I might join this thread if that's all right as I too hope to submit my thesis by the end of the year but I'm not sure if I will make it. I doubt myself and feel that my supervisor doubts me as well. Good luck Cindrella, I'm glad that things seem to be going a bit better for you.

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Hi All

Am really glad I sparked a debate!

While I don't feel that I am in a sausage factory I do feel that a supervisor should guide not force things. It's probably me who is pushing for submission. I think my supervisor would be happy for me to take it slower and submit after Christmas. However, I'll have no money then, hence why I want it earlier. I also agree that a fail doesn't look good. Although a lot of what my supervisor changes is academically tighter than my efforts, some of the changes are just downright picky. I wish I had thought of password protecting my work before this! To do so now would probably raise both her eyebrows. I told her I was uncomfortable but she seems to think it's common practice and has blightly continued to rephrase things despite my objections. Now as was suggested I am trying to match her style of doing things with limited success :$ Even though I'm uncomfortable I just have to submit sooner rather than later so will probably have to ignore my misgivings. I never thought it would be like this though.

:-( Ross

Hi Sparkles, kindred spirits methinks!

I don't know anyone else whose work has been heavily edited, at least nobody has ever said it to me. Even though I'm still frustrated by it, I feel a lot better.

Thanks all :-)

@Delta and Sneaks, I honestly thought it was just me, thank you so much.

I would agree that the job is the way to go. Easy to say now that I'm near the end of my PhD but I have been looking around for a while and already have been made feel that my PhD is a barrier to where I want to go. If you have managed to get a great job that you want without the PhD I would snap it up. Good luck with your decision.

I couldn't have put it better myself, thank you. That's just it, I DO desperately want to submit this thesis and move on with the rest of my life which will 100% be outside of academia. Actually the replies here have made me feel quite a bit better. I was nearly afraid to post this thread and was expecting to be told that I was a fraud. It's the unmentionable really. I have no idea if others in my department have had similar issues as obviously nobody admits to it. Thank goodness this forum is anonymous!

I really appreciate the feedback.

Thank you Clupea, you make some really good points. I have been changing some of her words here and there. Some of her expressions quite frankly I don't like. While I can see that her writing is better than mine I don't think that necessarily means mine is not acceptable. The trouble is all the revisions are being done electronically so she just changes them, we don't talk about them first. It's a bit of a mess really.

Thanks for your reply Keenbean. It's more than a few words but not quite a re-write but still I don't like it. Not sure what I will do or what I can do. She knows I'm not happy about it but has persisted doing it anyway.

I am looking for some advice:

I hope to submit my thesis by Christmas. I have it all written and am editing and proofreading it at the moment. I did a lot of interviews around the country and transcribed everything myself. I am quite pleased with my findings and actually think that some of them say something quite useful! BUT my worry is that my supervisor keeps re-writing some of my writing and I am wondering if anybody else has had this problem. To be honest what she writes and how she phrases things is usually much better than me but it makes me feel uncomfortable. I am also worried that it will be obvious that there are two voices in the text when I submit and it comes to my viva. I am actually now editing some of the chapters trying to mirror her way of doing things.

If anybody else had this issue, what did you do? My work is now a total mixture of my words and hers and probably would be impossible to sift out her words from mine. She has retained ALL my findings and ALL my analysis which I suppose is something. Has anybody already out the other side of their PhD ever been asked in their viva 'is this completely your own work?' I mean isn't that one function of the viva?

I'd really appreciate anybody's thoughts on this. I know it's my work but it's easier said than done to say 'hands off'. I'm worried that she thinks the way I write won't pass. Until now I hadn't really been worried about the writing aspect of things, more the analysis - now it's both :-(

Thanks for reading