Need your help navigating through my current thesis?

[nehs]

I have my topic and a partial reading list figured out. Our master's thesis  should be double-spaced font 12 and around 50 pages. Well, I only have 8 pages and my thesis is due in1.5 months. I have been reading a lot but not able to translate all of it into a concrete writing.

 

Any tips on how to go about the whole reading+writing thing? Currently, I read, summarize, re-phrase in my mind and write. Doing this has gotten me to only 8 pages so far! Blah..and i'm starting to get stressed out. Do you think I could even finish in the next 1.5 months.

 

any comments/questions welcome , i'm pretty dumbed out right now.

Thank You!

Edited February 24, 2013 by nehs

[rising_star]

Yes, you can do this. You need to make an outline, then basically try to fill it in with what you've already done and what you already know. Then you can go back to the literature and add in the supporting information and flesh things out. Basically, you're probably falling into the trap of reading more than you need to and using that to procrastinate on writing. Break the habit.

[nehs]

thanks rising_star. I have my outline but i'm kinda getting lost on the transtiion between sections/paragraphs.

 

Also, I'm wondering if it is a good idea to just go on reading right now and take notes(paper and pen) and then put it back into MS word.

[rising_star]

No. Seriously. Stop reading. Reading is what people use to procrastinate on writing. Don't worry about the transitions yet, just make sure you have all the ideas on the page and that you're fully explaining them. You can go back and add transitions later and, btw, reading isn't always going to help with that.

[nehs]

rising_Star, thanks again. I'm having this thought they " I haven't read enough or I do not have enough credible sources". Your posts have been helpful to get me back on track. I wrote about 4 pages today. I have about 12 pages now. I need 40-50 more. Hmm....

[nehs]

So based on rising_star's inputs I've stopped focussing on reading alone and have gotten to writing(even if it sounds and seems like crap!). And this is atleast adding to the number of pages, and I'm happy. I will focus on the fine-tuning a litle later in march.

[Dal PhDer]

That's awesome! Good luck! You can do it!!

[rising_star]

YAY, nehs, I'm glad to hear it's working for you. Once you've written a chapter or big section, then you can go back and add in the appropriate references, see where you need support for your argument, etc.

[nehs]

Thanks to the two of you

 

Motivation it is. Yes Im just going on. My advisor is super-busy actually, so its a little hard to get quality time from him but its his responsibility to give us the time anyway..

 

Also, I was wondering how do we go about scheduling appointments for field research? Like if I want to go to get some data from a public hospital?

[selecttext]

I am about 10 000 words into my MSc thesis, 1 ms completed, 1 ms 70% completed, intro completed and lit review a long way off 

a little bit each day

[nehs]

I'm continuing to write a little everyday. Getting just half a page done during a work week is a huge confidence booster and then I sit down and get 6 pages done in the week end.. Hoping to finish my thesis soon!