Is it possible to write my dissertation in this time period?

[psychstudent90]

Hi everyone,

I have posted on here before about my MSc dissertation, and am still having troubles, so here goes again. My original topic was the lived experience of pain in adult childhood cancer survivors. I had to recruit all of the participants on my own, and could not find a single participant, so had to abandon that study.

My supervisor then gave me a new topic: young people's attitudes towards cancer pain. She wants me to recruit 80-100 participants, but so far I've only been able to recruit approximately 30. Methods I've tried include: crowd sourcing (CrowdFlower, MTurk), 1o+ youth charities/organisations, Facebook, emails and online forums. I saw my supervisor today and she got really stuck into me for not having more ideas/not trying hard enough, but didn't have any ideas of her own, and recommended talking to another academic. One of the issues is that all of the undergraduate students have left campus for Summer.

I'm going to continue trying to recruit, possibly by posting some posters around uni, and maybe posting an advert in local newspapers. My concern is the timeline.

My 10 000 word dissertation is due on the 9th of September, and I can't get an extension as I'm an international student and my visa and accommodation expire then. I was planning on finishing recruitment mid July to allow sufficient time for (quantitative) data analysis, and write up. I will work on my introduction and method before then, but that was the plan.

My supervisor's response to this was "no, you can't do that!" She told me that all of her students have left approximately two weeks for write up - but this idea just fills me with anxiety! When I disagreed, she told me that the MSc should be treated like a full-time job - 40 hours a week - and that if I did 80 hours over two weeks, I would get it completed. I told her I didn't think that was a good way to work, and she told me I wasn't dedicated/committed enough, but I just don't see how someone can produce quality work in that time frame.

I may also add that the timeline in our handbook recommends finishing data collection mid July and finishing analysis by the end of July. I'm worried that her plan is to get me to mid August, and then give me an extension, but she knows I can't have an extension.

What do you think I should do? What do you think is the minimum time I should allow to write up?

Many thanks!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[psychstudent90]

Please help!

 

[PsyDr]

Your advisor has given you a deadline. That's the end of the story. You can say it's unfair, or try and work around it. But that is not going to change his/her opinion.

A 10,000 document is around 40 pages double spaced. Or 4 pages per day. That is not hard. 40 hours is not unreasonable in the slightest. I would put in 60hrs/week because you are looking at losing a 5 figure investment.

Write up the intro, methods, etc. for 4 hours/day. Spend 4hrs/day recruiting through cancer groups, hospitals, etc. Set up the datasets in whatever software you need. Plug in the numbers when you get them. Polish it off in a day or two. Hand it in.

 

[eeaaagggllee]

Hi OP, I'm sorry, I assumed when you said you were writing this, you meant you were finishing up your dissertation and have written the intro and methods sections. Either way -- since you already have a topic and there is a very clear deadline, I concur with PSYDR -- it's best to just write and start chipping away at it; unfortunately, it's crunch time and it's clear that there is no wiggle room. It's best to work with what you have. That paper is indeed doable but only if you put the time in.

 

[WisNeuro]

Man, dissertations just keep getting shorter and shorter these days.

 

[psychstudent90]

Thanks for your responses, but really? I only have 27/80 participants, so there's no guarantee I'm even going to get enough participants to write up - but if I do - she only wants to give me 2 weeks to do so. I don't think that's the most productive way to go about things. My supervisors for my honours year taught me to write a bit, take a few days break, reflect on it, etc. Surely people don't do their best work when it's a rush, right?

 

[chicandtoughness]

Post on Craigslist, Backpage, all the typical "community" sites. Reddit might be a great resource too, if you know where to look (assuming it's just a survey/interview and not an examination-based study). Try out https://www.reddit.com/r/SampleSize, where a ton of people post their research surveys. Have you looked at emailing to listservs and professional organizations? How about simple things like putting up flyers around town?

My supervisors for my honours year taught me to write a bit, take a few days break, reflect on it, etc. Surely people don't do their best work when it's a rush, right?

You'd be very surprised how much of graduate-level writing is done in a rush. Hell, even professors do it all the time (e,g, pull all-nighters to submit papers for conference). When the circumstances require it, you do not have the luxury to "take a few days break" to "reflect"... that's the kind of thinking that keeps PhD students stuck in the ABD stage for years....

 

[WisNeuro]

Meh, you can write up the Intro, Methods, and Data Analysis section, as well as your references. That's at least half of the manuscript. In the meantime, get your syntax ready for data analysis so that when you get it all in, you can run everything in minutes. Additionally, you should already have an idea of how you want to present your data, so if you are using tables, make up dummy tables that only need numbers plugged in and are good to go. Plenty of things you can do in the meantime to get it there. Once you have a bigger chunk of data, you can run preliminary analyses and at least get a working framework of a discussion going. And, there are also parts of the discussion that you can already be working on (e.g., limitations, possible future directions).

 

[PsyDr]

Thanks for your responses, but really? I only have 27/80 participants, so there's no guarantee I'm even going to get enough participants to write up - but if I do - she only wants to give me 2 weeks to do so. I don't think that's the most productive way to go about things. My supervisors for my honours year taught me to write a bit, take a few days break, reflect on it, etc. Surely people don't do their best work when it's a rush, right?

Yes, really. There are times in life when it doesn't matter what you think or feel. When the IRS audits you, when a judge tells you to do something, and when the person in charge of your graduation tells you that something has to be done on a hard deadline.

Again, what are you doing here? It's not like SDN is going to collectively call up your supervisor and get her/him to change the due date. You can either do it and graduate or don't and not graduate.

I would assume an MSc student would know a couple things about splitting, triangulation, and the personality structure of those that use it.

 

[Justanothergrad]

I'm not sure what advice there is to give.

 

[deleted343839]

When I was in graduate school I wrote a 10,000-word book chapter in about a week. It made for a rough week, but it's doable.

You are in a tight spot and it doesn't sound as though you have a lot of room for alternatives at this point. The fact that you've recruited a third of your sample is encouraging, but it sounds like to have any chance of finishing in time you need to make this your life 7 days a week for the next couple of months.

You'd be surprised at how many people work well under pressure. But even if you don't, you need to get out of that "I can't do my best work under these conditions" mindset. No one's dissertation is their best work. Everyone feels time pressure. You don't have the best of resources at your disposal, but presumably you had some idea of what you were getting into. Even if your training has not met your expectations, it makes sense to make every possible effort to see it to its end so you can move on to the next step in your career. Each moment spent wishing that your advisor were making things easier for you is, at this point, a moment wasted.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

I completed my master's thesis, including subject recruitment, between September and December. I ran all analyses and wrote the entire thing over the span of our one-month winter break. I mention all that not to brag (far from it), but to say that based on the timeline you've presented, it's possible.

As others have pointed out, it doesn't sound like there's really much in the way of options here--you can either complete/attempt to complete the project by the presented deadline or not.

And I also agree with MamaPhD and chicandtoughness--expecting or aiming for perfection out of your thesis/dissertation is how folks end up taking much, much longer than is truly needed to finish these projects.

 

[futureapppsy2]

I'm baffled that you recruited via MTurk for a general population sample and didn't manage to get 100 participants in, like, a week. Is MTurk just really not popular in the UK or something?

 

[psychstudent90]

Sorry for the late reply, and many thanks for all of your responses. Currently working on my dissertation, and still recruiting too - hoping for the best and trying some other avenues.

Futureapppsy2 - MTurk is only available for residents of the US unfortunately.

 

[psychRA]

My 10 000 word dissertation is due on the 9th of September, and I can't get an extension as I'm an international student and my visa and accommodation expire then. I was planning on finishing recruitment mid July to allow sufficient time for (quantitative) data analysis, and write up. I will work on my introduction and method before then, but that was the plan.

What is the alternative that you're suggesting?

I'm asking this as a genuine question, not being snarky. The deadline sounds very firm and the extension is not an option, so there's no wiggle room there. Are you suggesting that you end data collection now and move forward with the data that you already have? That you dial back the recruitment goal to something more manageable?

Ultimately, I agree with what others have said. Regardless of whether it's an deal timeline, this is what you have to work with if you want to complete your MSc. While you're recruiting, also work on getting as much written in advance as possible. The basic format and table structure, the Intro/Methods, add and format references as you write, etc. The final product may not be your best possible work, but it will be done, and that is what matters in this situation. A beautifully written dissertation is meaningless if you aren't able to submit it in time to earn your degree.

You may also surprise yourself with how well you can actually work under pressure. I tend to put things off for longer than other people I know, and while it's more stressful than allowing myself plenty of time, the quality isn't different from when I take my time. I find that I tend to fill all of the allowable time whenever I have a task to complete. If I'm writing something that (hypothetically) takes a minimum of 4 hours of solid concentration to complete, I can't finish it in 2 hours, but I can (barely) churn out a mediocre product in 4 hours and I can do a good job in 8 hours. There's also no need to allot myself 20 hours, because I just end up reading and re-reading things, writing very slowly, and getting sidetracked with other ideas and topics that are related to what I'm writing but are not necessary for the task at hand.

 

[psychstudent90]

Just noticed this post, sorry! Thanks for your feedback. I ended up submitting on time - but my supervisor never bothered to look at it! Now to wait for my result...