Thesis Writing

[Ludwig von Dracula]

Is anyone else is finishing up their degree this year and working on writing a thesis? If so, what is your timeline and do you have any strategies or tips you would like to share? Feel free to post your topic if you want.

My topic (M.A. Ethnomusicology): Hutterite choral music in Manitoba

Projected length: Likely 4 major chapters--100 pages?

Timeline: I want to defend by mid-April, so I have to have my final draft done by mid-March (also when application results come in...yikes!) Fortunately, I'm done all of my coursework.

Where I am now: ummm...I've got an outline, and a two-page ethnographic introductory hook! Will be starting this in earnest as soon as my last course paper is finished in a week. Hopefully writing a chapter every 2 weeks.

Advice: Four of us in the department have formed a reading group (we're all in the same position--finishing our MAs in ethno). We've uploaded our outlines (and later, chapters) onto Google docs and shared them with each other so we can make suggestions, ask questions, and hopefully keep each other on track with a bit of accountability to our own deadlines. So far it's worked really well. We also plan to meet weekly at university to discuss things in person and commiserate over the whole process.

[StrangeLight]

i'm finishing up my thesis in latin american history this academic year.

this is the second year of a two year program. still doing lots of coursework (next semester i have 3 graduate seminars, an undergraduate language class, and i'm a TA... joy). i finished my first draft of my thesis in early december. 38 pages, i'm hoping the final product will be somewhere between 30 and 35 pages so cutting it down for publication in a journal won't be too daunting. the second draft is due this saturday morning, so of course i'm on thegradcafe instead.

my timeline over the two year period has been something like this:

- directed study with my advisor on the region/group of people/time period i want to study (first year, first semester)

- a rambling exploratory essay with three possible thesis topics and the sources available for each at my school, through interlibrary loans, or in foreign archives (first year, december)

- picked one of the three topics, did a broad overview "panorama" essay on everything written/happening on that topic throughout the region (first year, second semester)

- found archives, inquired about sources, wrote three 1-2 page outlines of potential theses based on what i expected to find at the archives. (first year, march and april)

- archival research abroad. of course, i didn't find what i expected to, but i found a whole bunch of great stuff i didn't even know existed, so i ran with that instead. (between first and second year, june-august)

- wrote a two paragraph abstract of exactly what my research question is, how it's different from the existing lit, blah blah. also wrote the lit review for my thesis (second year, september)

- wrote version 2 of my lit review and formulated my dissertation project (!!!) and wrote a grant for that, which sort of stalled me on the masters thesis for a bit (second year, october)

- wrote a detailed, single-spaced, 5 page outline of my thesis, including my arguments, sub-arguments, and every piece of evidence i was going to use for every single paragraph; painstaking but worth it (second year, november)

- wrote the first draft (second year, december)

- writing the second draft (right now!)

my advisor and i will discuss my second draft right before christmas and then i imagine i'll have a third draft to her early in the new year. if she's happy with draft 3, it will go to my committee members in mid-january for their feedback. one or two drafts for them and then the final written version should be in the can by mid-to-late february. i'll sit my defense at the end of february. that's the plan, anyway.

PRO-TIPS:

1) don't compare your progress to that of other students. some people start their programs with years of research already under their belts. they've got their question, they've got their sources, they might even have a draft already. no one expects you to keep up with them if you're still trying to find a general topic. at the same time, if their progress motivates you to work, that's a good thing. just don't let the stress cripple you. as long as your advisor is fine with your progress, you should be too.

2) it's okay to be late. the only hard deadlines in academia are for applications: admissions, grants, fellowships, jobs. everything else can be (and usually is) late. you can hide from your advisor or give him/her a head's up on your progress, that's your call. but don't be afraid to say to him/her, "look, this is going to take another week or two."

3) force yourself to write. even when the writing's bad. just put it onto paper. i've got at least 100 pages of stuff i've written that i'll never use because it's such garbage, but i had to get the poison out. i had to clear my head of the swirling thoughts and re-read the trash to realize, "oh, so THIS is what i really want to say."

4) do share your drafts with your colleagues. unless you're in a hyper-competitive environment where students try to sabotage each other, their feedback can be useful. read their stuff too. sometimes you can discover your own mistakes by recognizing it (or the lack of it) in other people's work.

5) don't take it personally. the criticism is designed to make your work better. and if you really care about the work, then you should welcome strong criticism of it. if it's really about you and not the work, then you might get a little bruised up.

[Swagato]

I'm in the MAPH at the University of Chicago, so my time-line is slightly different since it is a one-year program. My focus is in cinema studies. Our timeline runs something like this:

Vague idea of MA thesis formulated during first quarter

Read, read, read during winter break. Figure out starting bibliography.

Figure out advisor during Winter quarter and keep working on bibliography/draft/etc.

Finish up during Spring quarter and present/defend in early-mid June.

Ideal length is around 35 pages. Currently, I'm experiencing some major "WTF?" because of how many books and articles I have dumped into my initial biblio. Naturally, there will be a winnowing process, but my question to others with experience, or PhD students, is: how do you do graduate reading? It's almost impossible to actually read each page of each book and make notes and what not (although I would -love- to do that). So how do you read in graduate school?

[Zouzax]

I'm in the middle of my Master's thesis, too. Thankfully, I worked really hard this summer & did the bulk of my research, met with my advisor & hashed out the structure of my thesis, because this semester I've done NOTHING. Honestly, I worked way too many hours & barely had time to keep up with the classes I'm taking, let alone sit down & work on my thesis. I'm trying to reduce my hours at work but they're not having it.

Anyway, I'm writing a thesis on psycholinguistic aspects of translation - for example, how word choice, grammar, structure, form, etc. affect readers from a psycholinguistic standpoint. I may or may not include neurolinguistic aspects as well. I'll know more once I start writing , which will start JANUARY 16th. No excuses (my finals are over January 15th). I'm trying to finish everything by June (but since my thesis has to be somewhere around 100-200 pages, cant be sure how realistic this is).

Wish me luck

[StrangeLight]

holy crap, good luck with that 100 page thesis. i could probably write 100 pages in that time but i don't think they'd be 100 good pages. damn.

Naturally, there will be a winnowing process, but my question to others with experience, or PhD students, is: how do you do graduate reading? It's almost impossible to actually read each page of each book and make notes and what not (although I would -love- to do that). So how do you read in graduate school?

reading for a class or comps is different from reading for your research. if it's a class/comps thing, then i do my very best to read every single page. depending on the length of the book and how much else i have going on, i can usually read 3/4 of it closely and skim the last 1/4. doing that for three books a week (three classes, 1 book each) pretty much takes up 50-60 hours a week for me.

reading for your research... start with the table of contents. are there chapters that hit on exactly what you do? read those. if not, read the intro and conclusion. go to the index and look through the key terms. anything that seems relevant, look it up and read those sections. when you haven't read the whole book or article, be VERY careful to NEVER say "this author didn't...." you don't know what the author did or didn't do because you didn't read all of it.

if the book or dissertation or article is on your exact topic, you have to read all of it. no way around it.

[Grimm101]

Ethnomusicology is such a fascinating field. If I could do it all over again, I would have ventured into that arena. I think if you have a good idea of the chapter breakdowns, you should be able to meet your deadline. Remember to give yourself a break on days that you can't seem to get the words out. I spent most of this past summer writing my thesis and getting ready to defend in a little while. Are you handing in each chapter to your advisor as you write them, or the document as a whole? Good luck, you can do it!!!

[Ludwig von Dracula]

Ethnomusicology is such a fascinating field. If I could do it all over again, I would have ventured into that arena. I think if you have a good idea of the chapter breakdowns, you should be able to meet your deadline. Remember to give yourself a break on days that you can't seem to get the words out. I spent most of this past summer writing my thesis and getting ready to defend in a little while. Are you handing in each chapter to your advisor as you write them, or the document as a whole? Good luck, you can do it!!!

Thanks Milania! I've already written more than fifty pages, so I'm feeling like the problem will be cutting stuff out rather than trying to stretch it out. Right now I'm having fun NOT worrying about going over some prescribed word count. But yes, I'll be going over the chapters one at a time with my advisor.

Good luck with your defense.

[StrangeLight]

just finished the 3rd draft of my thesis. hopefully all that's left is some line edits and formatting. i'm not sure i could handle any more major revisions right now.

[Ludwig von Dracula]

Nice! I'm up to 110 pages, and that's two close to complete chapters. But I haven't started on revisions yet. My advisor's been fairly positive with what he's seen so far...

[balderdash]

Mine's only 50 pages total, but it's a one-year course, so there you are. I'm on my second draft, which is getting made over as soon as I can get off of this forum!

[StrangeLight]

i'm in a 2-year program and my thesis is, for now, 55 pages with footnotes. i was aiming for 35 pages or so, so that when i try to get it published it won't be impossible to cut it down to 25.

my advisor liked the outline, liked the paper but wanted additions, then hated the paper, and after a full rewrite, hopefully she likes it again. in the tracking changes in my word doc, i can see that she did three separate edits of my last draft, and they go from "this is okay, but..." to "oh, wait, not really okay" to "this is how to fix the mess you've made" over the course of one week.

[meankney]

I just collected my last bit of data for my Master's thesis this past Friday. Now I'm going to spend all semester writing and hopefully finish in May!