I'm in trouble with my thesis - I've OCD, which has affected my writing: I've ended up with over 200,000 words (& I've still not finished - word limit is 80,000). I've been told that I need to keep the essence of what I've written, but reduce it. I don't see how I can do this - I have other mental health problems, which all cause me memory problems, so can't seem to get an overview etc. I read a page & then immediately forget what I've written.

I'm running out of time (it's taken 8 years so far). it's nearly killed me to complete what I have done, and my only option is a complete rewrite. i'm exhausted, even though i've been on sick leave (which I had to work through in order to catch up with my slow pace).

any advice?

Any possible way you could compact huge chunks of research data/analysis word count into tables, graphs and diagrams?

I usually have the opposite problem where I don't have enough words. I quite often don't see the point of using a hundred words to describe something which can be easily and visually summarised in a table, graph or diagram. Wish it was that easy though.

have you considered submitting 3 phds. this greatly increases your chance of success.

thanks for that - my subject is theoretical history, but there may be a way to use tables more effectively

my son asked why I couldn't submit more than one phd!

trouble was that it's all geared up to prove one point! the subject was way too vast, and I should've been less ambitious in the beginning. i'll hopefully be able to publish much of the work in the future, so it shouldn't go to waste

What's theoretical history? Sounds interesting.

just looking at historical evidence in an attempt to identify the development of ethnic identities (there's a lot of evidence, and i chose a too wide time frame)

Ah, so it has elements of anthropology-based observation as well as historical fact?

I have similar problems when I write [too much as opposed to too little]. I have a pal who kindly reads my stuff and goes through with a red pen scribbling crap/shorten/rubbish etc. in various key bits [like 90% of it]. I find this difficult to do for myself due to the emotional attachment. Do you have anyone who could help you with this? Appologies if this was a lame reply btw.

i work similarly in that i write first, usually too much, and shorten it later. it helps my thinking and makes writing easier because i always know it is not the definite version.

so i often have long bits of writing that need to get shorter. what i do then is a bit like what i would do for a book review. i go through section by section, sometimes paragraph by paragraph and write down what is the point of this part. thinking: what am i saying here? why is it important for the overall storyline?

that way i can identify where my "story" goes fuzzy and gets lost - these need rewriting, and i find lots of bits and pieces that don't help the "story" at all - these go into footnotes. most of the footnotes, i delete later.

it is a lot of work, but usually worth it. hope this helps! good luck!

This may not be suitable for you but anyway I will put this down. Would there be any chance of getting a postdoc or a friend who knows the area to give you an idea about cutting down some of your work. Does the uni have a person (grad school officer/welfare) who could get you in touch with a person to help you with the writing phase by going through your writing and suggesting parts which needs trimming.

I heard that some PhD students hire editors for their final product. I am not sure if this is allowed, but have you tried to find out? If it's allowed, you might even be able to get your University hire one for you because of extenuating or special circumstances?

thanks for the advice, all! I'm going to enlist the help of my boyfriend (who is post-doc and has experience in my field), do a back up, & hit the delete!

it's so demoralising to have to axe most of my work, but I realise that the object is to produce a piece of work that'll actually pass. so, i've to bite the bullet and think of what i'm actually trying to achieve.

cheers

good idea. You can always use the extra text for future publications.