I have a dissertation to write by end of September, but due to numerous academic and personal issues, i don't see me being able to finish on time. I have been notified that i am able to receive a month's extension if needs be. However, i am starting a PhD on 1st of October.
I am just wondering how would this be received by my PhD supervisor, as i will essentially be starting my PhD whilst also trying to finish my MA dissertation. I don't see this going down well with her at all to be honest.

Have i just screwed things up for myself?

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Hi Adam,

I had a quick look at your previous messages at this forum and I feel sorry for you. I can imagine how overwhelming it must be for you.
As some other people suggested before, I think 1-2 months is enough time to write-up Masters. The only problem is you need to know what to do. Is your database complete? Do you have interpretations in mind? Do you have outlines of your chapters ready? Try to put a document somehow, make an outline as detailed as possible, and then start filling up the gaps. Prepare your tables and other "easy" parts. You may find easier to start with introduction chapter, methods, review of previous investigations or the results. Personally, I find literature review and discussion parts difficult, because of we need to put our research in a "bigger picture". Think which strategy is better for you. Even if your writing progress is slow, it is still a progress.

I think, if you have 1 month overlap of your Masters and PhD it is not a big deal...
Are you going to do PhD on the same subject and / or with same supervisor? if yes, do you really need it?

Feel free to ask questions. We are here to support each other.

Hi,

First of all: Don't panic. I have written my master thesis solely in my spare time between a full time job and caring for a one year old toddler - the worst part for me was the discussion, for which I reserved one week of holiday. So its doable in your timeframe.

I second the suggestion that you start by organising your work in chapters - and from there in subchapters. Its way easier to write a small chunk of text when you have limited time - and you can escape the feeling: "I need at least 3 hours of work to do this chapter so I won't start until I have those three free hours."

Furthermore, I have read that you suffer from depression and have the same perfectionistic approach that I have.

For the perfectionistic approach: Be careful that you don't spend most of your time editing the same sentences again and again. Won't help with your wordcount. I have read somewhere a really helpful advice: Create three post-its, one with "Writer", one with "Critics", one with "Polishing". When you start writing, you stick the Writer Post-It on top of your monitor (or somewhere you can see it). Now you are in writing mode, so just write and try not to edit things - only if you have another idea that you want to add. After a writing session, you switch to critics post-it/mode and let your inner critics loose. But he is only allowed to give helpful feedback - "Your sentences are trash" won't help. Normally you will find out fast whats bothering you with the sentences, so now you are allowed to change it. Polishing comes last, when you have to stick together chunks of text that you have written on different sessions.

Hope that helps a bit!

I don't think it's a major problem at all - if you're sure you can finish in the month? I found I didn't really do a lot in my first few months of PhD (just reading), although I may be in a different field.

Glad to be helpful.
I believe there is a way to start your PhD 1 (or more) months later. You may try to find it out. It is hard to predict your supervisor's reaction, but hopefully she will understand.
However, it might be a bit too early to inform her. Are you sure you cannot finish on time? or that 1 more month will make a change?
how much have you done for your Masters?

So from your post 2 weeks ago you still haven't started your dissertation? Are you sure you are actually going to do it?

I'm sorry but I'm going to have to call bull on being too hectic. I'm currently on sn MSc by research and I finish at the end of August. I have over 15k words written up (and I have a 2 year old who takes up all my time of the evening). I plan on finishing on time and that's after my equipment went missing 3 times and knocked me back 6 weeks. Add to that I need to pack up the whole house (and it's alot-took 3 vans to get it here) as we move mid-august. You just need to make time amd not excuses. I'm up at half 5 mon-fri to be in for half 6 so i know i can get enough done. Just about putting the effort in, so i don't biy into the whole 'not enough time'. Sorry if theres any typos, done this on my phone.

Critchley, that's impressive. How much time in total have you spent on your Master's? I am not in a good situation regarding my PhD thesis. I have had a lot of delays, and my writing is very slow (also English is my second language). But thanks for sharing. I think I need to improve my organisation skills.

Adam, sorry to disappoint you, but I think that 1) you need to work really hard this month and keep your worries away, and 2) if you will make no progress within this month, I doubt you can finish by the end of the year. It depends on your project, of coarse. Master students that I know spend 1 year on their research or more. If you do not have data by August, you cannot finish by October for sure. This is only my opinion, your field of research and situation may be different. What do you think?

Hi Adam

I second what everyone else is saying, you need to organise your time and get this done. It sounds to me like your biggest issue is self-confidence, you clearly don't have any and it's possible that your putting off starting this so that if you fail its because you haven't done it and not because you're not good enough.

As hard as it is you need to push them thoughts to the back of your mind and crack on, start off small, do the easy bits, but make sure you find time to do something on your dissertation every day, the more you do on it the easier it will get.