out PhD-er a very happy girl today
8-)

Keep 'em coming!!!

Hello everyone,

I have been a self-confessed lurker on this site for a while now but decided today's the day I come out of hiding!

This is basically a plea for help with my data collection. I am third year PhD in psychology, due to submit in Sept. All was going swimmingly until I had 2 organisations that had previously agreed to allow me access to potential participants pull out of the agreement. To cut a (very) long story short, the police and a large cancer charity had both agreed to promote my study and assist me with recruitment but very late in the day changed their minds, hence I am now having a complete meltdown.

My research is looking at the psychological impact of stressful or traumatic life events or other emotional upheavals. Part of the final study of the thesis is an online questionnaire and I was wondering whether the good people of this forum might be willing to take part.

Qualifying events include, but are not limited to, unexpected bereavement, serious illness or injury, witnessing or being involved in a car accident, being the victim of a serious crime, being physically or sexually assaulted, traumatic relationship breakdown, or witnessing a loved one experience any of these events (e.g. a parent or child diagnosed with a serious illness). You do not have to currently be experiencing distress to take part - if you have experienced any of these events, even if feel you have recovered from the experience, I would like to hear from you.

The study is completely anonymous, strictly confidential and has had full approval from my institute's ethics committee. You can exit the study at any time. It should take approximately 20 minutes to complete.

If you would be willing to take part, or would like to know more, go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KRHGGQH

Many many many thanks in advance,
Hannah

:-)