PhD thesis writing motivation/support thread!

[JumpingJellyfish]

I know there's a few of you lurking out there and thought we could have a new sparkly thread to coerce encourage us with thesis writing....

I'm in my 6th (or is it 7th) year of a part-time PhD in marine biology- and writing up (though still occassionally dabbling in data analysis which I shouldn't be!! but it's always more interesting than writing...). Hoping to submit 1st May 2009. have to really for my sanity and that of my long-suffering DH & DCs. Need to finish my first draft by end of January I reckon to give me time to make corrections etc.

But I am having long periods of self doubt and general procrastination so could do with some motivational support from anyone going through similar (Acinonyx for example?! ps. I've name-changed from madmarriedNika )

Hi sunnylabsmum and acinonyx! wow, that's pretty soon! out of interest, how do uk vivas work? are they public, do you have to present your research and then answer questions etc?

Vivas here are private - usually just you and your two examiners (internal and external). Sometimes the supervisor is present - usually not (mine won't be). They ask questions about the thesis. They can go on a bit - up to 5 hours I hear.

that sounds like mine, private, 2 examiners one internal one external and minimum time of 1/2 an hour but could be up to six. Again will ask questions about the thesis and why you did things, how the theory is related, or extended and apparantly (according to my new viva survival read!) your career and future!! That should be interesting in my case, what career???

What do you want to do next Sunny? I'm hoping to get a postdoc in another dept, 4 days/week so I can collect from school 2 days/week.

really undecided about what to do next. Realistically can't do much until we return to the Uk at the end of the year. Either want to return to teaching (secondary or special needs) or better still do more adult learning/university teaching in education. Have done the doctorate for my own personal reasons, having been told at sec school that I was not academic and probably wouldn't make much of my life! So as you can see loads of ideas etc but little direction yet!

well flights home for the viva have now been booked, so now the major panic is what to wear? Do you think formal interview type suit or smart casual??

I'm going with smart casual. I bought a pair of grey trousers and a white shirt for both interviews and viva.

I'm gearing up to preparing a postdoc grant but I have no idea what the realistic timescale is for this next venture and I'm fretting about what childcare to book when dd starts school. I don't want to pay a long retainer fee but I will need extra cover when I start work and really want dd to stay with her CM.

It's great to be finished but this really is the twilight zone with so much uncertainty. So many milstones to check off - viva, papers, postdoc....

think i too will go with the smart casual, although i need to remember that it'll be touch colder in the Uk than here in cyprus!

good luck with all your plans, i'm sure it'll all fall into place somehow. Childcare is such a real issue isn't it. i was v sad when DD (Only) started school but was also grateful for the extra time it gave me to study.

My dd is an only too. I don't want her in full-time wrap-around care but I need/want the time too. People here seem very open to working part-time though - contrary to popular belief. I think it would be different if I were doing lab work though.

Did I ever tell you I used to live across the water from you in Egypt (5 years) and along from you in Turkey (1 year)? Never been to Cyprus though. I hate the UK climate.

Are you looking forward to moving back?

wow - we have visited both Turkey and Egypt and loved Turkey in particular. Cyprus is very similar and in some ways we will be very sad to leave but there are many good reasons for returning to the UK- including decent shopping, cheaper food and OUR furniture!! Can't believe how much I want to sit on MY sofa!!

Its interesting that you say that there are possibilites for part time working. I really would like this, and so long as one of us works in a decent job we can manage happily financially, as DH will soon have a pension!!!

DD does not want to leave Cyprus but when you see it from her eyes its hardly surprising- school ends at 12.45 and so every afternoon she can swim, trampoline, sail, play with friends, ride bikes and have fun. In fact she has asked some really probing questions about why she will have to do afternoon school in the UK which I'm finding hard to answer!

Hi again everyone,

Am back on this thread needing some serious cheerleading lol. Am in my final 6 weeks now...still have one chapter to write up and the discussion but every other chapter has been written and checked over. 6 week deadline is superficial as somehow have landed myself a lectureship starting in August.

Typically things are going wrong - is a big measles scare down this way and DD has spent nearly 3 weeks off nursery avoiding it and having her MMR early...

Have got to the point where I can actually imagine maybe, possibly finishing this thing.

Sunnylabsmum - good luck (and your outfit sounds perfect)

Good luck and keep going everyone!

oooh and good luck Acinonyx - didnt notice you had a date set too

Sunny - I loved Egypt but was not so keen on Turkey (have worked in other parts of Africa too). Istnabul was a LOT colder for longer than I was expecting. In fact we never intended to come back to the UK at all but dh had health problems that require us to live in a safer, cleaner environment with good health care and here I am.

My total displeasure at being stuck back in the UK is largely what drove me to go back to University and find something interesting to do that could make it bearable to be here.

I've asked to go 4 days per week, 3 full and 2 half-days and that seems to be fine. I suspect I could get it down to 3 days.

Peppa - that's great that you have a lectureship already. You REALLY want this finished before that starts - it's good to have a proper deadline.

well done peppa on a lectureship. mega impressed!!

Well, I am having a lot of fortifying wine here after a totally brutal appraisal of my draft paper. It's times like this I wonder why on earth I put myself through all this

In the words of Gloria: I will survive.

decent wine = thinking juice

agree totally about why do we put ourselves through this. I guess so that we can say we made it against all odds (another song link!)

I have to start preping for the viva.I've read the suriving your viva guide and also started to link in research to further back up my choices but am fast loosing heart. Added to the fact that studying past 9 am is hard as the heat is really rising here. I know you'd love it and if I could I'd send some over to the UK honest!

Maybe I should fly out there and we can sit out in the shade drinking wine and testing giving each other mock vivas

I just hope that my viva isn't similar to that paper feedback or it's going to be quite a slog.

I just got the book and I'm ploughing through it. It's just nice to have something that makes me feel I am doing something viva-related.

Morning everyone! Sounds like the UK vivas are very similar to here then. What sort of preparation do you do for them? I had always heard you might get asked to do a brief summary of your work to get the thing started, but beyond that I thought you'd pretty much done everything with your thesis! Perhaps I should read the viva book too sunnylabsmum....

I'm writing papers as well Acinonyx, hopefully the comments on yours were useful? I'm a bit of a perfectionist, but am learning to send around the drafts before I think they're absolutely perfect, as it's not so hard to take the ripping apart .

Peppa, congrats on the lectureship!! looks like we're on a similar time course then - I'm hoping to get mine handed in in August sometime. Just finished a final(ish) draft of my intro. that was a hard one, sort of pulling the whole of the field together. am hoping the conclusion is not so hard...

How is the viva-prep a paper writing coming along? I'm hoping that the papers will be a good form of viva-prep. I'm thinking of drafting answers to the example questions in that book - mainly just to be doing soemthing as I don't really know waht else to do.

The paper has had very differing reactions so far and I find my mood swings wildly depending on whether I am getting good or hostile feedback. I probably have too much emotionally invested in this whole process but I can't seem to do much about it.

Does anyone else feel that it impacts on their parenting?

Hi all, very lovely to find this thread!

I'm currently 28 weeks pregnant with 1st baby and coming to the end of my 3rd year of my PhD.

Pregnancy was planned, when DH and I decided I would have a baby in my 'write-up' year as funding runs out and may as well be at home.

Having awful time trying to get first draft in for the end of this academic session (related to not having to pay fees for next / subsequent years) feeling so tired and unmotivated, especially as I completed 2 years of a different PhD before starting this one, so all in all have been a full-time student for the past 11 years, and really can't face reading more papers...

Facing a lot of pressure to return to study asap post-baby as the research team I am a part of will be publishing a monograph, which I'm pretty sure I won't be contributing to for logistical and conceptual reasons, and also to teach in a new MSc, which I'm having to politely reject, as I'm keen to leave academia.

DH also thinks I just 'cut my losses' and submit for an MPhil - don't think he can grasp the implications of that, just seems like a short-cut to him!

Good luck to all upcoming vivas, I can hardly imagine myself getting there!

Hi Calypso
Welcome to our band!! Sounds as if you have had a long time getting to where you are. I have taken almost 9 years and tbh at times I wondered if I would ever submit my thesis. However, it can be done, so long as you believe it will. Childcare juggling is hard and I remember making sure that nap times for DD were always spent studying. Housework got done when she was awake and when she got a bit older with her helping too! In a way I think this really helped, so one inconvenience actually turned into an advantage. I can appreciate the pain about fees. I have spent so much money on fees over the years that I could have bought a very nice sports car, and that is annoying. So instead I think of studying as my expensive gym membership, and get fit walking the dog instead!!

Good luck and keep believing!!

Hi

It is hard. I found that I didn't get back to writing for about 6-8 months after although I tried to dip my toe in occassionally. I agree that you need to reserve nap times for writing - as unpredictable as that can sometimes be - it's slow but hopefully in the end we will all get there. I am writing up now and it is such a tedious process - i didn't take formal leave from my programme so have been paying fees all through - at least now on a part time basis.

Calypso - good luck with the draft. I recall getting very little done at the end of my pg - but she was a huge baby and I was a waddling elephant.

mcg - sounds like you are nearly done.

Sunny - less that 2 weeks to D-day!! I don't really know what to do except plod on with the paper and looking (optimistically) into preparing some postdoc grants.

I am busy going through my thesis with a green pen and writing a 1 sentence precis at the top of every page to keep me motivated and hopefully engaged!!_Arghh just wish it could all be over.

I'm havng a lot of trouble sleeping. How ar you doing Sunny?