Heeeeeeelp!

[liv]

I have to get my thesis to the examiners by Friday at the very latest. It's basically finished, bar fiddly little things. But the fiddly little things are taking me ages. I really wanted to get it to the printers today, and it's not looking realistic. Tomorrow, maybe, but tomorrow is cutting it damn fine to get it printed and conveyed to the appropriate people by Friday.

On top of this, some workmen are rebuilding the doorway of the block of flats where I life. Hence, there is loud drilling and hammering going on just the other side of the wall. It's deeply distracting, and it's causing occasional brief powercuts such that I lose data. Yes, I am saving regularly but at this stage losing even 10 minutes' work repeatedly is adding up.

If you can think of any realistic reason I'm not actually going to fail this degree, please suggest it. (The fact that people like me and offer me hugs and that I'm generally clever are all nice things, but they don't count here.)

Addendum 2pm: The workmen have knocked a hole through my wall. They are terribly apologetic about it, but they would really quite like me to be around today and tomorrow to let them in to fix it. And I need to tidy up the study where all my papers are currently laid out so they can get at the hole. Dot dot dot.

Comments

[lisekit.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! Best of luck with the final fiddly bits (yes, those last little tweaks take ages, don't they?)

I have seen no realistic reason why you *are* going to fail this degree - is there any reason (apart from basic terror, which is wholly understandable) why you think you would?

It's hard to see things as they really are when you have a nose-up-against-the-wall perspective, but if you can, perhaps with the help of a trsuted friend, take a deep breath and a step back and try to see the goddness of what you have done.

[loreid.livejournal.com]

Realistically, you won't fail this degree because you are going to do what it takes to complete it. Even if it means being up all night writing, or beating the printers repeatedly over the head until they agree that you need the paper printed now (possibly smiling and being nice works better here).
And, not to be horribly offensive to pseudomonas, but an awful lot of last-minute-and-beyond-ness went into his MA, and even so he did spectaculary well. I like to think that good work with a little bit of disorganisation is more likely to be rewarded than lots of organisation and really mediocre work.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Would you be able to concentrate better at university?

It might also be worth speaking to your supervisor seeing if you can soften the Friday deadline -- frex unbound copies, or even e-copies, with bound ones to follow; or put back the Friday deadline by a few days. I'd imagine she'd be on your side in wanting you to get passed this round.

[menin-aeide.livejournal.com]

Hm. I don't know about regulations in your univesity, but here in London, and in a Humanities degree, examiners can pass a PhD thesis while asking for certain (major or minor) revisions to be made.

So, even if the worst came to the worst and you were forced to hand in an imperfect version of your dissertation, wouldn't you be able to tweak it afterwards?

[lisekit.livejournal.com]

Seconded; many theses here are subject to a certain amount of correction (that is, they receive a "Pass with corrections", meaning the content and the argument are generally fine but some small revisions are requested before final submission).

Are you allowed to submit a soft-bound copy? I got mine done at an ordinary copy-shop, took just half an hour. (I need to resubmit my thesishard-bound, with its attendant corrections).

Gratuitous and unhelpful to livredor

[redbird]

I just spotted your username: ...Θηα ουλομενην... (I have forgotten most of my Greek, alas, but the first couple of lines of the Iliad I still have.)

Re: Gratuitous and unhelpful to livredor

[menin-aeide.livejournal.com]

Alas, you can't do breathings, or long vowels, or accents, in LJ names. It was that or armavirumque, but I always liked Homer better.

Re: Gratuitous and unhelpful to livredor

[darcydodo]

'S actually ...θεα Πηληιαδεω Αχιληος, but well done on the identification bit. ;)

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

You're not going to fail this degree because you know your stuff and you've been making and will make every conceivable effort and, even if people aren't civilised enough to flex with this, it's in nobody's interest to mess you up at this point in the process for procedural reasons aggravated by force majeure.

[lyssiae.livejournal.com]

You're not going to fail this degree because the obstacles you're coming up against are well within your ability to overcome. You're just being thrown other stuff (like the admittedly unhelpful hole in your wall) in order to not let you get swamped under worrying about the small corrections you have to make.

[blue-mai.livejournal.com]

little things, you said so yourself. it's done. this bit is making good. fixing it up, getting it just right. the workmen are slightly distracting but largely irrelevant. dont let it fluster you.
3 days is a long time used well. and on friday i dont doubt that you won't feel it's completely ready, but also i dont doubt that it wont matter.
the binding is important. find out if it needs to be hard-bound and titled by friday or not. good luck.

[darcydodo]

I second lethargic_man that you might find it easier to work on campus, without the constant distraction. It is, admittedly, times like this when a laptop would be good, because then you could take it away to somewhere where there's no power-outtages or people knocking holes through your wall.

You know the little fiddly things take ages -- so don't get in a panic when you suddenly discover that they really do. And if you have to get less than eight hours of sleep tonight and tomorrow, then do. It won't kill you.

And SAVE EVERY TIME YOU TYPE SOMETHING, not every ten minutes.

Good luck. You'll be fine. It's only Tuesday.

[hatam-soferet.livejournal.com]

OK, here is why you're not going to fail.

* You know your stuff.
* You've been working. I always tell you this, and you always say 'oh no, I have a really terrible work ethic,' but after much observation, I've concluded that in your view, a good work ethic means doing nine solid hours a day with no breaks or distractions. Which is just unreasonable, and plenty of people much less talented than you get by with doing much much less than you have.
* Thesis people are not stupid. Yes, you had some setbacks. It's science. It happens. They know this.
* Hard binding can be done pretty damned fast if you smile sweetly at the printers and offer them chocolate. If you have a friend who has a friend who works in a printers', all the better. Likewise, you can do the conveyance part on your feet if necessary.
* Shabbat is coming in later these days. So Friday is longer.
* You're a bit of a perfectionist, so some of the bits you think are completely essential won't actually be m'akev your thesis. Erm, m'akev? When you need all the components. Like on a tallit, if one of the tzitzit is pasul, the whole tallit is pasul - the one was m'akev the other three. I can't think of a good English translation. M'akev!!
* They've invested lots of time and resources in you. It's not in their interests to fail you. Even if you aren't up to scratch right now (which is not true, by the way), it makes much more sense for them to let you tweak it than for them to write you off.

There, see. No hugs, no fluff, and still a nice long list. Hang in there, a badger.