Dissertation Pain thread

[rubbermuffin]

Mine: To be handed in 9th January. 2700 words written. Arrgggh.

Still, going on holiday to Cuba when it is all over.

Anyone else in similar dire straits?

[hr]

'If something has to change then it always does'

[Cain]

my pain came from spending 8 months writing it, then spending another 5 waiting for feedback on it. and that feedback came in the form of... a CAS mark. and only a CAS mark.

[hr]

I hold an element of surprise

[exnihilo]

Hahahahaha. Dissertations. Arf.

[joker]

I HATE IT!!!

have 16,000 words of 10,000 words so if you want my spare 6000 rubbermuffin maybe we could come to some arangement... i could come to cuba at your expense perhaps??

[hr]

[s]fly like a mouse, run like a cushion, be the small bookcase, dare to believe.[/s]

[meh]

Having written less than half of my dissertation before we came off for Christmas, and managing to write virtually none of it over the holiday itelf, I came back to St Andrews on the 27th in a desperate attempt to get down the 6000+ words that hadn't yet made their way from my head onto figurative paper.

I've since written enough to ensure that I'll be several thousand words over the limit once I've added the introduction and conclusion.

Fucking. Nightmare.

[harmless loony]

I have all this to look forward to in 2nd semester......joy!

[meh]

Quoting harmless loony from 16:16, 31st Dec 2005
I have all this to look forward to in 2nd semester......joy!

I still haven't decided if it's a blessing or a curse that I had to this first semester. On the one hand, it's at least over and done with by the 9th of January. On the other hand, it effectively ruined, if not Christmas, then at least New Year (no prizes for guessing where I'll be at midnight tonight) and is due 2 days before my exam, leaving roughly no time whatsoever to revise.

[rubbermuffin]

Quoting joker from 15:28, 31st Dec 2005
I HATE IT!!!

have 16,000 words of 10,000 words so if you want my spare 6000 rubbermuffin maybe we could come to some arangement... i could come to cuba at your expense perhaps??

[hr]

Well that is one possibility...where you've typed 'sylvia plath' please replace with 'martin amis', and where you've typed 'ted hughes' please replace with 'saul bellow'. That should sort it.

[hr]

'If something has to change then it always does'

[KateBush]

i never did one during my time at St A, deciding instead to leave my nib dry until my postgrad masters. I will have the delight of the formal dissertation in May- 5 weeks to do 12,000 words.

but this term i had a bit of a taster- having only ever written 2,500 word essays or less, I had to do a piece of 7,000 words. It was painstaking stuff. I'm yet to find out how I did....eeek



[hr]

http://www.livejournal.com/users/vasovagalvegan/
POTS and Vasovagal Syncope- not for the *faint* hearted
See me in my wheelchair? Keep staring--I might do a trick!

[Sid]

It was all going to be so good.

Dissertation is to be 10,000 words max. Word count so far? zilch. Reading done so far? Zilch. Motivation for it? Zilch. Happy times ahead for me.

[sparkly]

Trying to do some referencing for mine at the minute and im seriously going mad.Footnotes are more frustrating than doing the damn thing!Aagh.

P.S.Its got to the stage that i dont know what i've actually written cos i cant bare to read it.

[rubbermuffin]

Update: 3.5 days to go, 5000 words. Looking slightly more positive. The bibliography is bound to take up a few hundred.

[hr]

'If something has to change then it always does'

[sabra_girl]

'Mon the 'muffin! You can do it lad!

[hr]

"There are not very many desires in life which we can actually meet. For instance, 'I want to meet the love of my life'. Probably not today! But 'I want a cup of coffee.' That I can do!" Chris Thile (Nickel Creek)

IMAGE:img360.imageshack.us/img360/114/infosiggy23vz.gif

[exnihilo]

I certainly wouldn't expect the bibliography to be included in the word count. Likewise, I wouldn't include footnotes, extensive quotations, or any appendices you might include.

The word count should be the words you wrote on the topic. Be aware, that when marking these things the word count is a guide, if you've written a seminal dissertation in 8,000 rather than 10,000 that will not count against you, 2,000 words of waffle will.

[KateBush]

As far as I remember from friends doing it, the word count is excluded from the bibliography.

[hr]

http://www.livejournal.com/users/vasovagalvegan/
POTS and Vasovagal Syncope- not for the *faint* hearted
See me in my wheelchair? Keep staring--I might do a trick!

[Cain]

Quoting exnihilo from 22:45, 5th Jan 2006
I certainly wouldn't expect the bibliography to be included in the word count. Likewise, I wouldn't include footnotes, extensive quotations, or any appendices you might include.

I was told that for my modern history dissertation they counted footnotes. thus, my attempt to put all extended quotations in the footnotes to save on space backfired, and i had to get rid of about 1,000 words

[hr]

I hold an element of surprise

[the reason for the word w]

They do include footnotes and quotations but exclude the bibliography in medieval history. It usually says in detail in the handout if there is one.

[hr]

Are you a terrorist?
- Depends! Are you terrified?

[meh]

The English Department include footnotes, quotations and, inexplicably, the bibliography but kindly exclude appendices. I'm now desperately trying to relegate 1000 words to the latter so that I actually have space for a conclusion.

[exnihilo]

They really need to standardise. I remember feeling deeply aggreived that my dissertation in mediaeval history some years ago was a single semester, 30 credits and 10,000 words whereas the ancient history one was whole year, 60 credits and 8,000 words. That seemed deeply unfair to me.

Still, those times are past now and 10,000 is as naught.

[Guest]

bibliography wasn't included in the word count for my dissertation. just as well cos it was over 1000 words in itself.