Hello!
I have been spending the past few hours trawling through the various threads on this site (and countless others) reading account of the difficulties encountered during the writing phase of the thesis. which has been very soothing in a way because I'm stuck and I feel like i'm the only phd student who has ever felt this way despite evidence to the contrary.
I am doing a part-time qualitative thesis in the social/health sciences. I'm almost at the half way mark. I have collected all my data. i have admittedly written very little because i've been focused on the practical aspects of research.
i had envisioned this would be so easy! having completed the leg work of my research now all i have to do is write about it right?! wrong. i would rather transcribe 100 more interviews than write.
i did write today but its complete rubbish. I feel like i'm a fraud because theres no way i'm smart enough to do a PhD because i can't write!! what i write doesn't make any sense!
Has anyone previously been able to write well and then forgotten how?! is it possible to relearn it? even as simple as the theme and rheme concept was so helpful to (re)learn.
Also do people write then reference... or write around references?
how long in the process until you feel comfortable writing?
Will i be able to write this thing in 3 years part time?
thank you

Hi, I am just curious, what made you think writing would be easy?

As for my opinion, just write something today, set youserself a goal of writing at least 300 words a day, regardless of quality. Take in consideration that you will need to revise it, so it doesent have to be perfect the first time around. As for references, it depends what you are writing about . Your lit review and theoretical chapter will probably have more quotes. Your case study will be explained more in your own words I imagine.

It’s quite hard to give advice on this because it normally takes me age to find out what I want to say, but once I figure it out its not so bad. However there is a certain formula that I follow and that makes it fairly easy.

You have your data - do you have a theoretical framework to make sense of it?

Hi
It's not so much that I thought it would be 'easy'. I knew it would be challenging but i expected it to be instantly productive whereas for me its like getting blood out of a stone. Recalling my undergraduate and thesis experience I never found writing difficult. It's more the work that goes into writing which I have 'forgotten'. I've been spending most of the past few years I've been focussing on data collection rather than academic writing. its like fitness; I'm a writing couch potato because I haven't worked out linguistically for a while. So it's only recently I was able to remember the process that leads to writing so reading taking notes organising them into clusters then paraphrasing. that's essentially the writing process for me.
Like you it's almost like once i take in ideas they need to marinade in my head until i know what i want to write.
And aside from this I do find hearing about the processes or formulas that you refer to that people take when writing to be interesting in itself. its one of the creative parts of the thesis an i have a lot of awe when people describe how they go about it