OK, who has 6 months to submitting, like me? Chums from the '10 months to go' thread, are you there??

I think it would be really helpful if we started a thread to get us thru the next 6 mths. I imagine this is going to be quite a ride, and am already feeling overwhelmed with the amount of work I need to do. So, as we approach the last stretch, the final lap (and whatever other cliches come to mind!), who's out there to keep me company in this madness? :-)

Hi Sue2604, I've got 9 months to go (well, as far as funding is concerned) and I'll be working longs days and nights, so I'll keep you company. Hopefully, I can feed off your motivation, along with others who join this thread.

I only have 3 months to submission: the end of March is my absolute university deadline (6 years part-time), and unless I get an extension that's it. Must submit by then. On the plus side I've virtually finished, and so long as my supervisor (currently looking over my final draft) doesn't throw a spanner in the works I'll be ok. I've been pottering on my bibliography and appendices over the Christmas holiday period. So I am nearly there, but the tension does hit me at times.

How much have you yet to do Sue? I seem to remember you had quite a lot of chapters under your belt.

Hi Bilbo, yes, my thesis has 11 chapters. I've written 9 of them, however 2 of these were written a few years ago. So I haven't even gotten a first draft yet. But that's OK. Have rewritten 2 of the chapters into a second draft.

So, my workload for the next 6 mths is:
- rewrite 7 chapters into second draft;
- write 1st draft of remaining 2 chapters;
- get whole first draft together;
- do references, beginnings, diagrams etc while 1st draft with sup;
- redo complete 2nd draft;
- third and final draft.

Work full-time in 'real' job in Jan; also finish conference paper and article in Jan. Follow up interviews in Feb.

Yeesh! But this will get done!

And good luck to you Bilbo.

That sounds doable then Sue. I found that once I had a near-complete first draft things moved very quickly, and it took very little time to rework into a good 2nd draft and so on - especially because I only had about 5 good hours a week, so was putting very little time into this in practice.

My one slight concern is that you've still to sort out the references - I seem to remember you saying you'd left those. I did almost all of mine as I wrote my chapters (about 550 footnotes in total - eek!), but it still took ages to sort out the relatively small number I'd left undone. Don't leave that too late. It's always more time-consuming than you'd think.

Just out of curiosity, how many words does each of your chapters need to be?

Hi Sue,

same for me, hope to complete everything this year, ideally before Summer.

As such you have done about 90% of the whole process, now a matter of completing the last tiny bit! Yes, we can!(up)

Thinking about it now, that's such a stupid question. THe only reason I'm asking is because I've got about 30,000 words to do in 10 months and I'm wondering how doable that is.

But I'm not supposed to be on the 6 month count down thread, so I'm gonna go now, but I wish you all the luck in completing it Sue. :-)

Just wanted to say good luck to all of you near the end - sounds like quite an exciting time but also quite difficult and uncertain as well. You've all done brilliantly so far though, I'm just at the beginning and these posts are really inspiring to read. Nx

Thanks everyone. Rick and Walminski, glad to know you'll be along for the ride and the company!

And thanks Bilbo, yes, it is doable - a lot of work, but doable. I'm going to start referencing now, and do a little bit often - I know this will be really time consuming.

Cobweb, my main chapters are about 10,000 words, intro and conclusion will be shorter, lit review will be longer. 30,000 words in 10 months is absolutely achievable. In the last 6 mths I've written about 50,000 words and a couple of articles and conference papers - if I can do this, so can you. I'm a slow writer, but I do put in long hours.

Onwards! Today is my last day of hols, then back into it.

Sue,

good idea with the small steps. I am doing that in the same way.

Especially regarding referencing, it is a lot of "nitty gritty" type of stuff. I quickly make mistakes in those sort of issues, therefore for me is best to work on it in short spells, then put it away, review etc. If one comes back to it regularly, before you know you have achieved a great deal.(up)

I will review some of my referencing today, as such you are not the only one!:-)

I'm hoping to finish in 6 months too. I've still got lots of work to do though but am determined to work as hard as I can to get it finished. I really want to be able to enjoy the summer without having to worry about the PhD! :-)

Hi ... I'll join the struggle for a 6month countdown... though the power dynamic going on between and my frequently absent supervisor may put pay to that... Currently battling like many perhaps with the post christmas lethargy and needing to finish a chapter ASAP. I have 2 more chaps to finish then I might have something like a first full draft - Hopefully it will get easier from here on in? This stage has been dreadful. All the best everyone!

Nice to know there's a bunch of us racing (plodding?) towards the finishing line! Today am going to clean my study, start getting into referencing, and write some more for a journal article, on something I don't know much about, haven't studied and which is only tengentially related to my thesis. But am going to get back into work.

Good luck everyone!