Writing up a thesis
Amit Kumar Singh
Wednesday, 17 December 2008 03:36 UTC
Hi All,
Nowadays I am writing my PhD thesis.
It’s difficult to predict how long it will take to write up but I find it really boring and time consuming.
If you are also in your final stage then I also would like to listen about your thoughts.
How much time it takes to write a PhD thesis? If you have any survival tips.. Please share with us..
Cheers,
Amit
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Replies
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Yes, It’s a hard time…
My experiences:
1. analyze your data carefully and write down all the possible “results”;
2. according to your “results”, finish the "introduction"parts of each charpter;
3. put all of the charpeters together, make a story.
Most importantly, you should talk to your supervisor about your ideas, your comtributions in this field etc…he/she will give you some advices.
then, make modifications(it is also terrible).
Also, you should make a plan about your thesis writing….
That’s all.
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Hi Amit,
I just finished =) It took me about 3.5 months to write the thesis (but one chapter was already a published paper, so those 3.5 months were for the remaining 80% of my thesis.) and another month to edit everything. I’ve heard of people taking anywhere from 3 months to 6 months to write. Shorter for people who have a lot of published work than doesn’t need additional editing, longer for people who haven’t had a lot of results and aren’t very good writers.
Every institution and department has different rules about how to organize your chapters, but if it’s at all possible, I recommend that you give your supervisor an outline, and give him/her chapters or other segments to read as you go along, instead of everything all at once at the end. That way you can get feedback while you work, and you’ll also have smaller deadlines along the way to help motivate you. For example, you can agree in advance to hand something in in 2 weeks time, so you HAVE to write something.
If you’re not normally a good writer, or if you don’t have a lot of writing experience, you might also want to find someone (a friend or colleague) to read over parts of your thesis to see if everything is clear.
Good luck. There really is an end to all of this!
Eva
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Hi Ju and Eva,
Thanks for your replies.Ju, your tips are great. I am going to have my 1st meeting on the 1st chapter next month.. lets see.. how it goes..
Eva, I think 3-3.5 months is too short for me.. I guess its same for all non native english speakers … my previous labmate took more than 7 months to finish..
But your idea for short deadlines is very good.. I think i’ll definately do that..
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Anonymous
i am a phd student in 4th year (cell biology) in USA. I am a non-native english speaker. My advisor is also asian and her english skills are really bad. She is a good scientist and mentor. However, when it comes to writing abstracts, papers and thesis related stuff, I cannot follow her example coz she hasnt set any good ones regarding scientific writing. She is usually very interfering and changes stuff I write to her style which is really bad. Following this, I get very confused and try to change it again as much as I can.
I am starting to write 2 papers now and I am worried about how to write clearly and have less interference from her. I also have to find a native english speaker who can give scientific and english inputs without offending my advisor.
Any suggestions on what to do? -
Hello
In my case it took me 8 months and I had planned 5!! Well I studied a part time PhD so this explain something, another is that my mother tongue is not english and the computer at the office broke 3 times :-). Also I had to go back to my country to renew my visa!!! :-0I suggest you do a planning in function what you have and what do you need to do (ask to yourself if you finish your writings before the deadlines). Also about external things that are necessary but you are not completely responsable like appointments with your supervisor (maybe ask him/her in advance if he will be busy or travelling etc to avoid you loose time waiting, llness (try to eat well and sleep, not overwork), computers that are broken, etc etc.
Also during your writing stop when you feel you dont have ideas, try to write at this level can be catastrophic because you will become tired, frustrated and without advancing. The best is going to see friends, drink a pint do excercise, etc etc we dont have to stop of living only by a writing up period!!
Good luck
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It’s hard for me to say exactly because I started writing on day one of my Ph.D (the Introduction never changes, it just gets added to). I found writing up as I went along meant I could spot holes/gaps/things to repeat very easily and it did help a lot.
That said, I spent about 6 weeks part-time-writing to finish the damn thesis off at the end, the other half of my time working on a new project.
I think what’s important to consider are your priorities to yourself at the end, i.e.:
1. Do you have a PDRA position lined up?
YES – Your priority is the thesis. You can write the papers afterwards (as long as you’re not in a hurry to get them out because someone else could publish it first).
NO – Your priority is papers. It’s hard to get a job offer without publications in some fields, so you might want to try and get a paper out before you go back to your thesis.2. How are you paying your living expenses whilst writing up?
I’M FUNDED 6 MONTHS TO WRITE UP – Take your time and use every penny of it (or work for 4 months, go on vacation for 6 weeks, come back and submit).
I HAVE NO FUNDING – Write fast! Writing when you have no money for food is as depressing as it gets. Believe me!!! -
I am in the 5th year, and am writing right now. From discussion with colleagues, I should give it at least six months. So, I am planning to be ready by September.
This way I can also continue to dabble with some expts – no hope of a single publication as yet. And I will also relentlessly badger my committee members every month with either a new chapter, or questions or some progress report, so that they are in the loop and would let me out at the first opportunity :-)
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I am just starting to write my thesis…as in I am making an outline of the chapters this week to go over with my PI. However, I don’t plan to graduate until the end of the year. I am giving myself a lot of time because I know that I am a very slow writer.
Graduates of our lab have recently had a tendency to write their theses in less than a month. What results is that their thesis is of poor quality, just a bunch of data slammed together. I believe my PI is starting to see that a change is needed with the students in my graduating class and is encouraging us to start writing early instead of doing research and getting papers out until the last possible minute. It just makes a stressful time more stressful!
So I would say that the time it takes for you to write your thesis heavily depends on the caliber of writing you are comfortable with in your “graduate career tome”
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