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[promovenda]

Bonne courage, abd!

BTW, tenuredfeminist, that was a GREAT list. I've done #12 (I'm still ABD, but writing) and my SO did #13 (but was successful in obtaining his PhD).

[mdwlark]

abd_angst, all the excellent comments so far will help you in understanding your own and your adviser's motives.  Now it is time to get to work.  Dissertations involve a lot of rewriting to please 5 people (one in particular), so accept multiple drafts as a given.  When you get down to doing the actual rework, you may find that it requires more rearranging and reorganization and rethinking than rewriting.  It has to do with the order of the arguments, which ideas lead to other ideas, which ideas need support, that kind of thing.  Sometimes a simple cut and paste with a few new transitional paragraphs can clean the whole thing up. Sometimes the rearranged paragraphs have to be rewritten, but it is the order and support of the arguments that needs to be your focus, not finding new words to say the same thing. 

Let me offer two personal experiences to help you look at this in the right light. 
 
When I was choosing an adviser, all the more senior students told me not to choose Dr. Stickler, because he would make me rewrite five times and would nit pick over everything.  That was all the advice I needed.  I went right to Dr. Stickler and asked him to be my adviser.  Great choice. 

Second, when my "ex" was trying out for his high school football team, he was really glad that he was not one of the players that the coach yelled at and insulted constantly.  There was a little group of the would-be players that were getting a lot of verbal abuse.  My ex later discovered that those players were not cut, in fact, they all became the starting line up.  The coach also took him aside and said, "You are not going to make it in the position you are trying for, switch to another position and let's see what you can do."  He made the team in the other position. 

This is not the time to assume you have a difficult adviser or committee.  That kind of thinking will not serve you well.  You have an adviser who is critical enough to make sure you are well trained and that you learn the difference between passable and excellent work, before you put your work out for all to see.  Be grateful that these experiences are happening now, when you can learn new skills and make mistakes in the cloistered, forgiving, and private environment of being a student.  Your adviser is investing a lot of energy into training you to be the best.  Maybe your adviser has spotted you as a potential star, and doesn't want you to become complacent and turn out mediocre work so that your flame dies out early. 

And in parting, jump through all required hoops.  As we have often said on the fora, the only good dissertation is a done dissertation, and that means it has to please your adviser and committee.

[mystica42]

Look at it as a compliment. Your advisor thinks enough of your work in the first place to have BEEN disappointed. You can't get disappointed if you didn't expect anything.

You should be thankful that your advisor has enough respect for you to tell you what's what and not blow sunshine up your ass. Take the comments in the spirit in which they were given, as real help that will make your writing stronger and, ultimately, your career more brilliant. :)