The final countdown

25 October 2008 in Blogging and tweeting, Thesis by Brett Holman | 6 comments

No, I'm not heading for Venus, nor am I travelling back in time in the USS Nimitz. But it is the final countdown nonetheless. I'm in the last few months of my PhD, and plan to submit it in late February 2009, just under four months away. I'm on track for that, I think -- I'm halfway through the last chapter now, and then there's just the conclusion to go, and then the process of serious redrafting begins. As far as word limit goes, the thesis as a whole is currently just under 80,000 words, which is just about perfect -- according to the PhD handbook, I should 'aim to write a thesis of 80,000 words', but can write 'up to 100,000 words without seeking special permission'. So it should end up comfortably within that range (though that may depend on how much of my grotesquely excessive verbiage I cut from the earlier chapters!)

Between that and the fact that I'm a little burned out after the interminable Sudeten crisis, I probably won't be blogging as often as usual for the next little while. But I won't be going on hiatus, so please check back every so often!

    1. Ricardo Reis’s avatar

      Ricardo Reis on 26 October 2008 at 5:52 am

      Good luck for this end sprint!

    2. Erik Lund’s avatar

      Erik Lund on 26 October 2008 at 9:06 am

      There will be other, more intense experiences in your life than the final legs of the thesis.
      But you aren't going to believe that two months from now.

    3. Chris Williams’s avatar

      Chris Williams on 26 October 2008 at 10:35 pm

      At moments like, this, I'm reminded of the famous Kershavian catchphrase: "Crack on!" My own advice is: remember the vitamins.

    4. Jakob’s avatar

      Jakob on 28 October 2008 at 8:02 am

      Good luck! Having written my first essay in a very long time, and sweated blood over a measly 2K words, I am very impressed. Mind, Sarah assures me the writing gets easier with time - I hope she is not merely humouring me!

    5. Don Smith’s avatar

      Don Smith on 3 November 2008 at 8:28 am

      Good luck Brett. I always understood the graph of PhD and other uni output is a (reverse?) hyperbola. More or less flatline until the last minute. Major congratulations on being so far advanced at this stage!

    6. Brett Holman’s avatar

      Brett Holman on 4 November 2008 at 9:01 pm

      Thanks, everyone! I'm relatively relaxed about it all, since I do have a bit of time up my sleeve, and also because this is the 4th thesis I've written (albeit the 1st PhD) ... so I've been here before :)

    Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    *

    You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>