Am just reading through my chapter and looking at some arguments made 3 years ago. they're good arguments but i can't remember how i arrived at them. am having to re-read some papers again. some made so much sense then and were so exciting but reading them today, they don't make sense..

then there's the other part where i have written too much. some footnotes got mixed up. endnote! grrrrrrr. i have to go back to drafts from ages ago to redo them.

i feel like i should not read more. just get all i've got. read through each draft and incorporate to make a thesis. any advice?

:-(

my supervisor keeps on telling me off for reading too much. She says enough is enough - get on with it, there is only so much you can read about! - So I say go for it. I wish my project was on a smaller topic really - it is quite specific but has lots and lots of different things that could affect it and I keep thinking - what if they bring it up in the viva!? - anyway, my advice would be to go through what you have done and any holes will soon become apparent.

Hi JoJo. First off, I think you should congratulate yourself that your thinking has moved on so far. It would be pretty weird if your initial thoughts were as good as your current ideas! Maybe one strategy would be to cut out the older stuff and leave it in a separate file, so that when you prepare for your viva you can think about the 'journey' that your thesis has taken. All of the reading you do over the three years has some kind of formative influence over the finished product, even if it doesn't make an appearance in the final thesis.

I also think your plan to stop reading might be a good one. I'm a total neurotic and would have read forever if it wasn't for my supervisors telling me to concentrate on the task in hand (writing!). I also think that, in my case at least, reading can be a form of procrastination when I'm finding writing too hard.

It sounds like you are almost there. Keep going, you can do it! It's suprising how quickly it all comes together in the end. From a recently submitted Heifer.

Dear Heifer and Sneaks,

Thanks for the reassuring advise: the reading does have to stop at some point. am now working with what i have already read and written and concentrating on making my argument with what i already have.

You're right. Once i have rearranged what i have, it should soon be clear whats missing. Can't wait to get the first complete draft!!!! :p

Thanks again.

J.

Jojo - assuming you have got all your refs stored in EndNote (ideally with a few of your own notes), why not print out ALL your records and take maybe half a day to actually read thro' what you have read and it might refresh the memory. This is actually easy to do. It may mean you make up a style that displays the EndNote Ref# but to do that ...
Edit - Output Styles - New Style - Bibliography - Templates
Modify all the relevant Output Styles to show specific fields (insert relevant fields (EndNote Record #, Author, Title, Abstract, Notes, etc.,). You can copy & paste one style to the next Reference Type. Once closing this window, give this style a new name (My_Reading or something applicable).
Then, open up your main library, select all references with "My_Reading" style set. Go to Edit, Copy Formatted. Open a Word Doc and then paste. What you will see in the Word doc is a list of all your refs. You can then go over old papers that you did read and you will see ones that will spring out as being important. I have modified some of the actual EndNote fields for "Area" and "Importance"
I am sorry if this seems long-winded but I use that sometimes to just go back over stuff I know that I have read. I can send on the style if needed.

Jojo - I'm in the same position as you. I have work from years ago, and now I read it and say 'what the hell did I mean?', followed by 'I really need to improve this!'.

If you feel you have enough information though, you should draw a line, otherwise you'll be going around in circles re-visiting old research and finding new work. I can't stop looking at new material, and in process getting nothing down on paper, but rather creating very long 'to-do' lists.

Try to focus on your core work, and what you already have on paper (easier said than done, I know!).