You have to do what works for you, however these are my top tips that worked for me.

Planning. Create as comprehensive a plan as possible.

Stay focussed as Dungavath Narayana Swamy Naik

Stop reading at some point. I love the reading and found it hard to stop. I went off on all sorts of tangents, looking at all types of theses and papers.

Set yourself targets but don't beat yourself up when you don't hit them. Share your targets with your supervisor so that you are held to account.

Work with one supervisor and don't seek multiple opinions because it will only lead to confusion since everyone has different ideas.

Write quickly and creatively. Do not try to write the final version of anything, don't event correct spelling mistakes until you have finished writing that piece, it just stops the creative flow. Don't focus on the viva when writing, it doesn't help the writing up to think through having to defend every sentence.

Enter doctoral mode. For me, I was running a business and on the doctorate part time. I got the most writing done on occasions when I took a week off, which enabled me to get into doctoral writing mode.

Short bursts. I would read a bit, stare at my computer. Take the dog for a walk and compose an argument or synthesise findings, go back to my computer and type it up. I would stop when I realised I was fed up and not doing anything productive.

I can only agree with Dungavath and Nicholas' suggestions, which are broader that the ones I suggest. I used to offer my MA and Ph.D. students what I called the 5As:

• Avoid methodological inconsistencies of all sorts such as incompatible hypotheses and research questions, inconsistent style sheets (e.g., MLA vs. APA), inconsistent language choice (e.g. Am. Eng. vs. Brit. Eng.), etc.
• Avoid using secondary sources and especially what other research students have said in their review of the literature.
• Avoid taking things for granted, i.e., acknowledge your source to spare yourself the day of your defense embarrassing questions such as "Who said this?"
• Avoid leaving your list of references to the end of the writing process, i.e., mention your entries while you write.
• Avoid disconnected discourse, i.e., as much as possible use transitional devices, sentences or paragraphs.

Such suggestions are practical, and concern the reading and writing processes while involved in research.

I hope this will help.

Hemanth,

In addition to the recommendations by Dungavath, Nicholas, and Zouheir, I would advice you

(1) to think in advance of ways in which, if the workload should turn out to be heavier than anticipated, you can reduce this workload without affecting the structure and goals of your PhD-project. This is particularly doable if you should do corpus research. Analyze 75% or 50% or even 20% of your corpus items -- but make sure that all pertinent categories remain represented. Or consider in advance which part of your literature review you can, if necessary, leave out, without this incurring severe criticisms of your examiners.

(2) to invest time to try and publish one or more of your chapters as papers. If embark on this early, with a little luck you get good feedback -- even if the paper itself is turned down. You can then at the very least accommodate the feedback on the paper to improve the chapter. And with a little luck you have one or more official publications before you defend your PhD. This is crucial to increase your chances for a post-PhD job.

Good luck, ChF

That is a brilliant suggestion (2) from Charles Forceville , that will be a great way to get feedback on your chapter and a published research output that will back up your viva defence too.

A couple of things that helped (and still help) me with writing:

when writing creatively, just let it flow and don't correct mistakes, otherwise you will affect the creative flow. You'll rewrite it the next day anyway;

don't focus on the viva from day one. If you question every single word that you write, it is much harder to write. There will be plenty of time to prepare for your viva.

Invest some time in finding the right tools/programs that will help you in your calculationa and statistics (if you need them) from the beginning! i am currently doing my PhD in metaphor and I feel that I mismanaged that as massive amount of my time is being lost on that now!!

BTW, thanks a lot for your tips, guys. I found most of them hugely useful! I totally agree with Nicholas Mapletoft: Charles Forceville's 2nd suggestion is brilliant indeed!