Hi,

i have to submit my thesis within 4 weeks and now that i read and re-read my work i find it all pretty trivial. no amazing findings. just writing up stuff that other people have done, proposing small changes and examining it on slightly different data sets. nothing else. i am really panicking that my phd committee is going to laugh their heads off over my work :-(

is this normal? i cannot extend anymore, i need to submit now :-(

Hiya Monkey, yeah this is normal. A PhD is not necessarily about amazing findings (mine won't be). It's about training to be a researcher, which is what you've done. You've done your research, located itss place within its field (relative to other's work) and made proposals for future work. On top of that, it'll no doubt be an original contribution to knowledge in it's own way, so I'm sure it'll be okay.

Hi Monkey,
Your supervisors wouldnt let you submit your thesis unless they believed you would pass. I am feeling as you are right now, I am due to submit in a matter of months, so you're not alone. I read past works and my work looks so trivial and simple in comparison and I start to panic. You're almost there, dont give up! Its good to worry sometimes, it shows you really care ;)

Good luck!! :)

I personally feel any work I do is trivial once I'm pretty much finished. I suppose it is, in part, that the quality of the work never does justice to the time you've spent on it - in your own eyes, that is. The feeling might also come from the fact that you are know your work too well. If you discovered it for the first time, perhaps your impressions would be very different ;-)

Hi Monkey, yeah, I agree with Nadia: my findings seem really obvious and every day to me, but that's because I see 'em every day! But because of conferences and things, I know they're not to other people - that takes me by surprise. Maybe it's the same for you?

Your PhD doesn't have to instigate a revolution, what you describe sounds fine to me anyhow. Your sup should be able to judge of your work is ready or not, so they shouldn't have let you go this far if the work's not ok.