I need to have a draft of my thesis by my next panel in September. I will still have another 18 months before it has to be submitted although I would hope to do it before then. I've not done any work for a few months as I have had to do paid work to pay the bills etc. However, I now come to a point where I really have to do something. I have written quite a bit to varying standards and am in the process of printing off everything I have done to get an idea of where the gaps are. I know the whole thing will need working on when the draft is done so I'm not so bothered on it all being perfect - if that was the case I'd be looking to submit! But I just wondered if anyone else had any tips or advice on preparing a draft like this.

I'm confused? They want a draft for this september but you've got another year and a half? Is it a full draft they want or just an outline/plan? Or something inbetween?

I'm in the process of writing up now and I'm aiming to submit by september at the latest and I've found that one the most usesful things is having a structure. Either through some sort of template or plan you've already written up.

So my plan was something like this

Chapter 1

1.1 Background to X
1.2 Further developments to X and theory Y
1.3 Split between X and Y
1.4 Modern perspectives and focus
1.5 Key research area to thesis

etc

And then each of those sections I broke down with bullet points. I add theories and authors, key studies and so on so that when I did sit down to write I could get on with it instead of faffing about with wondering what I wanted to write. I also found it helpful to go over a lot of research and have brief, but reasonably high quality, summaries written up. So then if I needed to mention them in the thesis I could just copy and paste them over instead of having to read everything again.

When it came to the writing I put down the subsections and headings and then did it bit by bit. It feels more managable to attempt section 1.2 than it does to attempt some of chapter 1. It's all the same really but I think it feels better to break it into chunks.

I'd break it into chunks as well. Sometimes (most of the time?!) I'd find the whole chapter too much to hold in my head, so I'd break it down into sub-sections, and sub-sub-sections, and then start with those that appealed to me most. Above all you don't have to start at the beginning, to help get over the blank page syndrome. Just start with whatever bit is easiest to write.

I also found it helpful to work on two chapters simultaneously, to give me things to switch between. I get very bored doing the same thing over and over, and this provided some relief.

I went part time in my last six months so although I have done three years my submissiob date has now been extended. I have a structure to my thesis and have written my three main chapters to varying standards. I have also written the methodology section and various introductory sections. There isn't any real new information to be included. What they want is a complete thesis even if it isn't of submission quality so they can see the whole thing all together - there were some concerns about how things fitted together although my supervisor was fine with it. The intention is then to work on the weak areas to bring them up to a higher academic standard ready for submission.

Ah I see. :-)

In that case then if you've got tables and figures to add I'd be tempted to cheat. Instead of making them and putting them in just put a tagline like [Figure 4.5 - Error data] in instead. Saves you time messing about with details that might change and lets them see where things would go still.

hi PamW
have you tried doing this, (I know it may sound a bit silly) but here goes anyway:
if you just put maybe two days per week just for thesis, would that help?

at this moment I feel quite disorganized, I try again and again to get organized, BE organized, and stick to the things I've told myself to do (!!!); so I allocate just the weekends to work on my thesis.

It seems to work so far because then I can block off other things to do (in the weekend) if I have to work on my thesis (even if it's just bits and bobs) :-)

love satchi