Hi all..

I never realised that preparing a final draft would be so horrific. My first draft was 110,000 words long and now I have to cut it down to 80,000. I tried cutting chunks but things didn't work very well that way. Eventually I had to go back and proofread the first chapters, which are wholly irrelevant in hindsight, and am finding that its an emotional process losing some good parts of the thesis.

Now am left with a skeleton that needs work to flow and flesh to stand and its still double the length its meant to be.

is this normal? what were your experiences revising your thesis?

am contemplating a complete rewrite of the theoretical framework to suit the later chapters as current one is a real mess!

any tips? consolation?

sorry about the rant. i thought i'd be happy and things would be easier after first draft.

I always wonder when people say I've a 100000+ word "first draft". Drafting to me is a continual organic process and occurs daily. I wrote a 20000 word first chapter and prob have near 30 drafts of that saved on my computer. Drafting is a strange business but I do prefer the reeading and rewriting parts compared the blank screen of death.

I have been writing thousnads for my sup to read from Day 1, LarryDavid. But this august I will submit a first draft to her, at the end of my 2nd yr. What does this mean? this means i will give her her first vision of the complete whole - the whole 'book' as it were as it would look like. This, midn yiou, includes Version 35 to 40 of certain sections and at least version 10s of every chapter, which she and I have seen and discussed. But first draft - will be a document with sequential chapters, from beginning to end, which will be a representation of the thesis as it is expected to look like, when brought together. That is what jojo means.

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thanks Phdbug. :-)

It's funny how a quite innocent thinking out loud comment gets jumped upon by Phd students LOL. Must be the coffee and lack of late night romance. Then it turns into a "mines is bigger than yours" debate. I was merely wondering how one word can mean different things to different people. Is this what cyber bullying is?

My supervisors referred to the full draft I sent them last summer as "full draft", not first draft. Which given how long I'd taken over preparing it (years! part-time student with writing-up nightmare!) was a more accurate reflection.

My problem was the opposite of yours Jojo, so I can't really help with hacking out words. My department expected 80-100,000 words, but no matter what I tried, short of waffling for Britain, I couldn't reach 80,000. My submitted thesis was 70,000 words long, but I passed, so it was ok.