I've got the dissertation blues...

[Oakmaiden]

It is only a little baby dissertation (6000 words) but it is due in on Friday at 12 noon.

And I have to get it bound before I can hand it in.

And I haven't written it yet.

What is more - I still don't really feel I know my topic very well...

AND my eldest son has a 2 hour therapy appointment this afternoon, and another on Wednesday lunchtime.

And my house looks like one of those dirty bombs has exploded in the middle of it. Or possibly two of them.

and I need to find a reference about the importance of gaining consent from a parent before you carry out research with children.

I feel your pain!!! my second year essays are to be handed in on the 14th. I've completed 2 x 2500 words and nowhave 3 x 1500 words to go.

House is a bombsite, and DS has been entrusted to anyone who answered my post on facebook!!!1

Can you get an extension, citing family pressures as the reason?

Do you know how to look up references in the library, using the relevant search terms?

I sympathise - handed mine in last month so I know well the pain.

Forget the house - it can wait til the weekend.

Focus on how good you will feel when it is done.

My strategy was to just write any old shit down and go through it and refine, rewrite, refine. It was easier than staring at a blank computer screen.

Good luck!

BPS code of ethics (2009) talks all about research with children and the need for consent from parents - if you can't find a copy on the internet I can send you a link or copy - let me know

Thank you all. Have tracked down the BPS thanks gingergran.

My tutor offered me an extension, and then emailed and said she had been told by the head of dept that they can't give extensions for dissertations.

So I am just going to have to get this done, somehow.

I feel like I am wading through treacle. I spend about 30 minutes writing a paragraph and then next 4 hours looking for the references I need for that paragraph.

My brain is going all fuzzy...

Please can I join you and sob in a corner too?

I have an assessed report due in on Friday that I have not started reading for OR writing, and have a 10,000 word dissertation due in twelve days from now.

I have soooo much work to do, but am sooooo tired that I want to curl up and sleep for a year.

And why won't it STOP BLOODY RAINING?!

Oakmaiden - have you done any background reading? Do you have any references already? If so, you should take those references and start writing around what you do have, rather then wasting four hours trying to reference one paragraph.

Write about what you know first, and leave the most difficult part to the end.

Good luck for today.

First draft pretty much done. And only about 150 words to cut to get it within my word allowance. But that, as they say, is for another day...

Tomorrow, to be a bit more precise!