Writing up your PhD

1. Writing up your PhD Dr Ross English Graduate School King’s College London ross.english@kcl.ac.uk

2. Planning What tasks have you got left to do? When do you have to do them by?

3. Criticism is now your friend Seek it Welcome it

4. What is a passable thesis? • Originality • Coherence • Understanding of field • Methodology • Word limits • Ethical approval Check

5. Forms & admin

6. Structure 1. Write down, in one short sentence, the question you are answering in your thesis. 2. Draw a mind-map of everything that will go into answering that question

7. taken from examtime.com

8. Structure 1. Write down, in one short sentence, the question you are answering in your thesis. 2. Draw a mind-map of everything that will go into answering that question 3. Sketch out your structure

9. ethos.bl.uk

10. Ways to analyse a thesis 1. Overall structure 2. First paragraph of each chapter 3. Voice and pitch 4. Forecasting, signposting, signalling and summarising 5. Focus

11. What difficulties could arise or have you already experienced?

12. solutions? n.b. there is no one common experience

13. What difficulties could arise or have you already experienced? • fear of supervisor’s feedback • guilt • fatigue • too many writing binges? • boredom • often stress related • lack of momentum • not lack of progress but limited relationship between writing sessions • not writing often enough • fear of the big picture – success, failure • lack of rewards • signalling problems • lack of forecasting • not achieving high enough standard in writing (perceived) • research not letting you cover what you want to cover including material from Murray, R (2002) How to write a thesis

14. Break it down into manageable chunks. “When I face the desolate impossibility of writing five hundred pages a sick sense of failure falls on me and I know I can never do it. This happens every time. Then gradually I write one page and then another. One day’s work is all I can permit myself to contemplate and I eliminate the possibility of ever finishing.” John Steinbeck

15. Break it down

16. Writer’s block noun a usually temporary condition in which a writer finds it impossible to proceed with the writing of a novel, play, or other work. “I had terrible writer’s block for what seemed an eternity but, one morning, all of a sudden, I realised how I should approach my research question and I was off. From then on my thesis just seemed to flow out of me.” myth writer’s block needs to be dealt with proactively

17. “What I try to do is write. I may write for two weeks ‘the cat sat on the mat, that is that, not a rat.’ And it might be just the most boring and awful stuff. But I try. When I’m writing, I write. And then it’s as if the muse is convinced that I’m serious and says, ‘Okay. Okay. I’ll come.” Maya Angelou taken from: http://flavorwire.com/343207/13-famous-writers-on-overcoming-writers-block/

18. “Writer’s block…a lot of howling nonsense would be avoided if, in every sentence containing the word WRITER, that word was taken out and the word PLUMBER substituted; and the result examined for the sense it makes. Do plumbers get plumber’s block? What would you think of a plumber who used that as an excuse not to do any work that day? The fact is that writing is hard work, and sometimes you don’t want to do it, and you can’t think of what to write next, and you’re fed up with the whole damn business. Do you think plumbers don’t feel like that about their work from time to time? Of course there will be days when the stuff is not flowing freely. What you do then is MAKE IT UP. I like the reply of the composer Shostakovich to a student who complained that he couldn’t find a theme for his second movement. “Never mind the theme! Just write the movement!” he said. Philip Pullman taken from: http://flavorwire.com/343207/13-famous-writers-on-overcoming-writers-block/

19. “The best way is always to stop when you are going good and when you know what will happen next. If you do that every day … you will never be stuck. Always stop while you are going good and don’t think about it or worry about it until you start to write the next day. That way your subconscious will work on it all the time. But if you think about it consciously or worry about it you will kill it and your brain will be tired before you start.” Ernest Hemingway taken from: http://flavorwire.com/343207/13-famous-writers-on-overcoming-writers-block/

20. Writer’s block • There is no one way of overcoming a block. Find out what works for you. • step back (take a break?) • work out why • do you know what you are writing about? what the point is you are making? where this fits into your thesis? • is there something else stopping you? • try free-writing or generative writing • mind-map • say it out loud • write ‘scared’ • consciously separate writing from editing or redrafting • tell your internal critic to keep quiet – at least until the edit

21. Freewriting • Writing for 5 min: • Without stopping • In sentences but free of academic style • In private – no reader • No structure needed

22. Generative Writing • Writing for 5 min • Without stopping • In sentences • Focusing on one aspect of your freewriting • To be read by someone else

23. Writing to Questions • E.g. for the abstract: • What did you do? (50 words) • Why did you do it? (50 words) • What happened? (50 words) • What do the findings mean for theory? (50 words) • What do the findings mean in practice? (50 words) • What is the key conclusion? (50 words) • What remains unresolved? (50 words)

24. When it is finished?

25. Work set hours and take regular breaks Be aware of time wasters Plan ahead Take some regular, gentle exercise Match the task to the time slot Set realistic targets Reward yourself for achieving them Eat properly ...avoid drugs & alcohol (too much) Avoid taking criticism personally Tips For Surviving the Stress