Folks, I could do with some advice please! I'm having a horrible experience with my Revise and Resubmit, but my current problem is this: the examiners' notes are not clear in places and I cannot get the internal to clarify what's required (her best answer so far has been, "Well, the only way to know if that works is to try it. Good luck.") The external is not responding to my emails. My supervisors are rubbish - one is apathetic and the other is openly hostile (where that came from I have no idea). Besides the lack of clarity, some of the notes are actually asking me to do things that are already in the thesis. Any advice? I'm seven months in and about halfway through the rewrites as far as I can tell, but with absolutely no dialogue whatsoever I don't know if I'm doing what they want. Any advice greatly appreciated. (For reference: I escalated it to the Head of Faculty three months ago. He was initially helpful but hasn't followed up and he's no longer responding to my emails.)

Hi Eimeo,

I am sorry that you are in such a difficult position. If it can be of any help, your situation is much more common than you think. Everyone want to be part of your success, but they are very quick to turn your back on you if they perceive that you are a potential problem for them. Also, unhelpful supervisors are not going to change for the better after the viva, although it should be their primary interest that you are successful.

Some people are very lucky and are able to interact with their internal examiners during the corrections period. I had minor corrections luckily, but some of the points that I had to amend were written in the form of a comment rather than a suggestion for a change. So there was room for interpretation, but I did all the corrections first and I e-sent the file that was corrected using "track changes" to my internal examiners. I also sent a rationale where I explained why I had done things in that way etc. Luckily it was fine and was accepted without further modification.

I think it's also a fine balance between asking for guidance, but without pushing too much, or otherwise you risk to get the opposite reaction.
If I were you I would do all the corrections trying to follow their advice, deal as well as you can with the points that are a bit foggy and then, once you are at the end write a rationale to explain the points that you found difficult and how you dealt with them.

I think that they are not going to be fussy about details, as long as structure and content are suitable, so do not lose sight of the bigger picture.




 

That's really helpful, thank you. I'd already planned to send them back an annotated copy of their notes, explaining where I'd made the corrections but my major fear is that, where they are open to interpretation (and contradictory in places), my interpretation won't be the same as their interpretation and they will fail my thesis (I know everyone always says that the supervisors and examiners just want you to pass, but that really hasn't been my experience of the process at all). I really don't want to be That Student That Won't Stop Pestering but I also don't want to fail the PhD because I should have done something one way and nobody told me in advance. It's incredibly comforting to hear I'm not alone in this experience, though - thanks again. The way my supervisor has been getting on, you'd think I was the first student in history to be given a Revise and Resubmit.

I understand your feelings, and your fears are perfectly comprehensible. You have put so much time and effort in this project, and you want to see it completed with the best result, and you will.

Possibly these people are all very busy, sometimes we tend to perceive the fact that people do not reply as personal, but they might just be busy and unable to spend any length of time on other issues. I also think that they might want to see that you can manage your thesis independently.

But as I said, I understand that you feel on the quicksand and you want to be reassured that what you are doing is suitable. You still have time, so do your very best, and don't be to concerned about dong things "wrong". As long as you provide a suitable explanation for your amendments, you should be fine. Do send the electronic copy with the rationale to your supervisor (so that he/she can see what you have been doing) and then to the internal with plenty of time.

If there is anything that need to be further modified there will be time to.

Thanks again! It's so helpful to have someone look at this objectively (there is a tendency to feel it all very personally, as you say).

You are welcome. Good luck with your work, I am sure that you will make it.
I send you a virtual cake to lift your morale in the meantime! (mince)