Hey

After my viva, to bring my word limit down and narrow down my focus, following from my examiners and supervisors requests, I now have to delete 2/3 chapters out of my thesis and focus on one thesis area (rather than several areas) which means I have to delete around 40,000 words of hard work. :(

My supervisory team want me to publish the 2/3 chapters, but I can't help but feel really disappointed and heartbroken at the prospect of deleting such a sizable chunk out of my thesis that I've spent years working towards. The last few months I've written various systematic reviews which I'm now having to exclude from thesis!

How soul destroying!

Anyway, just wondered if anyone has any tips on letting go of much loved and worked on content?

NIGHTMARE!

======= Date Modified 26 Jan 2012 00:19:56 =======
Cool story bro!

To be honest, if I was in your position I'd far rather have those 2/3 chapters as papers than as thesis chapters. A thesis gets read by a handful of people - papers will have a far wider readership and give your career a head start if you want to stay in academia.

How is that work wasted? You've got ample material for a PhD PLUS potential publications. Win win. Some people struggle to get even one of those covered. It's not like anyone is saying those chapters are rubbish and you wasted your time doing that work. I don't really see the above situation as 'letting go' of content as much as 'reassigning to a more appropriate audience'.

Another bonus is that it's a relatively easy/tidy way to reduce your word count without having to painstakingly comb through looking for sentences/paragraphs to shorten etc.

A thesis can be a means to an end. It doesn't have to be the end in itself.

Hi Pineapple!!

Well, since you know that we both experience the same problem, I do face the same scenario... but do not worry too much about that. What I was told by my examiners was that the bits I am not going to use I should publish them later as journal papers... Could you do something similar? BTW, I have to delete about 15.000 words from mine and re-write them (though I have not received the examiners' report yet).

======= Date Modified 26 Jan 2012 08:07:29 =======

Hey Pineapple! Glad to hear you're making progress! I really wouldn't worry about cutting material out. Now I'm in my first post-doc nobody gives two hoots about my actual thesis- all anyone asks is what publications you have. If you have material to get a few publications out of it (and it sounds like you do!) then you'll be in a good position for job-hunting! Best, KB

======= Date Modified 27 Jan 2012 12:02:59 =======
============= Edited by a Moderator =============
Deleted by Admin - duplicate post.

Thanks everyone :) Reallly helpful! X