I am taking January off work to finish as much of my PhD writing up as I can. I know that I will be totally unproductive if I try and work at home, so am thinking of escaping somewhere (library, hotel, cottage, writing retreat?) for up to four weeks. I’d welcome suggestions, both generic ones about types of locations that have worked for you and also specific suggestions (I live in the UK). I’m thinking that working somewhere with busy but quiet people around would work better for me than total isolation, but am open to any ideas. I don’t need to bring lots of stuff with me and am probably better off without wifi (although internet access requiring a bit of hassle could be useful to check references etc). Money not a particular object as I’m going to have to pay another year’s fees (£3k) if I don’t finish soon, anyway...
posted by janecr on Nov 11, 2009 - 20 answers

Simple enough: I have a lot of writing to do (finishing my master's thesis - research is done, just have to finish the writing) and we have an 8 month old baby. In the pre-baby past, I used to spend a long time working my way up to getting a big chunk of work done, but now I need to be able to jump in quickly and get writing in the few hours I have each day between her bedtime and mine. What are your best tips for picking up the threads each day to get the writing done? [more inside]
posted by stefnet on Sep 17, 2009 - 13 answers

Who wants to share their favorite MS Word 2003 Style themes for writing academic papers? [more inside]
posted by billtron on Apr 7, 2008 - 11 answers

Unsolicited query from a German publisher who wants to publish my (kinda crappy) Master's thesis? What the...? [more inside]
posted by generichuman on Jul 17, 2007 - 12 answers

I studied philosophy in college. By my senior year I had decided that I wanted to pursue a career in academia. I had co-founded a conference. I was writing a thesis. I had intentions of applying to graduate schools. However, during my last semester I experienced a crisis of faith and delayed my thesis for six months, eventually earning a "C". I want to go back and do the job right, but I don't know how. [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Dec 30, 2006 - 17 answers

Thesis writers block: So I have until thursday to get a first draft of the discussion section of my thesis written. I've been working on it for the past few weeks at a snail's pace. I showed my advisor what I had come up with last week and surprisingly enough, he was ok with it. My problem is I just simply cannot muster up the motivation to get any more work done on this. [more inside]
posted by garethspor on Feb 20, 2006 - 24 answers

I'm looking for software that will help me write my undergraduate thesis. [more inside]
posted by anjamu on Feb 7, 2006 - 15 answers