I too had very similar worries at the same stage. Being part-time makes it harder, but you already have much written to work with. Your second supervisor should be able to help you, and is there for situations like this when you are struggling with your main supervisor. The fact that the methodology could be criticised may not be an entirely bad thing. One of the main aims of a thesis is to show that you can think critically about your own work as well as others'; this can be harder to demonstrate when everything is perfect. You also have to discuss future studies and what you would have done differently. I know of an excellent PhD (not mine) that was full of criticism for the methods used and the examiners said it was the best they had read and praised him for not over-defending it. You should go with your gut feeling - it is your thesis.

Congratulations! Enjoy your well-deserved holiday.

Congratulations! Enjoy your well-deserved holiday.

Exactly!  You've hit the nail on the head on all counts. My supervisor means really well, but has other students with theses to work on, and other papers, which to be fair are now more current. I've also moved away geographically which doesn't help.  As for journals - it's a nightmare - I have lost all my electronic access and have to drive to the local university library to download anything. Due to moving, I don't have the contacts to get anything more with the university. I'll try your strategy - 2 on the go, 2 on the back burner...

Thanks again!

Thank you, that's really encouraging and helpful. It sounds like you wrote or at least planned the papers all at once, whereas I was thinking one at a time. I have passed my viva and the examiners were encouraging but not specific. One offered to be a reviewer, but I don't know how that could actually happen - isn't it random? My supervisor is excellent, so I'll rough draft a few papers and hope it spurs us on. Although hard to hear, the fact that the thesis was only the start does seem true, at least I know now...  Well done on all your success.

I did include a Glossary, just after the lists of Tables and Figures. Be careful though; I left mine to the last minute and one of my examiners picked up on an abbreviation I'd missed. Not a big problem, but a negative nonetheless - I wished I'd compiled it more carefully during the writing stage.

Hello,

I'm just starting to write a long overdue paper from my thesis. I thought it would be easy - just shorten the chapters... I was wrong. Every word seems so important and I've spent weeks going nowhere. It's really hard to know whether to risk putting everything into one best paper, or to try for a few smaller papers.

Any advice? Be nice to hear success stories, or from anyone else similarly struggling.