Student forever...
I was just checking the e-mails in my university web account, which I rarely do, and just saw one about graduation for the third years. A small number of these were the very people that started at the same time as when I began my PhD, the very students I taught pharmacology to, statistics to as a GTA. And I've been reflecting on it. I'm sad if anything because I feel like I should be graduating alongside them - yet I'm quite a bit away from graduation. Has the journey really been that long? I'm not trying to create a sense of melodrama, but how quickly time flies. All the work and effort, the endless worry - and it's all yet to be decided in a viva. And it carries on, driven only by my will to let it carry on. I'm finding the writing up period to be very strange. You're not waiting to collect data, analyse it or anything. There's just this mass of writing you have to do, structure and make flow. You can see the finish line, but there's all these brambles, bits of barbed wire and hidden ditches in the way - as well as a few squares that say, 'God directly to gaol! Do not pass go! Do not collect $200 - hang on - £131.64!'
Anyway, I rambling because this has the potential to be a good thread. For those of us old timers (we can include first years too, where relevant!), how do you feel about writing up? Please someone say that it sometimes makes them feel dumb when they get corrections from their supervisors saying, 'this does not make sense'. Is it proving to be a steady process for you? Is it peaks and troughs, like me?
It's proving to a very stretching and strange experience for me...sleeping in a bed next to the chair that I will sit at and write the next day is not Horlicks to me. Neither is have to remove all the scraps of paper from my bed before sleep, or being prodded in the back by a pen I forgot to remove along with the papers when lieing down. What about you?
I guess every experience is different. When I started my PhD, just under 2 years ago, I always dreamt of a 'writing up period'. Now that I am 8 months away from submission (tied to a tangle of other deadlines, none of which have anything to do with funding, as I work to fund myself, and none of which are relevant here), I am thinking two things - first, yes, if the submission in March 2011 works out, I will have completed in about 2 years 7 months total PhD time. Second, writing up period? What writing up? I am writing up now - a chapter a month, first draft by 31st August (next month), draft 2 (end of December) and submission (March) - in parallel to which I have these 3 jobs, the money from which pays my international tuition fees.
There are peers around me, who have or will have a writing up period, when one can sit and write. It comes with its own troubles - boredom, overstrain, fatigue, money worries. My writing up is happening on conference nights, in lunch breaks, on airport floors. Would I want this to continue for long? Oh hell no. So, I continue to have a fascination for the term 'writing up'. There's a real chance I'll end this PhD in 8 months, without understanding what it really means. :p
It took me 3 years and 9 months to research and write-up, so stick in there Walminski! It might be almost 4 years by the time the vivia is done and corrections made...(in this time my brother has had two children and one is now walking and talking, the other just about toddling around...)
The writing up thing is starting to grate on me. No one reads the bloody thing at the end! I really don't see the point, I'd rather focus on publications.
I keep thinking "but surely they know I've read all this stuff, why do I have to write it down!???" The whole thing seems outdated.
I'm only just starting the writing up - I have all 3 studies done, so its going to be writing (with a little bit of SPSS) for the next few months. My sup wanted a draft thesis in my august 1st - erm I have nothing, literally nothing! ARGH!
I cannot wait for her to start picking it apart :p
Hi Wally, I've just been thnking about Gothic literature this morning, and your post read a bit like letters home from Dracula's castle...
Anyhow, yeah, liek Bug I am writing up as I go along, still getting through that first chapter half! It's taking me forever, and I've given up thinking about time limits, it's just far too depressing for me. That said, my writing's really good now, even if I do say so myself; I actuallyy really care about the quality of the thesis writing, not sure why, it's a matter of personal pride I think, and the fact that I want turning into a book to be as straight forward as possible. .
Hi Walminski
Firstly, don't compare yourself to undergraduates, they are only at university for half of the year anyways so what you are doing is completely different. Something else to bear in mind, although they are on a 3 year course, their undergraduate days are actually over in 2 and 3 quarter years given the timing of exams, graduations etc.
With writing up, I quite liked it at first, although it really seemed to sap my energy, especially as I had a deadline to hit for a job that I had been offered. After I got the job it was seriously full steam ahead, last Christmas, I had Christmas day itself and boxing day off, and worked flat out for the rest of the holiday season, not much fun then, but it got the job done. My writing up tips are: take breaks when you need them, and even just randomly take 2 hours off in the middle of the day every so often, one aspect I loved was not being chained to the lab bench any more. Try to keep in touch with people from work you don't see so often now as well, even just go into work for the sake of it every so often just to talk to people, it can be an incredibly isolated experience.
Well it's almost 20 years to the month since I went to university the first time around. And I've been a student for most of those years. And next year I'm signed up for an OU course. Yes I'm a student forever :)
As for the writing up, I found it the most difficult part of my PhD, partly because I had to restart again part way through, because I was finding it so hard. My supervisor said "Don't you find it fun?" and I nearly swore at him! I found it the most painful bit by far, and was glad when it was over.
I'm finding the writing up period to be very strange. You're not waiting to collect data, analyse it or anything. There's just this mass of writing you have to do, structure and make flow. You can see the finish line, but there's all these brambles, bits of barbed wire and hidden ditches in the way - as well as a few squares that say, 'God directly to gaol! Do not pass go! Do not collect $200 - hang on - £131.64!'
It's an odd process. I'm finding it to be a pretty isolated one as well. I get up, I work, I go to sleep and inch towards the finish line. I know that there are other people at Uni doing the same but I only find out where they are and how things are through vague reports here and there. It's like we're all boxed off somewhere, chained to a computer.
I'm glad I'm in the write up stage though as it means that soon, or sooner rather than later, I'll be able to explain to family and friends when I'm going to be finished. Maybe it's just my nearest and dearest but they don't seem to understand the flexibility of the end date. Cept my girlfriend who receives the lions share of my moaning and my uncle and auntie who are going through the phd motions too.
I like how productive the writing up can feel though. I mean I know most of what I write is going to end up covered in red ink and sent back to me but I like seeing it all there and put together. I've got chapters 1- 7 drafted to a reasonable quality and it just feels nice to be able to look at them and think, 'This is what I've done'. So long as I don't dwell on that fact it's almost 3 years work it feels good!
I would rather be testing though. There's something about getting and analysing new data. Plus I've got a shed load of experiment ideas that I can't wait to try out. Just need to finish this, and get a job where I'll have time to do them :-(
It's proving to a very stretching and strange experience for me...sleeping in a bed next to the chair that I will sit at and write the next day is not Horlicks to me. Neither is have to remove all the scraps of paper from my bed before sleep, or being prodded in the back by a pen I forgot to remove along with the papers when lieing down. What about you?
Same thing here. Bed, desk, chair all within a few feet of each other. During the day the bed plays host to books and papers. Sometimes I can't be bothered to move them all out and just shove them to one side.
What I really don't like about writing up though is you might spend ages putting together a lot ofwork to show to your supervisor, you'll feel good about it, you'll hand it in and then....nothing. No relief, no real weight off the shoulders. It's just onto the next thing, the next self imposed deadline.
