Is three weeks enough time to WRITE UP a dissertation?

[whambamthankyousir]

I've been working on my dissertation since September last year, a huge chunk of it was taken up by having to go through the ethical application process. I got the go ahead in December with that. I then had to gather participants. Interviews commenced and finished in February. I have transcribed them all and analysed and found common themes.

I have a clear chapter structure and outline with how many words is going into each chapter. My literature review is written however, after doing the research I do have to change some of that and refine it but that's 2000 words out of the way with 8000 to go.

I have 3 weeks on Monday to write it to get the draft into my supervisor who said she will turn it around in a week to send back to me with changes to be made. I will have a week to implement these changes and submit officially.

To be honest I'm quite relaxed about it. It's a topic which interests me very much and is very close to my heart. I am a fast writer, once I get in the zone I can work very fast.

My friend on the course has been telling me it's impossible to write up a dissertation in that time and that I better ask for an extension now. The thing is, I don't see how I could have done it any quicker as I needed to wait for my ethics application to be approved before I could do anything.

Can anyone tell me if this sounds doable? I plan to put 5 full days a week writing time into this until it's complete. Is it doable or will I need an extension?

Easily doable. Although I'd focus on getting it to your supervisor earlier, and giving yourself more time for any changes.

I wrote my undergrad dissertation in a night (lit review, methodology, analysis and conclusion) having carried out interviews earlier on.

I’m not saying this was a good idea (it was completely ridiculous) and I am clearly no expert but to me it sounds like you have solid foundations and a clear plan so I think you should be ok.

@user1488622199

I wrote my undergrad dissertation in a night (lit review, methodology, analysis and conclusion) having carried out interviews earlier on.

I’m not saying this was a good idea (it was completely ridiculous) and I am clearly no expert but to me it sounds like you have solid foundations and a clear plan so I think you should be ok.

Oh my god! How did you find that?

Yes, that's very doable. I also find I work best to tight deadlines. It focuses the mind!

Depends what else you are doing. If you can actually spend 5 days a week on it (not sure what you're doing with the other 2: bit of a risk of getting out of the zone), it's easily doable.

Do you still need to produce graphs/charts/tables, or is everything qualitative?

What grounds would you have for applying for an extension? I know universities have become very lax on this during the pandemic, but you shouldn't just be able to assume you can have an extension without evidence of extenuating circumstances.

Like @user1488622199 I wrote my dissertation (20,000 words) in a night (or rather 24h non stop).

I'd done all my research, and spent months thinking, then the day before it was due, I just typed, and typed, and typed. I wholly agree that if you've done the background planning and consideration, the actual output requires very little time.

Would I take the same approach now, 22 years later?

My head says 'No'... but I know in my heart I probably would.

I did mine over 3 days. I'd done everything else, had a watertight plan and was ready to go. I received a distinction.

You can definitely do this.

And on those 3 days, I only worked during the day and took regular breaks, sleeping well and not panicking. Could definitely have done it in 24hrs. I agree that if you've done all the work already, actually writing it up isn't the tough thing. Mine was 15k words.

@whambamthankyousir completely stressful. I’m pretty embarrassed about it to be honest, I didn’t approach my degree in the right way at all. Doing a degree was very overwhelming and I had quite a lot of anxiety around it all which meant a lot of procrastination on my part but like the pp I do better with deadlines thankfully!

Sounds like you’re taking a much better approach! Hope it goes well.

Yes, for an undergraduate dissertation definitely. I did mine in about 48 hours interupted by a couple of blocks of about 4 hours of sleep and one trip to the pub for a couple of drinks and a terrible game of pool with my housemate when I got writers block for a couple of hours and kind of froze up and was ready to give up

I got a first.

I had all my notes ready and had had supervisions etc. It was just writing it up.

I was 22 - I did another degree in my mid 40s and discovered that to my consternation I need 8 hours sleep in every 24 nowadays and family life also makes intense academic work impossible - but if you're young and not living with your own dependants it should be easily done in a week - giving you the option of handling it in for feedback two weeks before the deadline, giving your supervisor a week to read it, and spending another week on any changes needed.

I wrote up my PhD thesis based on a rate of approx 1,000-1,200 quality words per day. Did it sitting in bed with my laptop. I think what you're suggesting is achievable providing there are no spanners in the works, like illness, for you. Good luck!

Yes. I wrote up my MSc dissertation over 2 weeks, treating it like a FT job and working 9-5 every day. I'd obviously done all of the research, lit review etc already and had written all the code (it was a computer science degree). I got 84%, so a clear distinction.

My friend did her 16000 word dissertation in two days.

I did mine in a few days, but only got 58% so not my best effort.

Undergrad and masters degrees I discovered I could write 1500 - 2000 words a day, if I'd done all my research and had a structure set out.

Make sure you write the bibliography as you go.

My PhD was a bit of a rush job like this... I remember writing my conclusion in around a day (2000 words) and the rest of it was written in around there months. Extremely stressful, at a time when I didn't have dependents - I was 27 at the time and had no other worries in my life.

If you hadn’t done the analysis or the literature review yet it would have been a stretch but as it is you can comfortably do it. Don’t waste days though and crack on!

I would struggle, I did struggle, but then I’m dyslexic. Having your lit review done is a major plus as some many underestimate how long it can take to write up that bit.

But it sounds like you’re ok. As others have said, get it in to your supervisor as early as you can to give yourself time to edit based on their suggestions.

I wrote 12,000 words in two days. Just took caffeine tablets and stayed up all night. I have probably had the same productivity if I'd slept that night however!

Easily doable I think..I would try to get it done sooner to allow maximum time for edits, seeking feedback etc.

Three weeks is plenty of time for that. It would be different if you hadn’t done any of it yet, but you are literally just writing up. You’ll be grand.

Yes easy! Dd did her MSc diss in less than a week.

Hint - use decent referencing software and do it as you go along.

Yes I think so given what you've done so far and 15 full days of writing you're planning. I take it this is for an undergraduate degree as it's 10,000 words and you have to submit the final copy in April. Of course I don't know your university's policy on extensions but don't rely on it as an insurance option. You may have to supply evidence of your reasons to extend.

Good luck with it.

Yes of course you can. That's loads of time. Get off Mumsnet and get going....!!!!