Thesis write-up support thread?

[AndroidsConundrum]

Hi all!

Is anyone trying to write up at the moment? I've been staring at my to-be-edited chapter all bloody day. Everyone keeps telling me to 'just write anything' so I did, and now it's all shite and I don't know how to edit it! I've done about 10k out of 85 and no matter how many times I put into bite-sized chunks it's still terrifying.

I'm hoping to submit in December 2017 but my funding runs out this year so maybe that will spur me on...

Anyone else?

[MarasmeAbsolu]

I am a supervisor editing and feedbacking just now on three theses. I'll tell you a few things that maybe would help whoever will correct / edit for you (although December is a long way away!) - as long as you are in my discipline / close to it.

• have a good structure, with logical progression
  
• avoid redundancies
  
• avoid teaser sentences full of vagueness that lead nowhere
  
• follow a writing recipe (in my field, for intro for example: what do we know about X, how do we know this, is the state-of-the-art good or bad research, where are the gaps + opportunities, why do this matter, what is the research question) - once this is written up, you can polish the angles.
  

I am hoping others will come along give advice :)

[AndroidsConundrum]

Ooh, I'm in humanities, I forgot to put that bit in! Marasme thanks for your help. I think all my sentences are full of vagueness that lead nowhere . I'll start there...

[Zorra]

If you're on Facebook there's a group for PhD parents and one for people submitting this year (as I am assuming I get off Mumsnet and go revise my literature review) called Mission Possible: thesis submission 2017. They are my lifeline!!

[lovingmyginandiphone]

Do you have links for those Facebook groups?

[dorothymichaels]

I'm submitting in August all being well. I temporarily left Facebook to get writing done (and to avoid lots of the crap on there!). Sadly this means I've lost the PhD parents support thread. But I had felt recently it was getting huge so I avoided for anything other than practical tips.

I've got myself a google sheet with each chapter laid out and columns for no. of words written, target words, and deficit. Then a column for my self-imposed deadlines on that chapter and other for where I am with it (e.g. draft 2 sent to supervisor on X date). Final column is for comments, e.g. 'need to discuss this in supervision' etc.
At the moment I'm on a deficit of 20000 words with a target of 75000 but most of it needs extensive rewrites!
Really bad timing to submit at the end of the 6week summer holidays for the kids.. but that's when my funding runs out.

[klara33]

i do know that at some universities there are thesis writing groups..usually at a university website there is a page dedicate to it..e.g. check how it looks at the Ohio State University..also check this blog..some articles a pretty interesting and might be of help..and in case you are really stuck you can check this..best of luck

[EffinIneffable]

I'm submitting in September 2017 (social science). Love to have some kind of support group cheering others on the same position. Any links to FB groups also appreciated - I couldn't find the 'Mission Possible' one mentioned above.