This thesis is getting finished in the next few months. There’s little doubt about that. It’ll be cool to not have to work on it any more, and to be a doctor. But honestly, I’m terrified about what’s going to happen after that.
I nearly have a draft for Chapter One (public perceptions of only children) again! I just need to read it over and slap on a conclusion, which I should hopefully manage today. This chapter was a real struggle to get off the ground, partly because the original was pretty rubbish and I started again from scratch on it, and partly because there was a lot of information to put in order. But I finally hit my stride and it contains everything I wanted to put in it! Hooray!
Just plugging a little article I wrote for the Guardian Higher Education!
I’m _hoping _to spend today doing a lot of writing, so I thought I’d make thing a bit easier for myself by doing a more picture-based than text-based blog. This is ‘My History Book’, not an actual history this time, more of an annual format/advertisement for myself really. I’m guessing I was six when I wrote this one as well.
Well, I’m back to work and blogging after the Christmas break (okay, I may have done some work in purgatory between Christmas and New Year, not because I’m a ridiculous PhD student who never takes breaks but because I get REALLY BORED with unstructured time at home). Let’s see how far I’ve got since I blogged about having a full draft but needing to massively do-over my literature review and first chapter, and struggling to rewrite said literature review.
For some people, getting a PhD is absolute hell. They get unlucky with their supervisors, they can’t find enough data, or have massive problems with the data they have, they have to take time off for unforeseen circumstances like illness, bereavement, or caring responsibilities, they have financial problems which cause stress and mean the PhD has to fit around full-time work, they suffer from mental illnesses as a result of the pressure and/or impostor syndrome. They keep going because in spite of everything, they love their subject and really want that PhD. They are the true heroes, the ones who can say they ‘survived’ the PhD, and there needs to be more support for them.
Yesterday was my fifth supervisory board. I’ve become a lot more relaxed about them since the fourth one went so well, but nonetheless, this board totally exceeded my expectations. A load of other good things happened yesterday too.
Last Saturday, I was up ridiculously early to present and listen at the abovementioned symposium. It was a really interesting day and I learned a lot about a huge range of different subjects!
Well, I didn’t expect returning to my literature review to make changes, additions and corrections to be quite this hard. I actually think totally re-writing my section/chapter/whatever it’s going to be on perceptions of only children will actually be easier as I’m starting again with a blank page, as opposed to trying to edit something that now feels as old as that book I posted last week.