I use Mindjet mind manager pro 6 - I bought it when I did my MSc (6 years ago) and haven't bothered upgrading it. There was a special offer for students.

It's really good - I have an overall PhD mindmap which has the main sections and they are mindmaps in themselves which can be easily opened. I can export the mindmap and it comes into word as an outline (with numbered headings for each bit of the mindmap so all I need to do is add some body text). I also format things in different colours/fonts etc and do the lines linking bits together. It also lets you link sources and images and lots more (haven't tried any of them)...

Do you use an electronic mind map programme? I find it really helpful as changes are automatically updated and you can export the mindmap to word as a set of headings.

The only trouble I have is that my electronic mindmap is too big to print now but I can use it on screen. I've also used the facility to put links across the different legs with notes attached so that at least when I go back to try to write that part up I have a clue as to what I was thinking.

Are you full time? If so you should be able to get 10,000 in the time you have (I wrote my 18,000 word MA dissertation in 4 weeks while very heavily pregnant (submission was 3 weeks before due date) - problem for me is that because I know I did that (which was 12 years ago) I think I can always get a lot done in a short space of time - it would be far less stressful if I actually spread the work out a bit.

And so I am going to go and try to write 200 more words this morning.

Well done - a lesson to all of us who think we need perfection when good enough will do the job. I will definitely try to remember that.

My husband took me out for a pub lunch after I spent the morning struggling to write some of my lit review which ended up with me crying and wailing that "I can't do a PhD" which was jolly nice and while we were out he sorted out babysitter and restaurant for our wedding anniversary on Monday.

But the thing that made me most smile was that our 10 year old daughter was selected for a troupe from her dance school to dance at the Royal Albert Hall in May. She is so excited.

I'm very much in the same position - in fact at about 11.30 this morning I just burst into tears and told my husband I couldn't do a PhD. His response was to get me away fomr it and take me out for lunch - one large glass of wine later I slept for 2 hours on the sofa and have jsut woken up.

I am really struggling with what ot do. I have a very detailed electonic mind map which has brnches for the various themes, comments by me, arrows linking various arguments and so on.

I have written a few hundred words on the basis that writing somehting is better than nothing but when I read them back they seem so trite and superficial.

I've tried trying to break it down so that instead of 10,000 words I have 5 2,000 word things but I am still struggling.

I had a research seminar to present at work this week and so for the past few weeks (months?) I have been able to pretend that I was making progress because I was working on that (but for at least the past 5 weeks I have just tinkered with that) but I am just kidding myself. I am part time and so during term time I only have one or two dedicated PhD days a week (in vacation I am full time full on which is easier as I am in PhD mode rather than teaching, marking, preparing lectures.

I htink you need to go ans speak to Citizens Advice or similar - they will be able to guide you to what you might be eligible for. I think there are a couple of difficulties - one is that maternity pay is linked to national insurance so that although you have had a monthly allowance it is NOT income (not taxed and no NI paid) - in that respect you are no different to someone who has not been working (eg stay at home mums) who don't get maternity pay either. Even if you were being paid a salary you are effectively on a fixed contract (3 years) which will have ended month before the birth - in these circumstances you would not get maternity pay for a job you had finished months before the baby was born. You may be entitled to some sort of maternity grant so but citizen's advice can advice you on that.

Can you work while writing up so that at least the PhD doesn't get abandoned but you will be earning an income? Lots of us are working full time whiel doing our PhDs so it is possible. Depending on where your partner is going for fieldwork you probably need to bin the idea of going along - it woudl complicate your antenatal care and may be prohibitively expensive as normal travel insurance would not cover you for care. If I were you I woudl see what I was elligible for benefits wise, look at taking a temp job and then work like mad to juggle the job and writing up. Based on my experience of submitting my MA dissertation three weeks before I gave birth I think it woudl be really hard to pick the PhD up with a new born baby.

A lot depends on whether you are joining an advertised PhD where the research has already been planned or whether you are writing your own research proposal. I did a lot of work before I registered for my PhD because I was self funded and writing my own proposal.

I agree with what has been said already - I think that without evidence of research you would find it very difficult to get onto a PhD and certainly would not get funding. Competition is very high (and in the current climate will get tougher) - you will be competing aginst people who have distinctions at Masters. Many of us on the forum have distinctions at Masters and are still self funding our PhDs. PGDips are generally seen as a failed Masters dissertation (I know of one person who has one who opted not to take his MSc dissertation as he already has a PhD but that is very unusual). Even if you pass at the retake you will have a challenge in explaining why it took you the extra year.

Good Luck with whatever you decide to do.

I think you should take comfort from the fact that they are suggesting you do more statistical analysis not that you collect more statistics. What stats package are you using? Do you know an expert who can help you to produce the additional stats? I don't think there is anythign wrong in getting additional help with the stats. It sounds like the focus group is a good idea - can you set something up fairly quickly?

I would definitely go back to your supervisor and ask for advice on how to take this forward. It sounds like it is a slight set back (and obviously not something nice at this stage but much better to find out now than have it thrown at you at your viva)

I agree that it should have been brought up sooner but I also agree that purely descriptive stats are insufficient (in the uni I worked at they are considered inadequate for an undergrad dissertation). Increasingly at PG level multiple methods or multiple studies (eg multiple groups, multiple locations or multiple experiments) are being required

I misunderstood this thread and hoped it was an off topic strand about colours and styles of macs now that the weather is so foul - oh well back to work then ;-)

Why when I have presented my work at international conferences with experts in my field am I really stressing about giving a research seminar to my colleagues (most of whom have no knowledge of the subject)?

My husband is always touching photos up - from removing snot and food from the children's faces when they were little to removing a tree that was growing out of my head on an otherwise v good photo I needed to use for a research presentation. He also is good at blurring backgrounds. I'm not sure about the ethics of it but I was happy for him to remove my double chin!

I have an astigmatism and find sans serif fonts (Arial, Calibri etc) really difficult to read. Haven't even thought that far ahead but do liek the look of Book Antiqua.

It always amazes me that undergrads use unsuitable fonts (I have work handed in in comic sans!)

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When the results arrived my husband brought the post up to me - I was in bed feeding the baby (who has just started his first year of high school this September) and because I thought it was a letter about overdue library books/fines I just told him to open it. I was so excited that I got a distinction that I nearly dropped the baby! Had it not been for the baby I would have started my PhD - it took me another Master's (in 2004/5) and 11 years until I started. Part time and family commitmets do make you focus.