---
layout: post
status: publish
published: true
title: Finishing a UK Ph.D. within 3 years

wordpress_id: 1985
wordpress_url: https://www.martineve.com/?p=1985
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categories:
- Academia
tags:
- PhDchat
comments:
- id: 6653
  author: Raine
  author_email: wildrain@mail.com
  author_url: ''
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  content: ! 'Very good advice. All PhD students start by saying ''I want to do it
    in three years'' very few do and I can often tell in three months who stands a
    chance of doing so -it''s the ones already working 12 hour days and driving me
    insane with (good) questions. I did my PhD in three years around three school
    age kids (the youngest was only part-time at school when I started). I did not
    have such a clear idea and background knowledge as you Martin, when I started
    -what I was prepared to do was work my arse off. I did reading and writing while
    sat at swimming lessons, rugby matches, waiting to see teachers at parent''s evenings
    -every second was utilised. The only things I would add is that the delete button
    is your friend. And never cut and paste. Two simple rules that force you to improve
    and constantly rearticulate your ideas.


    Well done Martin -and good luck for your Viva!!!'
- id: 6654
  author: Martin Paul Eve
  author_email: martin@martineve.com
  author_url: https://www.martineve.com
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  content: ! 'Thanks for the luck! Feeling nervous already!


    I think your point just reinforces a sentence that I almost wrote: to do the Ph.D.
    in three months, you have to live and breathe it. Ph.D. dreams are probably the
    sign that you''re doing it at the right level. Very impressed that you managed
    to do it with three kids; I''m "fortunate" in that respect in that I don''t have
    any little bundles of joy to distract from my thesis (I suspect they make up for
    it in other ways).'
- id: 6655
  author: Sarah Robins-Hobden
  author_email: ''
  author_url: http://twitter.com/SarahR_H
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  content: LOVE the advice for functional reading. So simple, and clearly so many
    benefits, not least of which is maintaining focus. Wish I had done this - and
    I have made a reminder to do so in all future projects! Thanks Martin. S
- id: 6656
  author: Susan Oregan
  author_email: susan.oregan@cit.ie
  author_url: ''
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  content: Excellent advice. I worked on my topic for a year before registering, and
    I would recommend anyone to do that. Also, regular thinking on the page/screen
    is a really productive habit. My PhD took 5 years, without taking time out from
    full-time lecturing and family, etc. I had a year-old baby starting out as well.
    Daunting, in terms of time management. All of my weekends, holidays, were taken
    up. I didn't give up tennis, but the house and garden took a step back in the
    priorities. Support from partner was vital as well!
- id: 6657
  author: Jason R Berg
  author_email: hyjrb@leeds.ac.uk
  author_url: ''
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  content: As someone who is doing PhD myself I can't help but think that your advice,
    though obviously good for you, can't possibly work for everyone. Firstly, the
    initial two steps you described are both 'pre-PhD' but should be included in the
    calculation. Not sure if you can still claim to have finished your PhD in 3 years
    if you have, in fact, done months of work before you started it (should that time
    not also count?). Secondly, although working constantly is a great advice and
    you do need to maintain a 40'ish hour/week workload,  'treat[ing] your Ph.D. as
    though it's a highly paid job which you are expected to work long hours' is, quite
    frankly, horrible advice. The AHRC, after all, is not high paying and believing that
    in order to justify your salary you need to work 'all the time' at any job is
    going to burn most people out. I  know that the pressure to complete in three
    years is more often then not tied to funding concerns, however, allowing yourself
    (and your thesis) room for error and failed inquiries is only going to produce
    a better end product in my opinion. Enough of the negative stuff - your section
    on reading effectively is spot on advice and probably the thing I find the most
    difficult to do in my own research. In the end, congratulations on submitting
    in three years and I wish you luck in your viva.
- id: 6658
  author: reem
  author_email: xreemiex@yahoo.com
  author_url: ''
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  content: During your PHD, did you get stuck? How did you proceed?
- id: 6659
  author: Katharine
  author_email: fletcherkf@gmail.com
  author_url: ''
  date: !binary |-
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  content: ! 'Congrats again and thanks for posting this very useful piece. I came
    at my PhD from a completely different angle, wanting to use it as a way of exploring
    something completely new to me instead of continuing with what I''d worked on
    at masters and undergraduate level. I even chose a different and unfamiliar discipline
    under the guise of an interdisciplinary project and then mapped out a ridiculously
    large topic. Needless to say I don''t think I will be finishing within the three
    years! There are good sides to doing something new, but I think it would be a
    better PhD, an easier and quicker experience, and leave me in a better position
    for an academic career if I''d stuck with familiar ground. '
- id: 6660
  author: Rachael Stanley
  author_email: r.stanley@bsms.ac.uk
  author_url: ''
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  content: ! "Very well done Martin - what a great achievement! It just goes to show
    how different PhDs can be (and how similar). I think a lot of the advice stands
    even for laboratory-based PhDs, such as planning. Quite often experiments don't
    work or give you a result that sends you off on a new/different/improved path,
    but if you have several experiments planned that aren't dependent on the others
    working, this means that SOMETHING will work (well that is the theory). I spent
    months going into the lab everyday for a particular experiment that didn't work
    - not a thing. My lab books are full of dead ends! \n\nWell done on being so organised
    and focused - you are definitely not an average PhD student :)\nGood luck for
    your viva!\nRachael"
- id: 6666
  author: Gemma Tombs
  author_email: gemmatombs@gmail.com
  author_url: ''
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  content: Well, now I don't feel so bad that I didn't finish in 3 years ;) 4 doesn't
    look like so much of a failure any more!
---
<p>I've been asked, by <a href="twitter.com/#!/salma_patel">Salma Patel</a> and <a href="twitter.com/#!/thesiswhisperer">The Thesis Whisperer</a> to write a post on finishing a Ph.D. under the UK system within 3 years. I have to confess, first off, to feeling slightly uneasy writing this. My thesis is yet to be examined. I will, however, have completed a work that both my supervisors feel will pass the Ph.D. examination, within a three-year timespan.</p>
<p>So, with the disclaiming preview out of the way, here's a few ideas as to why my project was do-able within this timeframe. I have also published six journal articles/book chapters and three reviews during this period. The following pieces of advice only apply if you want to do the project within three years. I appreciate that there are many good reasons for wishing to take longer. NB: my project is in English Literature.</p>
<p><img src="https://www.martineve.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Read2.png" alt="Read" title="Read" width="750" height="323" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-1987" /></p>
<h3>Pre-Planning</h3>
<p>This advice will not really be of much use to those already mid-way through a Ph.D., but is worth considering before you start out. My project was extremely clearly conceived before I began. I spent a long time writing an AHRC funding proposal that clearly set out a structure for the entire work. I planned the focus of each chapter. I set a specific timeframe for each chapter. I planned a three chapter structure, with eight months for each chapter. I intended, next, to spend eight months examining the interrelations between the themes of each chapter, thus leaving four months for a re-write/contingency. With three months left to go, it's panned out bang on. The message of the story is: of course your Ph.D. will take you four years if you spend the first year searching for the right question; <b>do the planning beforehand</b>.</p>
<h3>Pre-Knowledge</h3>
<p>Again, more of a consideration for those about to start, but, make your thesis work the continuation of an extant research trajectory. If I had known nothing about my topic (Thomas Pynchon in relation to Wittgenstein, Foucault and Adorno), the project would have been a great deal harder. However, I was already familiar with Pynchon's work, having written an undergraduate dissertation and MA thesis on different aspects of his work. Furthermore, I had done some preliminary research on Wittgenstein during my MA and a course on Foucault during my undergraduate. The work is entirely new, but I had a great deal of background knowledge under my belt. This pre-preparation also substantially reduced the literature review work (the Vheissu database currently lists <a href="http://www.vheissu.net/biblio/alles.php">3559 articles/books on Pynchon</a>). Your thesis work is doable in three years if you <b>know at least something about the topic beforehand</b>.</p>
<h3>Write constantly</h3>
<p>I worked on a hypothesis basis. By this I mean that I started writing well before I was ready. I would write a speculative hypothesis based on what I thought from the current state of my reading. This would then be constantly modified as my thoughts changed and I read more. From this basis I was writing from almost the very start. The very first sentence I wrote on this project has stayed within the work, only slightly changed in the final version ("Perhaps one of the best reasons to begin a study of literary-philosophical interaction with work on Ludwig Wittgenstein is that he calls into question the very nature of philosophy"). Conversely, some sentences have completely vanished (thankfully: "It can be remarked, without much controversy, that one of Pynchon's enduring, and most frequently recurring, motifs is an incredulity towards cause and effect"). I wrote between 300-800 words every day. In short: <b>write a lot, every day; do your thinking on paper/screen</b>.</p>
<h3>Work constantly</h3>
<p>Perhaps unwelcome as advice, but true. If you can get it done in three years, you won't go crazy if you're working all the time. I'm an early-morning person, so I get up at 6.30 every day, do reading/admin for two hours, then head to the British Library. I work there until 5.30 to 6.30pm. I then come home, try and do some exercise, then go back to work to deal with the day's admin. I spend the commute to the BL reading peripheral material, either for teaching or general interest. I work every weekend. I don't watch TV (occasionally a film or a box set of a series that I already own). Try and increase your mental endurance by relaxing through puzzles; I'm a big fan of cryptic crosswords and the mental contortions involved therein. Sleep well, though; I go to bed at 10pm every night to get a good eight hours of sleep. I had to be especially aggressive with time management because I lose a certain amount of time for hospital trips and treatment for my rheumatoid arthritis. I have spent several days working on my thesis while on a Rituximab drip. In short: <b>treat your Ph.D. as though it's a highly paid job in which you are expected to work long hours, all the time</b>.</p>
<h3>Read functionally</h3>
<p>I have come to the belief, over the course of my thesis, that it is very hard to read academic material (and indeed, works of literature and philosophy) in any way other than functionally. By this I mean that we come to works with pre-conceived ideas of what we are looking to extract. This is highly utilitarian, but consciously making this decision will allow you to be more ruthless in your reading. In short: <b>read for your current project, not trying to read so that, if you did another project, you wouldn't have to read the work again</b>.</p>
<h3>Enjoy it</h3>
<p>Some days were very tough but, overall, I have enjoyed my Ph.D. immensely. Having the space to think and write has been a privilege that I know I will rarely, if ever, have from now on. Remember that when things are hard.</p>
<p><i>Featured image by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/pagedooley/">Kevin Dooley</a> under a CC-BY license.</i></p>