Hello,
I posted here some time ago about my viva outcome and corrections and received some lovely words of encouragement. Last autumn I had my viva and passed my PhD pending with minor corrections. Hoorah! I hear you say - and as did everyone else around me but my viva was a tough one and the corrections list was just as I'd feared:
* add 3 or 4 pages in this chapter
* restructure that chapter and rework around a clearer intellectual narrative
* this chapter needs a better conceptualisation of this and this needs to be woven then throughout
* this study needs needs a deeper analysis
* that study needs a deeper analysis
* this chapter needs completely re-writing as it is "banal and underwhelming"
I was given 6 months to make these "minor" changes.
On the plus side, the examiners said that my research was clearly highly valuable and they commented that I was clearly a highly competent and articulate academic (trying to focus on that!).
I have been chipping away at the thesis since January (between a full-time academic job) and it's been hard. I'm now working on the final chapter (the complete re-write) and just this week I have been so close to forgetting the whole thing and quitting my job but the reality is that I love my job, I love academia and I just need to get though this final stretch.
This forum has been such a source of support over the past 4 years or so, I just felt the need to post. Any words of advice or encourage always welcome.
GM