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I am having chapter structure irritation syndrome ( CSIS)--something that I am sure is a common but hopefully not contagious syndrome amongst PhD students at all stages of this fine adventure. My problem is needing to refocus a particular chapter that has been revised many times--what was to be its polish and shine moment has instead resulted in it being gutted, with a word limit requiring a hard look at just which things should stay and which must go. It needs to come down by about 6,000 words....limbering up my fingers to make judicious use of the cut and delete options...

but having to do all of this results in Chapter Structure Irritation Sydrome, which has recognisable symptoms including the desire to throw your USB stick into a puddle and stomp on it, and become an abstract impressionist painter somewhere along the French Southern coast instead; having to eat crisps and chocolates whilst strategically placed in front of the computer; a vague incessant feeling of irritation not unlike the whine of a mosquito in your ear...cure? I don't know if one has yet been discovered.

Sounds very similar to Data Overanalysis Syndrome. Especially wrt the constant whining irritation. I am irritable all the time, that's for sure.

I wish I had to cut words. I'm still at the point of trying to write more rather than less.

Yes, Data Overanalysis Syndrome must be part of the same overall syndrome!!!! It sounds very similar indeed! Using an inductive methodology is making my life HARD right now...because chapter structuring is NOT inductive, its deductive, and at some point you have to grab the material and shape it into a coherent whole. ACK! If university guidelines give a word count for the thesis, is this a max or a minimum? In other words, if my university says 80,000 words--do I have to come in dead on the money on this ( exactly that!) or is there some sort of lee way in terms of max and min...? I cannot find anything in my uni regs that says! If I can go over by a certain amount, it would be helpful in dealing with Chapter Structure Irritation Syndrome.

Something that does not help CSIS--when you want a drink ( of a caffeinated sort) and you are 5 p short of having enough change to get one from the expensive vending machine, and you dig through the change that migrates to the bottom of your handbag, and the only change left is irritating amounts of foreign coins that won't help in this instance, and you wonder why countries ever invented things like one p coins or their equivalent...and you feel more than ever...

PhD Pizza, you are the future for me~!
PhD Pizza will have speedy delivery!
PhD Pizza, the cleverest pizza around!
PhD Pizza, is there one in your town?

PhD Pizza will set you free
from chapter structure and data analysis drudgery!
PhD Pizza is the golden light
PhD Pizza, good at every bite (byte?)

PhD Pizza, you are the future for me!
PhD Pizza, oh how good it will be!

For want of 5 p a caffeinated drink was lost
For want of a caffeinated drink the chapter structure was lost
For want of chapter structure...

Oh wait--I just found 5 p under the desk phone! I KNEW if I scrounged hard enough I would find something!!! Whew!!!!!!!!

oh dear! sounds very painful indeed!!! Patrick Dunleavy actaully states its HARDER to chop a chapter down than it is to write one! so you have my upmost sympathy!! I went through irritation this weekend also, where i had to write a one sentence summary of each and every single paragraph of my first thesis draft!!! summarising a paragraph into one sentence, was driving me mad! my first summary was 70 pages! which i finally cut down to 30 pages. with lots of chopping out, and clever single spacing lol. but then thinking, nah dont really need to include that, *DELETE*

hmm advice. its a toughie. as i suspect most of the stuff you have written you would like to keep and is valuable to your argument.

well for university of london regulations, they state explicitly that it MUST NOT EXCEED 100,000 words. and Patrick Dunleavy suggests to aim for a thesis that is no more than 80,000 words, in order to be *Safe*

but, i have read that you have to apply for *special* permission if you want your thesis to extend more than 100,000 words. and justify why.

Patrick Dunleavy speaks of a chapter should idealy be between 6,000 words (being the minimum) and 12, 000 words being the maximum. he talks about 10,000 words for a chapter as being the *ideal*

hmmm if i had a chapter that i had to chop, i guess me personally, i would print it all out. and then get a highlighter, and highlight the very very important key things, and then see which bits are not really needed for the main argument of the chapter.

Patrick Dunleavy advice

page 208: Authoring a phd

{quote}
"it is very common for people who thought they were comfortably inside the word limit to find out that they have run over not just the four-fifths rule, but even the formal thesis limit by 10, 20% .

often the problem occurs because they are repeating similar material at different places in different chapters or they are overdoing the level of detail that the readers need to know. when you are pressing to reach closure on the thesis, this can be a depressing realisation to make, since it may mean that you must spend extra weeks or even months just cutting away text which took you so long to write in the first place{ unquote}

Thanks, Lara! That is a helpful way to go about it. Some of this chapter structure is trying to figure out where certain material belongs--if it belongs in chapter A or chapter B. Which means I have to go back and look at the ultimate reason for the chapter--i.e. what is the purpose of this chapter? What is it trying to accomplish? Why is it here? I just shifted a huge chunk of material into another chapter...which is where I think it belongs...so both now have a word count I can cope with, and its time for the carpenter to come along and start smoothing out the flow...if only I could be in madman phase forever!

his specific advice:

Patrick Dunleavy speaks about 'cutting' down the problem of cutting it down.
page 208: Authoring a phd

{quote} try thinking about it on a smaller scale, cutting out 30 out of 330 words on each page of your A4 transcript which may be easier to do. If you can try to make more cuts in the lead in chapters and to safeguard the thesis core. If you are over your limit, you can now put data and other bulky materials on a CD bound into the thesis, instead of having to get it printed up as text. most university regulations about length still assume paper only thesis and so as yet say nothing about Cds. {end quote}

that sounds like great progress Olivia! well done sounds like you're chopping down the forest

and you're very welcome , my pleasure

Oh, that really helped to think about where concepts belong, and NOT to needlessly repeat them!!!!!!!! That gave me one of those Eureka moments! and a whole mass of discussion that was in two places is now at least in one chapter, and THAT chapter needs to be worked on ( its a cut and paste landfill at this moment, but that is a step for another day!) but THIS chapter now has its shape, form, and comfortably within the word count for each chapter. HOORAY! Thanks again, Lara, that was sooooooooo helpful!