7 replies to this topic

[PandaCreamPuff]

So I am in my final year of my PhD. I am writing the discussion of my first publication, and I am extremely worried about my degree. I hate what I am writing. It doesn't sounds flowing and I feel I do not know enough at all about my topic. I believe that at this point I should be able to write 1000 words about my topic easily. However I am still at the point of reading up and feeling I am seriously losing time. I feel completely hopeless and there would be days where I read numerous articles, and the next day forget most of the key points of the papers.

I just don't know what to think. Seems like no matter how hard I work I am not really improving. It's so tempting to just tell everyone I am quitting and forget about this whole annoying degree >_<



*sobs*

[bob1]

Don't worry, you are not alone. THe time of highest drop-out rate is during the write up phase of PhDs. Perhaps when you are reading papers you could keep a little notebook with key points and/or highlight important points in the papers for quick reference.

[Maddie]

I don't think I know anybody who was already a great writer during his/her PhD. Personally, I still hate doing it but I admit that the more you do, the easiest it gets. If you could see my first drafts when I write papers. It's one page with bullets and then..nothing for a while . Your text will evolve. Once you have finished a first draft (even if you're not crazy about it) give it to your supervisor and he/she will look at it and tell you what you should change. Go back and forth until you both are happy with the final product. But, make no mistake, it is a lenghty and painful process..except for these little genius who can write 10 pages in a weekend (I met one like that). This is a minority of lucky scientists though, and I envy them soooooo much .

[PandaCreamPuff]

thanks for the comments. Lately I have been writing the intro section while finishing up my labwork.....still very stressed about the big day.

[seanspotatobusiness]

Hey. I don't know how you do you're reading, but it's pretty important to highlight important sections and then make notes which be traced back to the specific article. I use Zotero to manage my articles and PDF Xchange Viewer to annotate/highlight the article PDFs; it's a very efficient system. I guess you don't have time to convert to that system now, but you should use an organised system of some kind to keep track of notes. If I just read papers and moved on, I'd have no recollection, either! I'm pretty sure that's standard brain function

[PandaCreamPuff]

i tried using Zotero but I do not like the idea of sticking to firefox...

I have been taking notes on different notebooks based on the chapters of my thesis.

[Maddie]

i tried using Zotero but I do not like the idea of sticking to firefox...

I have been taking notes on different notebooks based on the chapters of my thesis.

And how's the writing going?

[PandaCreamPuff]

thanks for asking.

Writing is going alright....I have 2-3 publications lined up for my supervisors to read...but they decided that teaching is more important than research at the moment...so they have actually stopped reading emails and turned off their phones....it's SO FRUSTRATING

and never mind about my thesis drafts....it's less than 5 months away and they have only read like 5% of what i have typed...which is probably 80% of the whole thesis >_<


I am at a point where:

1) I have no hope whatsoever about my chances for my degree
2) Even if I failed I would not feel as bad as I know I have tried my best, and I failed based on things outside my control.....hopefully this is not the case in the end though.....

Edited by PandaCreamPuff, 24 June 2011 - 04:45 PM.