Writing-up

The writing up phase following fieldwork is a period of intensive work with your supervisor. By the end of the first year of writing up you should have a complete draft of the whole dissertation. It is desirable also to have prepared a conference or seminar paper.

Notification of return

As soon as you have returned from the field, please complete a Return from Fieldwork (PDF) form and return it to the Administration Office. The form will ensure that we have an up-to-date address and other contact details and comes with a letter containing important information about seminars, desk space, keys, etc.

The Division of Social Anthropology endeavours to provide desk space for post-fieldwork doctoral research students who are writing up their dissertations, although we can only do this for a maximum of 15 months. See Information for Current Postgraduate Students for details.

The writing up seminar

All students returned from the field are expected to attend the writing up seminar. Presentations are prepared and circulated in advance so that maximum feedback can be given to the presenter. A senior member of staff chairs the seminar but its liveliness and success depend very much on the quality and collegiality that come from the student participants.

The senior seminar

The seminar is open to all PhD students, including those in the pre-fieldwork year. During your writing up, in particular, you should endeavour to take an active part in the senior seminar. This is an opportunity both to try out your ideas and to acquire professional experience and training in seminar and conference work. As you submit your dissertation you may be asked to give a presentation to the senior seminar.

Interim appraisal of work

In specific cases the PhD Committee may decide to appraise the work in progress of students in the writing up stage. This would happen after approximately nine months return from the field. See Interim appraisal.

Fourth year funding

The Division has some limited resources to assist students in the final year of writing up. See here for further information.

Deadline for submission

The Board of Graduate Studies has a submission deadline after ten terms. If you need to go beyond this you must refer to the Board of Graduate Studies website for the relevant deferral form. The Division has an absolute deadline of four years or 12 terms after you began your PhD. Needless to say, you should plan to complete your dissertation within the ten term period and not aim for the final deadline.

Adverse circumstances such as illness may temporarily prevent you from working on your thesis and thus provide grounds for extending your submission deadline. If so you should complete the Board of Graduate Studies form for leave to intermit. NB if you intermit after your ninth term, you need to include on the leave to intermit form a request for ‘a new submission date of xx/xx/xxxx’ that takes into account the period when you were unable to continue with your research. Before applying for leave to defer or intermit, you should consult with both your supervisor and the graduate administrator in the Administration Office.