The scenario: I have 5 chapters done and the methodology chapter nearly done. I've got 6 months to finish everything. All of the data analysis is finished and my questionnaire works.

My strengths: I can write quickly. I only have to write now. I have all my papers and my reading is more or less up to date. My supervisory team is fully behind me and will review and send my work back to me as quickly as possible.

My weaknesses: I'm as weary of my research as a vietnam vet is of war. My research is huge, there's lots to write about. It's mixed methods and my model is complicated. There's a million and one ways (well actually 2: integrate or segregate) to write it and, somehow, I have to integrate the phases and show how one has informed the other. It's going to be hard and horrible. I have to see my friends and mend relationships because I've let too many people down over just working.

My plan: Post on this thread everyday what I have achieved and need to achieve the next day - and so one. Gladly receive encouragement from other posters who are in or will be in the same boat as me. There is no plan B and I love it when a plan comes together. I have 50, 000 words to write and half a tankful of effort and inspiration. Lets see how far I can get.

you can do it!8-)

i can totally relate to that. i have written my whole thesis in exhaustion after having to restart after 3 years!

tip 1: take one day a time. forget how tiring it has been writing 5 chapters already. congratulate yourself for meeting that daily target.

tip 2: take weekends off. work hard in the week and reward yourself regularly. otherwise you'll burn out. you can attend to your friends in this time and inform them you are unavailable in the week.

tip 3: have targets. i found monthly targets helpful in going for the first draft. although i didn't meet them all, they kept me on my toes.

tip 4: you are more than halway there. you have started writing and supervisors are cooperating!

all the best!

Wow wal, you are far further ahead of me. I may join you on your thread! (Although, at first I wasn't totally sure about why a vietnamese vet would be at war, unless they have a particularly nasty Chapa Pygmy Dormouse to treat)

My scenario: I have NO chapters written, although I have written one study up for publication and my supervisor sways from saying I can include it as it is, or I can include most of it and put the lit in the intro. I have got until October to finish everything. As you, all of my data analysis is finished (well my 3rd study needs a day of analysis on it but I know the findings - just got to do it properly so the stats are watertight) and my questionnaire works!

My strengths: My first draft is usually my finished attempts - although my sup will change it, I don't need to write 5 drafts BEFORE my sup sees it. I have a much stronger idea now of what I need to include and what I don't.

My Weaknesses: having to work around hubby's working day, is so far limiting the time spent. My sup flips what she wants me to do every week. i.e. Week1: write chapter 3, week 2:forget that, write chapter 4 - with the result of NOTHING getting finished EVER. I am spending next week away at a conference, so feeling very frustrated that I can't get on with it!

i thought I would actually say, althoguh I have no finsihed chapters I do have the following...

Chapter 1: is an intro, I have 90% of this written, but its 'setting the scene' with background stats, so I need to update them, because they are all "office of national statistics, 2007" - and they need to be 2010 stats.

Chapter 2, lit review 1: I did actually write this a while back, but I need to restructure it

Chapter 3, lit review 2: I have most of this done, but in separate documents. I need to work out what I want to include, what my overall flow of argument is and how much info from each area to include (I have about 30 7K word documents, so obviously need to CUT it), I also need to add in some literature, that is becoming popular in my field, which although has nothing to do with it, I'm sure they'll ask about in the viva if I don't include it.

Chapter 4, method: I know what I want to write, just got to get on with it

Chapter 5, study 1: written in publication form - need to bump out the words

Chapter 6, study 2: got the method and intro written (for publication) and the results written up for publication

Chapter 7, study 3: not really written yet, but I have done the background literature, which can go at the beginning and I have done half the stats 'properly' and the other half "ooh what's going on stats" - but not properly written up

Chapter 8: discussion - I have no idea what to put here. "the end"???

Looks like your going ok to me, I had to write mine pretty much from scratch, or at least, the bare bones of a bad second year report, and got there in 9 months total, probably about 6 months of writing when you consider how slow my boss was to get stuff back to me, so no need to worry there. I would take a few days off, it sounds like you need it.

When are you aiming for submission?, I reckon Christmas, or maybe slightly earlier from what you are telling us.

um...I have 2 months to go Wally, still finishing off lab work, have written chap 1 (lit review), chap 2 (method development), chap 3 (published), half of chap 4...and that's it! Still have 3 chapters to start writing, loads of analysis to do and lab work to finish! In 2 months!

I feel ill now.... (sprout)

I am hoping to get it handed in for chrimbo, yes. Sneaks, you'll my have to watch Rambo1,2,3,4 and 5 (coming out this autumn) to really understand why a vietnam vet is weary of war. Rambo is so sick of war in fact, he travels all around the world in his movies waging a one man war against entire armies with just a bow and swiss army knife premium edition. Algeaqueen, you'll get there - I'm certain.

Okay, have been making some notes so far. Almost finished doing that now.

For the rest of today, the mission is simple: finish the first draft of my methodology chapter and e-mail it to my supervisory team. If I do that today, I can use Saturday to plan out my results chapters.

Hubby took me to see Rambo 4 on a date :-( it was bad.

and you married him???? ;)

Hi Walminski, we have the same deadline, although you are far ahead of me! I wish I could be at the stage you are at. You also have lots of strength, which I don't seem to have.

Have you done a week by week target of what needs to be done by the deadline? I've been working on mine now for 2 months and it has been a great motivator to get things done. (That doesn't change the fact that I have no idea how it's going to get done in 6 months tho!)

Thanks for your kind words pinknumbers. I wouldn't see it as a case of me being far ahead and you not, since things always have to be re-written and re-structured. So, I think we're both at the same stage. Keep me posted frequently on your progress and I'll do likewise on mine. It could prove really helpful with motivation. I'm still stuck making notes at the mo, haven't really done much writing. Things are getting more and more complicated; the molehill has become the mountain. Still, there's 5 or 6 hours worth of work left in me for today, so maybe I can turn things around.

And urrrghhh! I won't have anyone slagging off Rambo 4! That was actually a serious film, highlighting the issue of mass genocide in Burma. It's only because of Sylvester Stallone and his humanitarian efforts (through making thinking man's movies) that the world has been made more aware of of the crises happening there. Sneak's man should be applauded for taking her to see that movie and opening her mind to what's really happening in the far corners of the globe.


Walminski's thought for the day: If you were a world renowned expert in a particular discipline would you be helpful to research beginners and novices if the sent you an inquisitive e-mail?

Walminski's word of the day: : Asda.

I *think* we were already married, or definitely engaged - and he owned a house, so I thought if he does take me to see Rambo 5, then I can have half of it! ;-)

He also puts me through jean claude van dam films! But I did MAKE him sit through all of the BBC pride and prejudice episodes, so I suppose fair's fair.

I did no writing today, just practiced the presentation. I will probably start properly on w/c 5th July as off at conferences etc.

That'll be really great, I was weary of writing about my progress and what I was up to as I didn't want to come across as hijacking your thread, but yes it would be great to share progress with someone that is on the same deadline as myself.

I absolutely understand about your molehill -> mountain mode. I have this just about 5 days a week! Still, looking back, you know that the whole thing has gone through the molehill to mountain, back to molehill and back to mountain again, but each time, the gap between the two gets a little smaller ;-)

I *think* I will end up with 10 chapters for my thesis (yeah, that's how unclear I am!!). I've first drafted one of my lit review. I'm working on my second, which won't be as bad because this is the area I know pretty well and have two papers published on them. I'm giving myself until monday or tuesday for the first draft. I still have another (but similar area) lit review, and the methods.

As for the "my own stuff' sections, I have two studies that have been published, but I also have to CARRY OUT 3 more studies, with a whole bunch of programming and getting to grips with stats...

(shall I just go cry now?)

I have been writing today, on the chapter that I like writing about. It's amazing how much easier it is to write about something you like and are interested in! I wish writing was this easy for all the other chapters but alas...

reply to your thought of the day: Depends if they are nice or not!!

Sneaks, when I was apply for my divorce, I'm sure it said on the papers that forcing wife to watch rambo was legitimate grounds for divorce! ;-)

To make the parts greater than the whole,
To make quan and qual have soul,
Two strangers with opposing views who bicker,
I must pair them as lovers who glitter.

But how can I make them speak the same language?
When the Great Paradigm Wars leave me feeling so languid?
When one speaks numbers, the other words?
The thought that they could have a love child simply absurd?

Family planning should have been at the top of my research agenda,
Insead it has left my structural design looking like a bad game of Jenga.
Will it fall or will it stand?
Or has my research always been stuck in sinking sand?

Well, that's my writing up done for the day. Alas, it would seem that I might have overlooked a few critical technical details in the design of my research. I shouldn't have learnt to run before I could walk, basically. In learning the essentials of survey methology, descriptive phenomenology, pschometrics, cognitive interviewing and then some, I've overlooked how all the stuff should be integrated - a mainstay of the mixed methodologist. I think the problem of working within an emerging paradigm is that new rules and ways of doing things, superior explanations and insights, can emerge in the blink of an eye, while you're bug asking Mrs Friggingbottom what she thinks of your questionnaire. Apologies, I'm thinking aloud and possibly rambling. I'm strangely calm about it though because it means two things: a lovely reflective chapter on my use of mixed methods and fodder for my discussion. Plus there's lots of ways of integrating data. Maybe nothing fancy like a cross over analysis, since I can't spin gold from straw like old Rumplestiltskin could. It's just a shame that my viva examiner is a mixed methods supremo - and he really won't like this. I think a new meeting is in order with my supervisors to tell them how I've managed to mess something else up.