I can't write my Masters dissertation and it's due in 2 weeks, in despair over it

[StupendouslyStupid]

It's due in 2 weeks from Monday, I just can't do it.

I feel as though I know what I want to say, but can't get it down on paper. I have awful brain fog and tiredness from juggling a health condition that they know about, but don't think now that a week's extension would make any difference at all. They don't give more than 1 week.

What should I do? I'm confused because I think if I asked to defer, I couldn't just effectively become a part timer and submit next year in September 2020. I think I'd have to formally take the whole year out, then come back?

I don't know though. I'm torn between psyching myself up to push for deferring or just writing something as best I can and hoping it passes.

But don't think it will pass and my whole Masters will be dragged down by a scraped pass even if it did.

I just don't know what to do, I'm so tired and stressed, just want to sleep and feel well.

Just remembered another hack. I enabled dictation on my pc and got 2000 imperfect words down- then rewrote from that.

Thats just poor form even if you did have health concerns and the fact you're posting about it when you've written 200 + words complaining you haven't done it.

You know nothing about my health, or the impact of my physical health on my mental health.

I am very thankful for my life and it is absolutely worth living, but parts of it are extremely difficult and at times overwhelming. I am not going to give you intimate details of why that is.

Perhaps in future you might pause before assuming that a person is not trying as hard as they can to keep their head above the water.

@yy558,”Honestly though, I'm going to be the unpopular voice here - how the hell did you manage to leave it until 2 weeks before it was due?”
For me it was 48 hours before submission and the result of paralysing anxiety. I literally couldn’t read, let alone write anything- the words danced over the page. I physically couldn’t do it.

@StupendouslyStupid
We must have been typing about that post at the same time.
Really. You can do it!

Thank you

So much support and helpful ideas on this thread, it really is giving me courage!

I am in the same boat op. I had a healthcare issue and have managed to extend my submission date until December. It means I'll graduate later but needs must.
There may be another option to
After the stress of previous deadlines and making myself ill over them I refuse to do it again. Get in touch with student devices or your uni's equivalent. They are really helpful x

This was me a few weeks ago, I had plans and knew what I wanted to say but just couldn't get it out properly and certainly couldn't write 14,000 words.

My advice is just write the first thing that comes to mind, no matter how poorly phrased or structured it is. It's a hell of a lot easier to edit a crap dissertation into a decent one than to write a decent one from the start. You might find reading a shoddy first draft back is just what you need to realise how to fix it.

Write drunk, edit sober

@Etino ditto on the word count blocks! I always feel like the intro was my major stumbling block as I felt like I had to say perfectly what I was about to explain but I hadn't bloody written it yet! So I write it last. It is an introduction to a written work so doesn't make sense to write it before what you're introducing exists.

I left is so late due to fear as well. Just paralysing fear of failure. I've always been fantastic under overwhelming pressure, but am a shit at procrastinating when I have lots of time.

And yes, OP drafts! You're not meant to write it perfectly beginning to end the first time!

Ah MN to the rescue again! I've got mine to finish as well and am getting the fear...I need the fear though else it'll never get written! Literature review is well underway and I know that's the most time consuming part but oh. My. God. The. Fear! Good luck OP! Your thread has helped me figure a way through mine that I'll enact tomorrow onwards! By the power of Mumsnet WE SHALL GET THESE QUALIFICATIONS!

I also made sure I had breaks. So every 45 mins go outside for a 10 min walk, have a cuppa in another room.

Take a notepad and jot down ideas if they happen to come to you.

I had major 'I might be a genius, might be an idiot, but might be a genius' moments on my fag breaks. I don't smoke anymore but they def helped me through 😂

So much good advice on here - as well as some overly judgemental posts. Use the good ones, ignore the others, they no nothing of you or how they would react if they found themselves in your circumstances.

I’ve been where you’ve been and it’s not fun. I had ME hit badly at the time and was sleeping crazy hours a day which didn’t help.

I used the scaffolding method of writing - breaking it down into main headings then sub headings then sub sub headings then chunks in those sections and even notes or bullet points for each bit. If a good sentence or paragraph came to mind though I definitely noted it down as I went. It never felt like I was writing lots as I was only needing to expand small sections each time. And if one chunk really wasn’t coming together I’d not waste too much time but moved onto something else. And then suddenly there was just the intro to write, the abstract to tweak and time to move on to reading it through (try reading aloud if you don’t have anyone else who can read it through for you to get an idea of how well it reads.

Other practical things - references, glossary, citations, diagrams, quotes etc - check in advance what the required style is for your university and do them right from the word go - an annoying way to lose marks unnecessarily or to have to spend time correcting.

Set up all the formatting to make advantage of being able to generate the index etc so that you’re not wasting time having to really check it at the end.

The supervisor that did you down and caused a crisis in confidence - did they actually provide any constructive input on what you should have done differently? It’s so unhelpful when people say ‘I don’t like this you need to improve it’ - if you knew how to improve it you would have done it differently to start with. Whereas if they said ‘I prefer it arranged by themes not date’ (or whatever it is for your thesis!) you have a good starting point to go back and work it through. Go back to her and ask for her five top tips to improve the quality of your thesis. Also try asking for her five top general tips for improving the quality of theses in general. And the top 3 things to avoid. Write them on post it notes or cards or paper and stick then up in front of you as an ongoing reminder.

Are there any past students or grad students or other staff that you get on with that you can ask for tips on what to do and what to avoid - doesn’t need to be long chats - just 5 minutes over coffee or at the water cooler is fine.

Get the extension put into progress now. Much easier and more believable now than with 2 days to go. If you don’t need it that’s great. And it’s still good to aim for the original date. But it will be there as a safety net.

If you are still trying to make sense or pull out fab insights from the wide subject base that you’ve been researching, as well as doing your structured outline, find the biggest piece of paper you can and mindmap it all at least twice - from different starting points (eg from different starting subjects and from themes regardless of subject. Or by timeline. Or technology or end user or whatever makes sense for your research). Just scribbled notes, post it notes if necessary. Plenty of lines to join things up - and different colour lines for different threads through your research. Doing it twice will really help to get some interesting insights (I say this as someone who did an MSc was unusual - back then at least - for being a subject that studied lots of different subjects at a high level and the skill was being able to pull all the disparate strands together to identify issues and create solutions - most MScs go in much greater depth to a single area of study. However once you get used to doing it, it’s a great skill to have and attacking it from two different angles is a quick win in getting extra insights that can be overlooked.

In my subject there was a very pragmatic old lecturer who used to say that at the end of the day it all boils down to making sure that you have covered who, what, why, where, what, when and how as well as thinking about each of the different senses in relation to the issue your investigating/your hypothesis and the previous questions. I don’t know how appropriate they are for your subject or thesis but I’ve found in life as well as academia and work (and now when helping ds with his school work even!) they provide a great simple list of questions to ask yourself when getting stuck or wanting a different way to write about things or when structuring your report if you need more words.

OP I have just finished mine, handed it in and had my mark back. I was in the exact same position as you, totally hopeless and I'd given up tbh, I was going to let the whole 4 years of my degree go down the pan because I couldn't finish my dissertation and I didn't care.

I had the worst year of my life, far more than my share of awful life events my mental health was ruined. But two weeks before hand in I thought fuck that of course I can do it, and I did, it was grueling and I didn't do as well as I could have but I never have to think about it again.

You CAN do it I promise you. Can I ask what uni you're at? As for an extension I got 8 weeks with a lot of medical evidence, if it's health related can you submit an extenuating circumstances form? Remember at the end of the day the uni want you to do well and if you deserve more time, you'll get it.

If you can't, are you going to a clean organised space where you can work? If I'm home I never focus so I had to force myself to go to the library every day, some days I wrote 300 words others I wrote 1000 but I wouldn't have written any if I wasn't sat there in the library.

You also need to write it to a Level 7 standard. I would get an extension. You can't just bash out 10000 words of a Masters like it's a GCSE essay! Or it wouldn't be a Masters!

Ten thousand words is nothing. Thousands and thousands of non-experts write fifty thousand word novels every November for National Novel Writing month with absolutely no research to guide them. What you need is a writing challenge or the Pomodoro method. Go sit down, set a timer for ten minutes, write absolute shit until the time is up. then you're free for ten minutes. SEt the timer for another ten minutes. Write another ten minutes. The only rule is that your fingers must move constantly. Go Go GO GO GO

You're too far in to change what you're doing. As you said, think of it as your stepping stone for your further research. Commit to your topic. I agree with the just start writing. Get all your thoughts down. Use markers (ie here expand on xyz ) when you are a bit stuck.

I find, when writing documents, once I get going I do pretty well. It's just getting started that's the problem.

There is something called the 'valley of shit' that happens before submission when you think you know fucking nothing and you have to take another year to get it done but this is not real! You can do this! I had 3 weeks left to write up more than 12, 000 words and my supervisor was getting worried but I got it done (I needed painkillers for my arm from all the typing though!). Got a high distinction and all. You have had some brilliant advice here (I wish I'd thought of the getting pissed and writing one 😂) And you absolutely don't need to justify why you don't have it done to anyone here - you have your reasons! I would try your best to get it done so it's not hanging over your head for another year. I think you would be less likely to complete it in that situation. Just my tuppence. Good luck!

Contact the Assessments team at your university and ask them to clarify your options. I am in a similar situation and found that they knew all the options, even though these weren't clear from the guidelines. For example, if I don't submit on time, there is a grade penalty for late submission - maybe it's worth taking. At my college, if you fail your thesis then you can resubmit in 3 months' time and your resit grade is capped. Personally I'd rather have a capped grade than a breakdown. But it turns out we can also request a 3 month deferral, although the guidelines suggest only a full year. Just make sure you know your full range of options. Good luck. There have been some great suggestions on here and I've been saving loads for when I do mine.

Two weeks 10000 words is 2000 words per day if you only use the weekdays (and as Monday is a bank holiday you can get ahead). If I were you I'd try to race the word count. E.g. try to get more than 4000 words done before Tuesday.

A good way to start is with pen and paper- I found it took the pressure off a bit and made me feel like I was just writing down ideas. I'd write a section out by hand and then type it up, rearranging and doing a preliminary edit as I went.
Another thing that helped me get started when I felt a bit overwhelmed was expressive writing- Just spend 10 minutes writing down whatever is worrying you and all your thoughts and feelings about the situation. then just throw it away and get to work.
I think a lot of us have felt the same as you-and it's hideous and really tough, especially with health issues on top- but you get a lot more marks by submitting something you aren't happy with than you do submitting nothing at all. You'll probably feel a lot better when you get started.

Brilliant advice here, thank you all.
OP, I need to hand in 1500 words on Tuesday. Comparing to your 10000, mine is nothing, and I’m not unwell. Well, physically I’m not.
Shall we write 1000 words of whatever today?

I did a pt masters, MBA. We had a year to write our dissertation. Everyone handed it in on the last day. 3 hadn't written a word until the last 2 weeks.
Does it matter if you scrape a pass? Really?

Morning OP, hope it seems a bit brighter today.
Maybe first step is to do a detailed plan?

Mines due at the same time op. Another few days work and it should be done 🤞
Definitely agree with getting words on paper and then edited later - highlight what needs sorting out but you need to capture all your key points then edit later.
Main thing that helped me was work space I tried working from home, from office, coffee shop etc but I’ve done my best work in library. It helps that there’s no distractions and no easy excuses like making another quick cuppa.
I set myself little targets 350 words about x then link to y and z. Then as soon as I’ve completed my target for the day I can go home.
I was hoping for a much better grade but I think overall it will be a pass but I will happily take that and will be so relieved it’s all over.

One of the other tricks is to pretend that it’s a Mumsnet post - just think what would I put in a man post to ecplain to them [one of the sections] and talk it out in your head just like you’re about to post on here. Just make sure that you type it so that you won’t lose it. I often write stuff into my email as a new email rather than a word doc when I just want to bash stuff out and ignore formatting or any of the ‘document’ side of things but just want to concentrate on text.

Another thing to think about is production of the document - do you print it out ring bound to start with? Or does it need to be cloth bound - or can that come later? Are you going to do it yourself - in which case do you have plenty of paper and ink? Will you bind it yourself so do you have the stuff to do that? Do you have a plastic cover and back plus a stiff back (or whatever you need at your uni)? And spares in case your punch has a bad day and cutscit wrong so you need to do it again? Approximately how many pages will it be?

Or are you taking it somewhere to get printed and bound so you just have to send it to them and turn up later to get it? Do you need to book a spot at busy times? Can you email it or do you need to go in person? Do you get a receipt to know that you have sent it and they have received it so will definitely be printing it? Do you have to send it in PDF format or word or ??? - if it’s not PDF will it definitely print out correctly and not swap font or change your base thus changing the layout ( not on my thesis but have experience of having to print out on a different machine where the standard page margins were set differently from the ones on the pc I’d used - made each page into a page and two lines so it all just went wrong. A real pain to sort when you’re under pressure and stressed and doubly so if you’re running tight to time. So maybe a trial run of three or 4 pages including formatting like several sections, all of the different headings, smaller sections of text that go over two pages, index, references etc. Fill with junk text - you’re not going to show it to anyone but just make sure that it prints ok (more important if you’ve never used these printers before).

Have you got enough biscuits/tea bags/wine/etc in? And things to eat that are easy to eat but will fortify you rather than make you sleepy?

There are probably lots of other practical things that you can prepare in advance if you’re having a quick break from writing (only briefly though - no procrastinating!!) so still usefully using your time.

Diagrams - always try to get some in! Any particularly useful ones that you can copy and attribute but also ones that you have created yourself. I can’t remember if the titles and/key and other words in them count In your final total so just be aware of that for your uni.