Take it easy eatingelephants, know exactly how you feel. My draft is due today and I have a couple of hours to go before my brain turns to mush and any ability to edit disappears.

I've been depressed, frustrated and angry all through this week as the deadline hovered. But, the good thing is I am coming through it and things are finally working.

You have probably tried this, but just in case it skipped your mind, have you tried sending an email to your supervisor? Or talking with a fellow postgraduate? I find that just talking to someone else going through the same problem often helps.

Iknow the topic of counselling has been broached by others on the forum. Maybe that is what you need to do.

I still have a hard time talking to strangers and am hopeless at networking after conferences. I doubt I will ever be at east with the whole notion. While I find it easier these days to talk about my research to those I know, descriptions of it to total strangers always sound so lame to me still.

So, advice? Start talking to your peers about your work, find a friendly, do it in a non-confronting atmosphere first, start a reading group, attend faculty seminars to observe and learn how others respond and what you might want or not want to incorporate into your own research practice.

Hi Angie, in answer to your question on academic language, I have a number of different experiences to recount. When I first started my PhD, almost all of my English was colloquial and my writing skills were definitely not up to par. In my first year I did one presentation and was extremely nervous throughout. However, what won the day for me was my enthusiasm for the topic, I think it helped that it took place at my own campus.

In my second year, I joined a reading group that had people from many disciplines. It took some time but as I got to know the others better I was able to engage more with discussions. This helped my confidence enormously. At the same time, teaching undergraduate classes and delivering the odd lecture also helped build my presentation skills.

The lingo, that took a while to accumulate but the more I read the more I was able to understand the gobbledy gook the others were spouting and in time came to spout some pretty weird stuff myself.

Hi, I'm Mee and I am in the final year of my PhD in media and communications. I live in the southern hemisphere and work (at the moment) mostly from home at night, which is why this forum has been great company. I am in my forties though at times I feel just as lost as I was in my teens. Before I found this forum I used to play tetris to unwind whenever I felt overwhelmed, hence the handle. Having said that, I have an addictive personality so have had to abstain from constantly checking on updates to make sure I get my work done. So I dart in and out of the forum a lot.

Hey Lara, how are you today? Sorry to read you were stressed out about your supervisor's email and hope that you've passed through that dark phase. I often go through dark nights about my work too and like everyone else here on the forum, I find what helps is either time off to do something active, like a walk or a chat with a friend, or time off from thinking of the work altogether. You know, detach fingers from keyboard, eyes from screen and take a turn round the uni grounds and sit in the sun for a while.

As for my self-imposed deadline, I am so not going to reach it but at this stage I've decided not to beat myself up about and just revise my expectations. Still have half a day and will work on it.

Hang in there, stay well and remember, it is only a PhD, there is more to life even though it's hard to believe it right now.

How are you going Lara?

I'm done for the night cannot think straight any more.

Happy to say the target has been reached for a change. 5,565 to be exact

Good luck with your meeting.

Keep that chin up you've done well whatever your supervisor says. He's just forgotten how difficult a PhD is

You're not wrong there, accountability in terms of research output (publications, grants, funding) is increasingly the yardstick used to measure the success and failure of a department, faculty and university. But I don't think it is any different to universities in other parts of the world. What I was more pointing to are the differences possible in life outside of academic life.

I tend to have different things going on in the background at different phases of writing. Often times all there is is silence because I work at night, other times I have loud classical music or light opera. Every now and then I sneak a peek at the telly though I tend not to be able to watch and work at the same time. On occasions I have the washing machine humming in the background or a stew simmering away though that is happening less often these days, I'm getting lazy.

There's going to be a whole series of BCC dramatistations of Austen novels coming onto the ABC channel in the next few weeks and I'm so looking forward to them.

My PhD is in the field of media and communications. Yours is in biology, right?

Hang on, I meant partially proven wrong not entirely.

I might be proven wrong and I hope eventually I will be but I think in the humanities that age and life experience is a real advantage when it comes to teaching jobs because there is more for one to draw on. Selection committees for jobs are fully aware of that and all things being equal many do hire nature age doctorate holders.
Research appointments, however, seem less welcoming of the more mature. Maybe it has to do with the lack of continuous blocks of time or bucket loads of energy that one needs when in hot pursuit of research that people with families, kids and mortgages cannot find easily. I am generalising of course.

True enough, I've known people manoeuvring for a better office chair! So do what makes you buzz with excitement, after all, you spend a third of your day at work and a good half of your life as well. Might as well make it something you enjoy.

Hey Lara, so far I have about 3600 words. Not much because I was skiving, watching the BBC production of Jane Austen's Persuasion on telly for a good hour and a half. But will put my back into it now.

You can do it!

Hey Lara, seems to me you've been very organised and done your best to facilitate an orderly submission, so don't beat yourself up if your supervisor gives you a hard time. Just stay focussed on what you do know and the material you've gathered for your thesis. If he tells you are not ready, ask him what you need to do in order to get ready. That is his job and you have the right to expect that he be able to do as much for you. Ask as nicely as you can but be firm and confident.