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 )

sunnylabsmum- that is fantastic news! Well done! It must be such a relief. I am already terrified of my viva, and I haven't submitted yet! I think like you Acinonyx, I'm most likely to feel washed out by the whole thing especially after so long... Worrying my viva is likely to be when I am 35 weeks pregnant- I had DD at 36 weeks so hoping I am still pregnant then!! eek.

yes washed out and now washed up again on cyprus- at least i can start to enjoy life....after the washing that always seems to multiply after a trip home!

Yes jumpingjellyfish, I too had a swift end to my pregnancy at 34 weeks.....about the only time I think I came in under schedule. This doctorate has taken 9 years! Now thinking what can I do with all this spare time?? Gardening is the latest thought, must be getting old, or is it cool to garden now
adays???

For those approaching the viva, or indeed writing up, do consider getting the rowena murray surviving your viva book!

Gardening, yes. And sewing name tags onto dd's first school uniform.

Still haggling over my main paper. I alternate between being determined to sort it out and move forward and wanting to just rip it up and pack the whole business in!

ooh yes pass me a needle. some sewing name tape on evenings, what joy! Despite this DD has managed to lose her pe top. I steadfastly refused to buy another and surprise surprise it turned up the following week!

I am having 4 weeks off until term starts again and then I look at academic life. Meanwhile just basking in the delight of being referered to as Doctor sunnylabsmum!!

Yay! Belated congratulations to Dr. Acinonyx and Dr. Sunnylabsmum!

Minor corrections for both is a tip top result, you must be so pleased. Hope you are both enjoying post-doctoral bliss

Congrats on the exam Sunnylabsmum! I have been away typing manically for the past couple of weeks. Hopefully you've been enjoying some hard-earned peace and quiet.

How's everybody else going? peppapig are you still on track for the end of August? I'm nearly there, just the final discussion and compiling to go... has anyone got any tips for writing a good abstract?

my abstract went along the lines of a brief blurb of why the topic was interesting and current thinking. where the gaps in the research were and then the methodology principles of this study and what the key findings were

hope that this helps

am enjoying the post viva phase as its hot hot hot here and so no way can i do the minor amendments, especially as I'm still waiting for them!!

whiteflame when are you hoping to submit?
I am due to hand in on 15th Sept, which is now scarily close. Finished my first complete and pretty much edited version (had comments back from all 3 supervisors on all chapters, with the exception of one supervisor left to look at Intro and Discussion chapters), and am on appendices now... Waiting for more comments on what they think of the thesis in its entirety, hoping not too many more changes though definitely can see some more work is needed on formatting! It feels never ending, so near and yet so far!

Our abstracts are now termed "summary of thesis", and have to be kept under 300 words, which I found pretty tough! I basically gave a brief background as to the importance and necessity of the study, then went through the main aims and main findings plus any major implications of the findings.

Good luck all those still plugging at it...

thanks for the abstract advice sunnylabsmum and jumping jellyfish! i'll have a crack at it this weekend.

i'm hoping to hand in around the 5th of september jumpingjellyfish, so about the same as you. totally agree, so near and yet so far... i have been working on my final discussion today, although i think anybody who is still reading at that stage deserves a medal

Good luck on the final push!

I'm coming to terms with the fact that although the PhD is done I still have a lot of work to do to get the publications out - including a lot of further analysis. So probably another year of PHD-related work to really tie it up and move on to a postdoc. Very frustrating but inevitable - I put of publications in order to finish 'on time'.

I'm also feeling very frustrated because I can't move to get a job or commute too much. I didn't have dd when I started on this road, and there was the possibility that we could move and dh would look for another job.

7 years, several promotions for dh and one dc later there is no question of dh leavinghis job so that I can take a 2 year contract on less than half the salary. I wonder if I will ever get a proper research job now - it's going to be very tough to stay on here and I'd have to write the grant myself.

I'm surprised at myself how badly I want to keep going. And I feel so guilty about working, incurring childcare, and not earning. I will do some teaching but it will bearly cover the 2 days/week after school care.

Of course it's great to have dd and great that dh is doing so well. But it's been 7 years people and if I can't get a research post I think I might go (more) demented.

End of today's moanfest.

well that's mine submitted!! it's so nice to have it handed in. now just the wait for marking and viva... how are you going jumpingjellyfish?

i am in a similar position to you Acinonyx, still have to get most of the papers out - only one is submitted so far. it does seem like there's still a long way to go. have you made any progress this week?

congratulations whiteflame- what a great achievement. I hope you have or will celebrate in style

Congrats whiteflame! Let us know when you get your viva date- cam handhold together!
I am handing in this Friday, just tidying up contents pages etc. now then start printing... Can't wait to get it off my desk!

Like you and Acinonyx I still have lots of papers to then write...Not sure when I'll do this though as on a part-time research contract involving totally different work with no spare time for writing papers, and I really feel I need a bit of a break from working eves and some of weekends after the past 2 years of that. Plus am due DC#3 in around 10 weeks! Hoping to try to start work on papers once DC3 starts to sleep more and do the odd hour every eve. Taking quite a bit of time out of work though as just don't think I can juggle academia and 3 kids under 5. Hoping if I can publish a bit in the next couple of years I may be able to get work once at least 2 are at school...who knows...almost tempted by a complete career change to be honest!

Congratulations Whiteflame! And Jellyfish - for Friday.

I have been rather stupidly waiting for my 'official' list of corrections and apparently the reports I got on the day IS the list and I should be doing those now . Oh well, will crack on with them now.

Hardly touching work at the moment - bit preoccupied with dd starting school and sorting out the house.

Jellyfish - you really will be busy soon!It's tough enough with one dc.

Congratulations Whiteflame and good luck and happy last-minute-formatting Jellyfish

Had a real set back with thesis last week, my dept refused to let me go on to a 'write up' year status for my upcoming 4th year.

They changed the rules at the end of April from 'demonstrating that you could complete your thesis in your final 4th write-up year' at the end of year assessment to 'actually finishing your thesis in the 3 years as your 4th year isn't a free non-fee paying year that you can complete your research in'. Pft. Both my supervisors signed off on my work, but I suspect there are politics at play as my supervisor and head of dept detest each other

Can't afford to pay another year's worth of fees and as I'm now 37 weeks pregnant with DC1 I'm going to interrupt my study for a year and decide what to do afterwards.

Don't feel much like going back and completing, as they've made this rule just for our dept as the completion rate is relatively low, and I feel like making that statistic grow just to piss them off. Grrr.

I'll certainly keep you updated JumpingJellyfish, although I think the marking process can take a lot longer here (am in southern hemisphere!) - I've got my fingers crossed that i sit my defence before Christmas! Do you know approximately when yours should be, or is it similar to here? Good luck with the printing, mine was surprisingly straight forward for once, only took about 45 minutes for printing and binding several copies.

How are the papers going Acinonyx? How many are you writing? One of mine has just been accepted (woohoo!), but still have another 3 on the go. I suspect all of them will be fairly hard going - maybe we should start a paper-writing support thread! Sunnylabsmum are you still writing papers too?

Cross-posted Calypsoflame. That is terrible - surely the completion rate would go UP if people could have the fourth year to write?? Bizarre. Are there any other places you could get some financial help? I think at my uni there is a special fund people in their final year can apply for if department/uni general assistance is unavailable. I think it's called something along the lines of 'final year assistance fund'. Perhaps worth contacting the financial/scholarship office at your uni and asking if there's anything? What do your supervisors suggest? Am very for you, how annoying!

That is outrageous Calypsoflame! We have actually had our fee-free writing up period extended from one term to a year (thank goodness). Surely that could be contested - it is very normal to have a writing up - if not for free - then with nominal fees. Sounds as though they just need to be sure you are really just writing up and not doing research.

The papers will be very slow going as I need to do more analyses - and one bit is going to be very tricky. I actually don't know how many there will be in total. I have one very titchy one to get out whcih I can then use as a technical reference for others then The Big One which I think will take ages and go through a zillion drafts before we (4) agree on it. I am a little tense in case I am gazumped but it was such a hideous project to manage I don't suppose anyone else was stupid enough to attempt it!

Maybe a paper-writing thread is a good idea - but where would it belong? We are neither fish nor fowl - neither students nor employed.....

i too got caught by the writing up trap. I had to revert to full fees for my final year- ouch but was a major incentive to get done. Was sorely annoyed at the time as I think Uni's sometimes do not live in the real world. Also as I had had to suspend for almost a year as I had a severe illness earlier in the course I felt doubly miffed

Am watching with interest this paper writing. its something that I really should be doing but with only 12 weeks left before we move countries I'm running out of energy! So instead have volunteered to do some supply teaching at the primary school- yiks years since I've done it and a steep learning curve with this age.

Yes same for me achinonx- the scrappy email with a few typos is all I have at the moment- requests for clarification seem to fall on deaf ears and so I think the advice I was given by a drunk Irish academic that they sign off anything and don't worry may strangely be coming true!!

I'm very at having to pay for your 4th year. I went to April of my 4th year. By the Dec, I was about to send my request for 2 more terms when a mass email went around the whole uni telling people not to apply for an extension as the rules were changing and everyone would automatically get a 4th year. I gathered that they were drowning in requests for the full 4th year.

Sunny - I do seem to have downed tools somewhat and it is going to be hard to get back the momentum. Do you have a new house and everything sorted - or do you have a house here already?

Well this morning have already 'attacked' the list of corrections as figured it needs to be done. Got a short time frame before I volunteer for school swimming session!! Agree motivation is sorely lacking, but just want to get it done finally

Yes we have a UK house. We have decided to sell this and buy another house in the same village, as we worked out we could sell in one chain and buy in another as we are in accomodation 2000 miles away- well thats the theory anyway!!

Dd is on funny half-day shifts this week and we are awash with new furniture/shelves house stuff so I am going to set to work on the corrections next week. Hopefully won't take too long - the main chore will be the repagination (if unavoidable) as I have the whole thing in a gazillion seperate files.

Would it be TMI to enquire which county you are moving back to Sunny?

back to 'sunny' cambridgeshire!! Good news is that our buyers valuation came back more than their offer- so all steam ahead on the selling part of the equation.

Yesterday was a good day on the thesis corrections front. I have just got 2 small areas to work on and it should be largely done- that is unless they finally get back to me with more thats needed!!

I'm in Cambridgeshire too! And no, it has not been too sunny - although this week, now that the holidays are over, has been very sunny of course.

It's in it's in it's in!

Managed to submit successfully on Friday, in spite of convincing myself they'd find something missing or incorrect in the various forms that had to go along with it.
Did anyone else find submission a bit of an anticlimax? It is of course a huge relief to have it away (though I still seem to be dreaming about bits of it, and have had to hide my copy as I keep looking at it and finding little mistakes grr!), but now the limbo of waiting for viva dates etc. seems to just hang over me...

Anyhow here they aim to get your viva done within 6-7 weeks of submission, corrections within a month of viva and graduation in December! We'll see how that works in reality, especially with DC3 due to appear in November....

Have to do some consultancy work in the eves over next couple of weeks, so not time to think about viva yet really, and not much time to start the paper writing process...excuses excuses!! I'm not sure I can face going through it all again yet anyhow...

Hope you are all good!