It’s very easy to stress out, go into a cave, see no-one, eat instant noodles and hunch over your computer for three years while writing your thesis. However, it’s important for PhD candidates to take care of themselves while under pressure. This helps you to withstand that pressure, improves the quality of your work and
For students writing a thesis, it can be a long and sometimes lonely journey. From the big lecture theatres and lively tutorial groups of undergraduate study, the solitary work of the PhD or masters student can be a culture shock, especially when you find yourself shut off in your bedroom, toiling at your desk day
‘My advice is to never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time.’—Charles Dickens The problem with procrastination is that it is just too easy to do. If there is still one week until the essay is due, surely there is time to watch a few more episodes of your
‘My advice is to never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time.’—Charles Dickens The problem with procrastination is that it is just too easy to do. If there is still one week until the essay is due, surely there is time to watch a few more episodes of your
Completing your thesis is a major milestone. You will have invested years of research, writing (and re-writing!) into this project, and will probably be feeling exhausted, proud and hesitant in equal measures. Where to now? Many people feel the natural next step is to publish their thesis. This blog will examine the road to formal
Abraham Lincoln said ‘the best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend’. With respect to thesis examiners, the opposite is closer to the mark—the best way to destroy a friend is to make him or her an enemy. ‘Friend’ and ‘enemy’ are hardly accurate descriptions of the relationship between a candidate
The phrase ‘due to’ tends to be overused in academic writing and, although it is becoming increasingly acceptable in modern usage, your writing will be more professional and concise if you understand when it is most appropriate. Often, ‘because’ or ‘because of’ should be used instead. If you could substitute ‘attributable to’, ‘caused by’ or
In academic writing, students are often encouraged to use an ‘objective’ voice; to focus on methodologies, arguments, evidence and results in a way that keeps the author/researcher in the background. Passive sentence structures, which place emphasis on what is being done to the sentence’s subject, are especially common in science disciplines where researchers emphasise results
How many of the following ‘symptoms’ apply to you right now? • avoiding getting started with writing • doing vast amounts of research but not writing it up • re-drafting written work over and over again but still not being happy with it • not finishing nearly completed written tasks • avoiding showing written
This is not a command from a particularly cranky and irritated supervisor, but an increasingly popular strategy used to facilitate short bursts of productive writing in a fun and social setting. ‘Fun’ and ‘social’ are not words students or academics generally use to describe the hard slog of the usually solitary pursuit of academic writing,
