======= Date Modified 05 Jan 2012 19:55:45 =======
Hi all,

I've just started my third year (and final year with funding). My data collection is done, I have a rough thesis plan, the only thing left for me to do is write up my thesis...for the last 2 weeks though, each time I sit down in front of my computer, I'm drawing a complete blank! I thought I'd feel a lot better once I had a job sorted and this would help my focus but it seems to have gone the opposite way.

Does anyone have any advice on how to tackle the mammoth task of starting the write up process?

BB

Hi BusyBee,

What works for me is tackling one chapter at a time and writing a REALLY detailed plan of that chapter before physically writing anything. For example, I will write a list of say the five big areas I want to discuss within that chapter. Then I will make a list of the sub-sections I want to discuss within each of those main sections. When I get to the point where each point represents a paragraph, I list the main points that I want to discuss within that paragraph and then 'beef up' each point into a sentence. Hey presto you have a draft chapter! ;-) (if only it was that easy ... :-s)

Using this approach I am also able to allocate an approx. word count for each section, what prevents me from babbling on for too long. I'm not very good at parting with words that I have already put on paper.

I have a different method when I need to write. I basically force myself to write and don't care about the quality, just get as much down on paper as possible. After doing this for a while I then refine down. I'll also add more after this stage, but I find having words in front of me helps me to organise what I want to say more easily. Sometimes there is very little of what I initially wrote left by the end, sometimes there is a lot.

I guess you need to find the best method for you, the method given before this seems pretty sensible.

Just make sure you have your 'story' properly sorted. Make sure you know the aims and the outcomes of each chapter and how these feed into the story. I wish I'd done this as an overall plan - it would have saved lots of re-writes!

======= Date Modified 25 Nov 2011 18:23:44 =======
you say you have your data collection, have you analysed it yet?

Do you know what your chapter titles will be (as sneaks says, the "story"). If you do, do you know roughly what is going to go into each one, in order that you can write down headings for each chapter? If you've forced yourself to do this you should be able to start rolling stuff out under the headings, and it won't matter so much which order you do it in, in fact sometimes it helps to jump backwards and forwards throughout the sections/chapters as things spring to mind. I "grew" mine in this fashion.

If you haven't worked out what is going where then you'll almost certainly be staring at a blank page for some time. I did. "Rabbit in the Headlights" is what I'd like to call it. MAKE yourself do the chapter headings and sections, even if you can't think of all the sections just yet, force yourself to get it down electronically and you've started....

Edited to add.....I used this book to help me, "Authoring a PhD, How to Plan, Draft, Write & Finish a Doctoral Thesis or Dissertation" by Patrick Dunleavy (though it's aimed at the arts, and my thesis was firmly placed in the sciences I found it invaluable and I only read the first few chapters). I wrote my thesis ONCE. No rewrites, no multiple drafts (just the odd sentence change here and there) and my external examiners report comments that it was really well written.

Thanks for the responses and for the ideas, they're really useful. I think the first thing is to sit down and sort out a proper structure for each chapter - at the moment I only have a rough outline so it will be useful to clarify each chapters aims and outcomes.

Cplusplusgirl, they have copies of that book in my uni library so I will go and track one down in the morning and take a look.

I'll let you know how I progress! :-)