I started my current chapter back in February...but what with international conferences, organsing a UK-based conference and generally procrastinating...I now have a week until this chapter is due in. The DEADLINE is fixed. Ouch. I have a number of different documents with bits in and still a bit of reading to do. How would you guys pull this together?

You'll be fine, lots of coffee, early mornings and late nights. You'll feel exhausted by the end of it, but oh so good

Thanks Mia. I don't think I need an extension - seem to have loads written just need to pull it together. I suppose what I am really interested in is how people pull their work together to from a draft document. Do you write everything in one doc and then edit from there? Have several documents going on key themes and then pull them together? I am interested in people's writing practices. Could do with some good tips!

Hi hillyg, I tend to work in 1 document per chapter and do lots of cutting and pasting, printing and reading through and changing. I haven't put the whole thesis into one document yet- still stored in separate chapters. I would advise you to work out what needs to be done to get a minimum draft in and set yourself times to do the tasks. Don't worry if it doesn't feel as good as it could be, just get to the stage where you are happy to send it to your supervisor.

I handed in the first draft of my whole thesis at the beginning of the month. I decided on an outline (in my case 10 chapters) and then compared that with what I had. I only had 3 weeks to pull it all together so divided what I needed to do between that. It was very intense and I always had the feeling I didn't have enough time to finish everything I needed to do, e.g. revise and update methodology chapter in 1 day. I read through the whole thing and tried to make sure my arguments carried through the chapters, and that there were links between the chapters. I was up until 5am the night before it was due and it took me a couple of weeks to feel I had 'recovered' from over-working. Yesterday I had some really positive feedback from my supervisor who said it is 'very close now' and admitted she didn't think I would hand in the draft by the deadline we agreed!!

well done writingup! thanks for the advice. Yes, setting mini-task deadlines is key. Today I want to get the intro sorted with references back to my lit review and the key arguments and aims for the chapter. This chapter has been hard work because I am writing about my data in a way that when I collected it I hadn't intended to - if that makes sense! Coffee, hay fever tablets and chocolate digestives for me!

hillyg - seems you are clued up about how a chapter should look like. you could help me here. what should be included in the intro? I see you've written something like, "references back to my lit review and the key arguments and aims for the chapter." what should be included in the body of the essay and the conclusion. this might seem pretty basic, but my supervisor and i can never agree on this.

Hi Jojo, Not sure I know myself what needs to be in these various sections. But chapterwise I suppose you need to set-up the chapter in the intro, give your key arguments in the body and sum up with a conclusion or closing paragraph. I find the structuring really tough. But I suppose if you map out the chapter in the chapter's intro it will make more sense for the reader. You mentioned you and your supervisor don;t agree - can you give specifics? I am interested in using prologues, vignettes etc. Anybody else?