PhD: Nothing Is Sacred

 Today, I jettisoned another section of my thesis which at one point I thought was a key part of my overall argument. Last week, I had decided to ditch what I once thought was the core of my conceptual framework. I had spent weeks. I had sent weeks, if not months, on each of them. I am at that stage of my PhD where nothing is sacred, and everything is expendable in the interest of coming up with a coherent arguement. It doesn't matter how long I spent over it or how original I think it is. If it doesn't fit, it goes out. It is telling that my first thought was how many words I would lose. I suppose, I, subconsciously, equate length with substance, like I am sure many people do. Word counts are a popular marker of progress but sometimes I feel the more words you have, the more scope to muddle your argument. In any case, I am being very ruthless with my work now because I feel I am at that stage where ruthlessness is merited. If one was ruthless at any early stage, one wouldn't be able to get any words down on paper. but, in the final stages, when one is trying to connect all the parts into a coherent whole, the parts don't fit must go in the bin. Not an actual bin, because they can sit in a Word file waiting to be used in the future.