I'm currently trying to write my first year report (I'm meant to be submitting it in a couple of weeks and have hardly done anything at all!). In the postgrad handbook, it says the first yr report/upgrade should be similar to an MSc thesis with regards to structure, length etc. I think it's this that is putting me off so much! My MSc thesis was huge, I put a massive amount of time and effort into it and was extremely pleased with it in the end. I literally don't have the time to put that amount of effort into my upgrade report, but more importantly, have no-where near the amount of data that I had for my MSc (which is strange considering i spent about 6 months doing my MSc project, and I've spent about 9 months here!!!)
So I just wanted to get some info on everyone else's upgrade report. Did you have loads of data and analysis for it? Roughly how long was it? Did you put masses of effort into it?
My supervisor seems totally un-bothered by it, he's just left me to it, doesn't even want to read it before I submit it!!!!
Any advice/comments would be great!
Thanks x

Hey,

When I came to do my first year report I wrote pages and pages, and when I submitted it, I was told it was too long and had to cut it down! I think in the end it was probably about 30 sides long (that's including over 10 pages of appendices - I had to put in copies of all my questionnaires), and that covered a brief lit review, my methodology, findings from my pilot, a brief analysis and discussion, and where I wanted to go from there in the PhD with some time lines.

I think it depends on your uni and faculty so it's probably best to talk to your supervisor or another colleague from your uni, but my advice would be to not stress too much about it. I don't know anyone who has submitted the equivalent of a masters dissertation for their upgrade!

Good luck with it!

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At my university, the first year report (not for upgrade) is supposed to be handed in in March, that is for P.T. students like me. It is supposed to be 5000-7000 words or the equivalent of it, and can include anything I want that proves that I am doing something.

I plan to include the slides of a presentation I did, my interview schedules, a draft of my lit review and the transcripts of the interviews I will have by then...My supervisors told me that this is more than enough.



But I guess it differs from uni to uni

This does indeed vary between universities and departments it seems. I would check it with your director of graduate research or equivalent. Our department handbook says one thing, the faculty handbook another regarding dates and my supervisors didn't know. It was only by checking it out that I discovered that the dept one is wrong and I have to upgrade by Christmas! This wouldn't be a problem if I hadn't just made changes to the project meaning it's all going to have to be new work. We have a progress check at the end of the first year that can be built upon for upgrade, but in my case that's not going to happen! That gives me 7 weeks to get a 10,000 word chapter written and submitted with all the supporting documentation... :-( There seem to be big differences between different people's views in the university on how important it is too, so I don't know how much I should be panicking yet!