I 16 months in. Resubmitting proposal for upgrade at the end of month and I think it is alot better than the initial proposal. However, I am worried that I have taken this long to get the lit rev completed for upgrade. Still have no data collected or even ethical approval application. Do you think Im too far behind?

My supervisor would say that the lit. review should take three years because you're always supposed to be reading!

My supervisor says the lit review is a snapshot of your field at the time you start your research, so should be finished as close to the beginning of your project and not updated at all.

Lucky you!

Anyways, hope you are well Piglet?

That is not to say we ignore any new work published after we start. I have to discuss any new work in relation to my work in the final discussion of my thesis. Fortunatley for me, the new work is minimal. My work and I are an island.

I am great, thanks Coastman. Busy writing. Have to start a new job on Feb 12th, so hope to submit by then. We have a long weekend this weekend for Australia Day and my bf and I are going away for a few days, so I am super happy at the moment! Thanks for asking. How are you? Hope you were not among the looters on the beaches of England I saw on the news.

lol! I wish I was! Some people were taking home some rather nifty looking motor bikes O_o

Well I have been told that the lit review should make up part of my first year report which should be around 10 000 words. I think the average for a days solid work is about 1000 words a day.

Bazzab,

I can confirm that my literature review if ongoing for about 6 months without (as it feels) mayor progress.

I know that that may not be of much help, but at least it (and the other replies) indicate that you are not alone.

bazzab, to make it more clear I have some questions. Were you expected to finish the lit review before the upgrade or is it an ongoing process?

Is the lack of data collection due to you spending more time on the lit review?

What does your supervisor think?

H- It is ackowledged in my department that the first year should be dedicated to completing a lit rev (30 pages). Now, I submitted a very poor attempt at lit rev for upgrade in Nov and it was rejected (& quite rightly too). I was given a 3 month period to resubmit with the recommended alterations which are nearly done! The fact that I have spent these 16 months doing this lit rev is worrying both myself and supervisor. I agree with conflicting views of Coastman & Piglet but it is my feeling that the whole thesis is a working document and to completely exhaust the literature now would mean that any change in direction would cause problems. After all, that is what research is about. (What I mean is, you gear up for 1st expt and then the results should lead to the next investigation- you shouldn really know how it will pan out before any expts are completed).

B