Are the final stages of writing up your thesis looming? Liam Knight, a PGR in English Literature has recently submitted his (and passed his viva – congratulations, Liam!) and shares his reflections on the process.
Entering the writing-up phase of the PhD can sound daunting. You’ve finished actively conducting primary research and with that, your familiar patterns and ways of working come to an end. Instead, you’ve got to tackle a different task entirely: turning all of your findings, ideas, and arguments into one coherent document: your submission-ready thesis.
Build in structure
I found it really important to establish a sense of routine. This was a necessity for me because I started working a job to overcome my funding running out, and so my time was less flexible than it was previously. I overcame this by setting firm boundaries about when I would work on my thesis (9am-5pm during the weekends, 6pm-9pm two weekdays per week), which helped me not only to set realistic wordcount goals (1000 words per weekend day; 500 words per weekday evening), but also prevented the thesis from totally dominating my every waking moment.
Work with others
I’m a firm believer in the benefits (or the helpful pressure) of co-working. I find that if I’m working alongside someone, I tend to be more productive. Luckily, I have some wonderful friends who share in my belief, and so I would often work with them at the weekends, holding our own “Shut Up and Work” sessions together. These sessions made working on my thesis feel less lonely, whereas our regular, short breaks helped me to stay focused because there was designated “work” time and designated “rest” time.
Keep communicating
I remember the pressure of feeling like I could only speak to my supervisors once I’d completed drafting a section, a chapter, or even my thesis at large. Ignore this feeling. During your writing-up phase, your supervisors remain in place to support you. So keep communicating with them – let them know if you need support trying to articulate an idea, pick their brains about structuring your argument, and share your success too! They will be familiar with the challenges of academic writing, so make use of their wisdom for your benefit.
Give yourself something to look forward to
Although working meant that my time was tight during my writing-up phase, I still made sure to schedule nice things to look forward to so that I had extra motivation to get through my thesis. For me, this meant planning a “self-care Sunday” once a month in which I’d put down my thesis and do something enjoyable – go to the cinema, watch the football, spend a day playing video games. Not only did this give me that added motivation, but taking occasional breaks from my work allowed me to come back to it with renewed energy and a fresh pair of eyes, helping me to sustain momentum and spot some silly errors!
Reflect: celebrate
While in the writing-up phase, I had to go back and look at some of my oldest drafted work and figure out to what extent I could incorporate it into my thesis. These drafts made me cringe – it was almost as if a different, less confident, altogether more naïve person had written them. And that’s because I was a different, less confident, more naïve person when I wrote them. Although I had to do a fair bit of work to bring these drafts to the same quality as my more recent pieces, doing so allowed me to see just how far I had come over the course of my PhD: my writing was more assured, more knowledgeable, more persuasive, something that made me feel proud.
Don’t just see the writing-up period as a mammoth undertaking, then, but use it as an opportunity to reflect on your PhD journey at large and marvel at just how far you have come.