Percy Pigs! Mmmm.

That is one busy schedule but I am sure you will do it :) I am editing my final findings chapter at the moment, hope to have this done by Tuesdayish then use the rest of next week to edit the conclusion chapter. I then need to spend a solid week sorting the appendices e.g. proof reading them, editing them (there are a lot!) I then told myself I would print the thing and read it all through one last time before it goes to my sup but I am very quickly running out of focus and motivation to do that!

I know it is not helpful when people say 'don't panic' but try to just take it one day at a time to avoid becoming overwhelmed if you can! We sabotage our own motivation and focus when we start to think about EVERYTHING at once.

Hi Teaddict,

Yes, I was thrown into three teaching roles across two universities in my second year. One module I was teaching was basically a mix of the stuff I had studied at undergrad, but some areas I was less knowledgeable about. I just made sure I did some extra reading on those areas when planning lessons.

Another module I taught overlapped a lot with my PhD and I was made fully responsible for that one- I was the module leader. Even though I knew I knew the stuff, I was still terrified, and I did have to go back and refresh my memory in order to teach some of the content.

My advice from these experiences is then to be honest with yourself about areas that you are weaker in and develop skills in quickly learning them and refreshing your memory before teaching. Another is to admit when you don't know something- this part is very important. If you are ever asked a question that you don't know the answer to, turn it into a learning opportunity in the class- research it together with your students, or make a note of it and tell them you will come back to it in the following lesson. Students have a lot more respect when tutors do this- it shows you are human. It is much better than trying to bluff your way through an answer for instance.

I hope this helps!

What are everyone's remaining goals this week? How long until final submission for everyone else?

Thank you Chickpea :) just not had the best year in terms of supervision as I have been ignored a fair bit. It makes me want to complete and just move on from the PhD as quickly as possible.

I have not included sample transcripts. The reason they are so long is I justified as part of my methodology that each participant had an individual focus in the analysis- there are good reasons for this but it took me a few pages of my thesis to explain...the appendices basically prove I did this as they include summaries of participants' stories over an 18 month period.

Chickpea- Mine won't fit in to one because of my appendices. The full body of my thesis and reference list will, but the appendices for me are having to go into a separate volume. At my uni, the max amount of pages that can be bound into one volume is about 330. However, I am sure a friend who completed last year told me hers was 500 roughly and that fit so I will just have to find out I suppose!

Thanks guys, yes it just really put a halt to my motivation on finishing my PhD really... I am so close now so of course I will finish, but its put a bad taste in my mouth. I didn't sleep last night as a result of how stressed it made me feel.

I would just like to moan about supervisors who do not listen to you and clearly only hear what they want to hear. Got to me more than it should have really :(

How is everyone doing? What are your plans this week?

I am still on with careful editing and applying feedback...I have now completed 8 of 10 chapters :o I then have a lot of appendices to edit- over 200 pages of them. This seems like a lot of pages for appendices...do you guys feel that this is acceptable? It is a qualitative longitudinal study which is why there is just so much material!

Hi myoldmonkey, I will be handing my thesis in to my supervisor next month to see if it is ok to submit and I have many fears about this e.g. that they will come back to me with lots of amendments, or worse, tell me that it is not up to standard as a whole! They haven't seen some of my earlier chapters for 2 years and these have been re-written a number of times now- I am here thinking 'what happens if I have to write them all again?' So, I think the return of old demons is completely normal. That being said, I am excited to get it handed in to them just so I don't need to look at it for a little while.

When are your comments due back?

Throughout the PhD, I organised articles into folders on my computer by theme and wrote a brief summary of each one I read (and I mean very brief- just three bullet points or so). I would then print these summaries and keep them in a physical folder.

When it came to write up, I would look through this folder to remind myself of any relevant articles to cite. It worked very well for me!

I have always heard that a PhD just needs to be finished not perfect which helps a bit with these final stages. I also seek comfort in the fact I will be getting a proof reader to give it a once over before I officially submit which prevents me agonising over little sentences.

I keep reminding myself that in a couple of months, a polished version is going to be with my supervisor and I can just forget about it for a bit.

Ahh Milagros when the PhD is in, definitely do that! I am fortunate in that I have some funds saved from doing lots of teaching work over my PhD to sustain myself for the next couple of months until it is in- the PhD alone is exhausting enough, so I can understand you being so tired.

Haha mine is just under 500 on one page but there are no guidelines on it. I have looked at completed theses and theirs were roughly 500 on one page too.

Thank you everyone- there is no set word count at my institution it seems, but it did fit one page and my supervisor seemed ok with that :)

IntoTheSpiral- Halloween is my deadline to hand my full draft in to my supervisor, and by full draft, I mean everything very polished as if I was submitting it for real! I have 4 remaining chapters to apply feedback to and edit, as well as polishing my appendices (which are hundreds of pages alone) so I am panicking also, even though I have more time! What are you working on specifically this week?

This may seem like a silly question, but for those of you who have written your thesis abstracts, how long are they?

My brain is really worn out and hence, I am struggling with this very straightforward task!