A slightly different blog post, but one that I have been thinking about for some time. As I got closer to completing my thesis and preparing to submit, I started to look online for blog posts and articles about this final leg of the journey, and I didn't find what I was looking for. That's not to say that I didn't find blog posts and articles about the viva or the viva process, but no one really talked about the last weeks/months before submission or what happened after the Viva.

Picture the scene, it is early June 2023 and I am planning to submit my thesis by the end of July. My examiners have been chosen and I have sent my notice to submit documentation to the Doctoral College, I just need a finished thesis. But how do I get to that point?

Over the last couple of months I had been revising my chapters to make sure they were strong, that I didn't repeat myself and that there was a clear structure to my thesis that made sense. Now all that was left was to revise my discussion chapter. I spent June working on my chapter around my part-time job as a lecturer - two full days a week for my studies, plus evenings and weekends.  At the end of the month I sent my revised chapter to my supervisor and breathed a sigh of relief - this was it, just proof reading and formatting to go. Or was it????

The day before my next supervision meeting my supervisor sent back my chapter with some comments on it so that I could prepare for the meeting. I read the comments and then told my husband - "I think I have to rewrite this chapter!"

My supervision meeting the next day was good, good conversation, good discussion about my thesis and my discussion chapter, and then my supervisor commented, "it's not quite working, what do you think needs to be done?", my answer "I hate to say it, but I think I need to start again with a blank page",  and she agreed!

I still wanted to submit by the end of July and that was just 4 weeks away! So we made a plan - I was going to rewrite my 10,000 word discussion chapter over the next 2 weeks, that would then give my supervisors a week to look at it and get back to me, and then 1 week to make any revisions, to put my thesis together and to submit! I will admit that this was a daunting plan, could I really get it all done to submit in just 4 weeks - but I was determined.

After my supervision meeting, I packed my bag and went home to make my plan - how was I going to meet these deadlines and what was my chapter going to look like. 

The first part of the plan was simple, and was only possible because I worked in the same university department where I was a PhD student, my PhD was to be my fulltime focus for the next two weeks (my head of school agreed this). 

The second part of the plan was harder, what was my chapter going to look like?? We had talked about various ideas during my supervision meeting, and I played around with the ideas we had discussed, before settling on a structure that I liked, but that also made sense for my study.  Looking back, I will admit that I went back and forth on this structure over the next couple of days, but the chapter included in my thesis followed this initial structure - at this point in the process, you need to trust yourself.

Now all I had to do was write - 10,000 words in two weeks, that's only 833 words a day (I gave myself a day off in the middle and a day to revise the chapter), but where to start. 

I decided to go back to my previous discussion chapter, the one we had discussed at my supervision meeting, and turn it into an art project - it was cut and paste time!  I printed out the chapter and then took my scissors to it, cutting it initially into paragraphs and then as I got stuck into the work (pun intended), those paragraphs got cut into sentences, or phrases and rearranged and stuck down onto a piece of scrap paper, with new sections being handwritten to fill the gaps that had led to this chapter needing to be rewritten.

As each of the new sections was completed in my draft arts and crafts style, I typed it up, making edits as I went to ensure that this new discussion chapter was strong and focused. This process went on for days, but I got there, in fact I got the chapter completed about halfway through my second week, so I had extra time for proofreading and revising it before sending it to my supervisors. 

At this point, all I could do was wait for their feedback on the chapter, so project proofread and format check the rest of my thesis was on! A top tip for all PhD students is to make a note of everyone who mentions at anytime when you are writing that they would be happy to read your work, or to proofread your work - this is when you are going to call on them! I shared my draft thesis (minus 1 chapter) with friends and family and asked for their feedback, revisions and comments - only 2 people made it all the way through, but I was so grateful for everyone who even started the process.

Four days later, and still working on operation proofread and format checking, I got my chapter feedback - some minor spelling and grammar issues, plus one small section that needed clarifying, but I was good to go and I was going to meet my (self-imposed) submission deadline.

My first job was to submit my finished thesis to Turnitin for checking. Even though I had already run every chapter through Turnitin as it was completed, I was still worried that I had missed something big! My minor worries were soon dealt with when I recieved the completed Turnitin report - no issues to be worried about.

This report then had to be sent to my supervisor along with my thesis submission form so that she could sign off on the Unfair Means statement and that she agreed my thesis submission.

While I waited for her to return the form to me, I started to sort out all of the paperwork and admin aspects. I emailed my Doctoral College so that they could set up a submission folder for me, I completed a variety of forms, and then I waited.

Finally, after what felt like forever, but was really only 3.5 days, I received the form back from my supervisor and I could submit my thesis - fantastic news, but I was halfway to my parents house and didn't want to rely on hot-spotting my laptop off my phone, so I had to wait another couple of hours.

As soon as we got to my parents, I let them know that I just needed to submit my thesis. Whilst I sat down with my laptop to upload my thesis and all of the paperwork to the submission folder, my mum poured some prosecco for us and my dad sat down to record the submission of my thesis.

Uploading my thesis and all of the forms to the submission folder was slightly anti-climactic! But the feeling of knowing that I had submitted my thesis, and one day before my deadline, was fantastic!!!

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 But since this is already so much longer than I expected - stay tuned for part 2!