Read through your work. When you come to a part that's particularly pleasing, strike it out. - Samuel Johnson (I think).

Mum has this written on her office wall and I I do feel a little under the tyranny of the written at the moment. For a few reasons. First the horrible thought that maybe I should begin the chapter again, eek. Second, I do have some great passages but now I look more carefully they seem like a collection of semi-related sentences. I need a flow chart. But I think I am slowly making progress, now I have the overall shape of the thesis written out i am finding a lot of areas where I can remove sections which say the same thing, I seem to have introduced my topic at the beginning of every chapter. The other piece of progress is to remove what I call 'thinking phrases', i.e. strings of words that reflect my thought process as I write rather than being necessary to explain to the reader. I have a lot of sentences that begin something like "It could also be said that..." "This would suggest then.." I have found that in most cases they can be completely removed, what fun. Fetch me my red pen!