Hi, I'm kind of new to here (read a lot but haven't posted much) and I've found it really helpful and comforting to know that there are a lot of people in the same boat. I am currently in my 3rd year and *supposed* to be writing up (submit Aug). However I'm floundering slightly. I have 3 papers that I am currently working on, one of which recently got rejected from its first submission. I'm not too bothered about this as it was a very good journal and I just submitted it in an aim-for-the-sky kind of way. But now I have a three papers to work on, two of which require a lot of work and the third needs revisiting, and no thesis writing on the horizon.

What are other people like in terms of thesis writing? I am under the, perhaps false, assumption that I could write it fairly quickly once I start. Also we are really encouraged to have something published by the time we go in for viva, so I'm concentrating on the papers. Is this a bad idea? Does the thesis actually take a lot longer than expected (I mean I know it takes longer but does it take a lot lot lot longer)?

My supervisor is not helping things, and is being a bit of a....well his supervising style is getting old fast. He also overcritical of my writing style, saying that it is too wordy and not scientific enough. He also constantly changes his mind about what I should focus on, and often doesn't provide any helpful comments as to how I can make anything better. I know that sometimes I use 10 words when I could use 3 (I like President Bartlet's style) but I wrote a lot in my undergrad degree and I think my supervisor is trying to stamp out my individual style to make me a science robot. Although my subject is science based, it is a life science and there is room for individualism.

Finally, does anyone else keep getting switched between student and colleague?? I have recently realised that I am getting treated like a student sometimes (i.e. professors talking over me in meetings, often not listening to me and sometimes just ignoring me completely) and a colleague (i.e. expecting me to do 100% of the work and then lambasting me for not doing something three other ways, when most other phd students are just getting the statistician to do their work!). This is quite recent but I wondered if anyone has had similar experiences and what I could do to get a bit more respect?

Ok, that was a bit of a rant. Really any help/advice/knowledge that there are others out there having similar issues would make me feel way better about it all.

Thanks!!

I don't really want to scare you but I'm supposed to be submitting in December and I am writing up now! I'm aiming to get a first draft completed by the end of June then constantly working on corrections between June and December. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time, especially if you and your supervisor have varying ideas of what is the right standard!

If you're finding your sup not particularly helpful, is there someone else you can seek advice from? Do you only have one sup or do you have advisors you could ask for advice?

As regards the respect issue, I don't really know to be honest. I think there is a stigma attached to being a student and it really depends on the organisation you're in and the individuals within it.

My advice would be to try to get at least one article submitted for publication as future employers like this but aside from that one article focus on your thesis (by all means publish more when you're finished). It took me a while to start writing up but once I started I tended to be steady and consistent (not big on speed though). I aimed for 500 quality words a day and do believe they were quality.

I'm currently unemployed and have missed job opportunities due to lack of journal publications.

Best of luck!