I've just had a long e-mail from my supervisor saying she hasn't seen any real written work from me yet but then she is asking for so much extra stuff for my next review panel that I know I will be spending all my time doing that and not getting on with my research.
She wants a detailed timetable of everything I have done since the last review panel and how many hours I have spent on doing each thing; plus a detailed timetable of what I am going to be doing next right up to when I finish which is in a year and a half (though not as detailed for that bit); a full thesis plan with 800 words for each chapter with a bibliography for each chapter. I am also working on a case study which is not going to form a great part of my thesis. I just want to get on with my research and start writing chapters for the actual thesis, which is what she appears to be wanting me to do.
How much did people have written, and how polished was it half way through their PhD?

"She wants a detailed timetable of everything I have done since the last review panel and how many hours I have spent on doing each thing;"

This seems excessive! You are not an hourly employee. Is there some need to justify your previous progress? Otherwise, can't you just list drafts written, etc?

"plus a detailed timetable of what I am going to be doing next right up to when I finish which is in a year and a half "

Can you do a monthly plan that shows the progress you intend on chapter drafts, revisions etc?

"a full thesis plan with 800 words for each chapter with a bibliography for each chapter."

I am nearly in the writing up stage, and I could never have produced that ahead of writing the chapters! The writing would often reveal new areas of research that were needed, and I really wrote as I read and researched. I wrote early, from day one on the research, which was what my supervisor encouraged, but I did not have this level of detail ahead of my writing. Its too linear for me...I would have gone mad as a hatter trying to work this way.

" I am also working on a case study which is not going to form a great part of my thesis. I just want to get on with my research and start writing chapters for the actual thesis, which is what she appears to be wanting me to do.
How much did people have written, and how polished was it half way through their PhD?"

I started writing from day one, with a lit review but it was hardly a work of art. It was just a way to get started. I also did drafts of other chapters, and have been revising and refining as I go along with my work.

Sorry for all the boxes, I am a poor judge of how many words this thing tolerates....

I am about to start writing up ( I hope) in the next few months, but have to re-do my literature review as the one I did initially would not fit any longer! Which is fine with me, I am not bothered, I see it as a mark of the progression of my research and learning. I have one chapter left to draft on interview results and then just polish up the rest of what is written ( which is every other chapter), and that is really I suppose the writing up stuff.

at half way, I had a lit review chapter that was way overlong, a plan for the thesis which was what the other chapters would be conceptually, and a draft of two of those, including a methodology chapter. I had three draft chapters, with the emphasis on DRAFT!!! My supervisor asked for a chapter draft per month, so if starting from scratch, that was 10,000 words, or so for each chapter in a month, and if revising, it was just the edits, or new research added in, etc...which somehow was more work than initial drafts!!!

As for polished, no they were not highly polished. They were readable, with some polishing, editing, and proof reading, but I knew they were drafts, and thought that it would waste time to make them highly polished when I knew they would be revised multiple times.

Are you familiar with the Flowers Paradigm? Its a four stage writing and editing process, with a madman, architecht, carpenter and judge. I would say the Judge for me will show up in the writing up stage, I have kept him/her at bay to the best of my ability until then, although he/she makes an appearance for conference papers.

Drafts I would turn in were in the stage of carpenter, or architecht to carpenter, and I let my supervisor know about this paradigm, so that he would understand the final edits and high polishing would be done, that they were not forgotten, but I was not at that stage yet. Thus, structural problems and "flow" were not all solved, as that is the job of the carpenter, and he did not always finish his job by the time I sent off drafts. But the madman and the architecht always did.

Last box!
So my supervisor, understanding this process, was OK with what I was submitting, and I would sometimes just have to bring up the work of the carpenter, from time to time, and that of the Judge, as things I had not yet reached.

To me its an utter waste of time to get highly polish and edit when you KNOW all that work is going to come apart again in revisions. I thought it was important to have read for typos, including in footnotes, and to have good structure in so far as headings, topic sentences for each paragraph, etc. I would also indicate where I knew there were conceptual holes, or places I was researching but had not yet written, OR where I was planning revisions already ( and would try to give a little comment on what that might be).

Hope that helps.

Crikey! does she ask all her students to do this? It is really excessive. I'm at the total other end of the scale. No first year report - and my chapter outline was just a list of short chapter titles. I'd go barmy being chased like that. Can you explain to her that this is just taking too much of your time and you must prioritise these tasks i.e. drop a few, maybe delay others.

Thanks for the replies. I have just looked at the PhD student handbook and my supervisor is asking for way more than the school requires for the review panel. The school suggests a chapter as a piece of written work and I wanted to do that for this panel but was told to do a case study instead. I can't win, I offered to produce a large piece of written work which would be part of the thesis but am now being criticised for not having written much! That's because I'm spending so long on all the other stuff!

just take a breather and come back to it and do it. that's how i go about negative feedback. don't let it get you down... its easy for one to say that you should negotiate with such a supervisor, but my experience has been to the contrary. arguing will lead you nowhere. just do as you are told to keep the peace. try splitting it into small tasks and touching on each one briefly in your report.