Re: lit review, I guess you should take advice from your sup. Mine was quite easygoing about whether to integrate it in the main chapters. The strands of my research are quite varied, so it would have been tough to merge all the literature into one stand-alone chapter.

Good luck Sneaks! I don't check into this forum often, but am also trying to write-up & it's due 4 weeks from now (6 if I ask nicely). The state of my thesis is:

- Intro: done
- Lit review: (to be) integrated into all main chapters, hazily
- Methodology: non-existent
- Study 1: written but needs improving
- Study 2: written but needs improving
- Study 3: a mess! Such a mess in fact, that I may scrap it
- Discussion: not written
- Conclusions and recommendations: currently bulletpoints

It must be possible to do this, or I'm in trouble. Good luck!

Hello! I just put up a new writing-up thread, but should have just replied here, sorry! There seems to be a funny mixture of doom and hope on writing up. Liking the mantra of 'words on a page!' I've developed a bad habit of binge-writing, when treating it like a marathon seems to be more common..

I'm trying to reorganize a mountain of notes / all my totally disorganized work / various semi-drafted chapters (discovering with horror, stuff that's no longer relevant). It looks impossible!

Sue, how's it going? Are you full or part time? Good luck!

i'd leave it off if you possibly can... i can't imagine any university checking as far back as a-levels.

I tried to be good - tried to write up as I went along (but only did approx 15,000 words) - but now that I'm on the brink of starting the proper writing up, there's *masses* of reorganization needed. You name it, it's changing!! (title, order of chapters, case studies, etc.) How long does writing up take, when you're starting with info overload & nearly from scratch? (Is the answer 'how long is a piece of string?')

It's a social sciences phd - although I love my subject, I so want to finish soon! My supervisor's motto is 'the only good phd is a completed phd' & I feel guilty of having basically written it in my head...

Any ideas would be much appreciated... :)

Brilliant! There's some hope then - I'll investigate with them, thanks very much!

Does anyone have experience of applying for a mortgage whilst receiving a research studentship? I'm hoping to apply for a mortgage jointly with someone (who obviously earns a proper salary!) but have heard that many banks don't consider studentships / bursaries as 'income'. We've already been knocked back, in fact. Any tips / feedback would be really appreciated! Thanks :)

As long as your paid work can be confined to set hours & days, so that it won't swamp your Phd research-time, it sounds like a great idea.. (I do know someone who's now in the 6th year of his part time Phd (with no end in sight) because the kind of paid (legal) work he's involved in tends to take over his life, so be careful!)