What are the best books to help me write my MA thesis?

[Pink Rose]

I desperately need help...and caffeine. What are some good recommended books that can help me jumpstart the broken car that is my brain?

[GeoDUDE!]

What do you need help with exactly? This is super broad. It's very hard to help someone when I dont know what you are asking.

Edited January 27, 2014 by GeoDUDE!

[Pink Rose]

What do you need help with exactly? This is super broad. It's very hard to help someone when I dont know what you are asking.

 

I asked what books can help me with the process of writing the thesis. How-to books and whatnot.

[GeoDUDE!]

Ohhh. I see. As in, structure ect. Well one thing you might ask your advisor is a copy of his/her previous students thesis. You might also skim other thesis from your school, usually they are published online or at the library. http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Master's-Thesis that has a quick and dirty guide. I would also do a bit more googling.

[nohika]

Ohhh. I see. As in, structure ect. Well one thing you might ask your advisor is a copy of his/her previous students thesis. You might also skim other thesis from your school, usually they are published online or at the library. http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Master's-Thesis that has a quick and dirty guide. I would also do a bit more googling.

 

I would second the recommendation of asking other students about their theses and how they were structured - that's what my advisor has recommended. Otherwise, maybe your department has a handbook that demonstrates briefly how they want it outlined? I know our department has a couple different structures you can choose from.

[Pink Rose]

Thank you so much, you guys. To be honest, I got worried. I didn't know if I was allowed to see sample theses. My school is a bit hush-hush about that sort of thing.

[GeoDUDE!]

There is no way that is true, they just might be advertising it. Almost everyone I know has looked at past thesis.

[ruru107]

Are you looking for something general, or area-specific? I've been reading Getting What You Came For by Robert Peters (some suggestions are outdated, and it's directed more at PhD's in science, but it was still beneficial) and The Craft of Research (helps you analyze your topic and strengthen your argument).

[Pink Rose]

There is no way that is true, they just might be advertising it. Almost everyone I know has looked at past thesis.

 

I'm being honest. My adviser, Dr. Dimit, has this thing with "disclosing any previous alumnus's work." Pfftt... I do know someone who has a past thesis I can look at. The only thing is, he's in science, I'm in humanities. But I guess it's better than nothing.

[Pink Rose]

Are you looking for something general, or area-specific? I've been reading Getting What You Came For by Robert Peters (some suggestions are outdated, and it's directed more at PhD's in science, but it was still beneficial) and The Craft of Research (helps you analyze your topic and strengthen your argument).

 

 

Beautiful! Yes, I'm a comparatist. I'm studying Arab women writers. This is perfect though. I'll add it to my reading list. Thank you so much! <3

[nohika]

Most theses are available /somewhere/. Worst case, contact previous students and ask for permission to see their theses. Most of the people I've asked in my field were more than willing.

 

I could see why your advisor would be hesitant to share previous students' work without their permission, though.

[Pink Rose]

Thank you, Nohika. Yeah, I know, he's trying to protect their privacy. I'm just trying to refine my topic and cure my writer's block. Lol!

[hj2012]

This was the standard guide at my undergrad program: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0226823377

Good luck!

[Pink Rose]

This was the standard guide at my undergrad program: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0226823377

Good luck!

 

Thank you so much!

[Lisa44201]

Go to your University's library. When I wrote my Thesis, we were required to hand in a digital copy in addition to the paper ones; the digital copy went in the library archives.

[Pink Rose]

Go to your University's library. When I wrote my Thesis, we were required to hand in a digital copy in addition to the paper ones; the digital copy went in the library archives.

 

 

Perfect! Thank you so much! <3

[danieleWrites]

A seminar paper is like a regular paper, only longer. A thesis is like a seminar paper, only longer. A dissertation is like a thesis, only longer.

You can get how-to books on writing a thesis, and they can be helpful. You can (and totally should) go to the library and read other comp lit theses. ProQuest runs a searchable, full-text Thesis and Dissertation database. Though really, this sounds more like an invention problem, not a convention problem. Your thesis will have a central argument that you're developing. Do you have that yet? If not, start by writing a list of questions you're into exploring and then do some research to answer those questions. Once you've got that central argument, then create an outline or plan of some sort. You can take the central argument and the plan to your adviser before you get deep into writing. Though, you probably know what you want to do your thesis on. The problem is then how to develop the thesis (what kinds of things do they expect to see)? Make a list of what you think you should cover to develop your argument and take that to your thesis adviser, along with your central argument. That gives you a framework with which to talk about what he wants in your thesis and what you want in your thesis.

Make a bibliography, while you're at it. Annotated can be helpful. Your thesis adviser probably asked for that right off, anyway, or has a reading list from you.

A thesis is a conversation, both in the final product (you and the discourse) and in its creation (you and your thesis committee). Don't be in your thesis adviser's office every single day, but don't do huge chunks without some input. Revision is always necessary, but if you don't have to delete half of it and go in a different direction because you didn't communicate as much with your thesis adviser as you could, that would suck.

So. Can't really help without knowing where you are in the process.

[davidipse]

I just finished reading Joan Bolker's Writing Your Dissertation in 15 Minutes a Day: A Guide to Starting, Revising, and Finishing Your Doctoral Thesis and found it immensely clarifying and helpful. I haven't started a dissertation or master's thesis yet, but for what it's worth, I did do an undergraduate honors thesis, and wish I had read that book back then.

 

If you don't want/have time to read the whole book (it's actually rather slim: 184 well-spaced pgs.), here are my notes/summary (some of them redundant) I wrote while reading:

 

 

-       Write 15 mins a day, everyday, at least.

-       Write at every stage of the disst.

-       Take own work habits as seriously as the disst topic/material.

-       Write about these habits: what does and doesn’t work

-       Choose a topic that matters to you persnally as well as professionally.

-       Take notes in class. Rewrite notes for dissertation.

-       There are going to be dark times, inevitably. Write during/through the dark times.

-       I don’t have to read only what I’m writing my dissertation about. Or, I don’t have to write my disseratation about everything I’m reading.

-       Write about advisor meetings right afterward; not just disst. related, but relationship related.

-       How best can you use other people’s talents and input?

-       Seek what you need, not what you ought to need.

-       How do you start writing? First you make a mess, then you clean it up.

-       ”Park on the Downhill Slope”: near the end of each writing session, summarize, state unanswered questions, and sketch out possible future paths. This jump-starts the next writing session.

-       ”Write first” (before doing other big things in the day).

-       ”Choose a work style that suits who you are, not who you’d like to be; do not try to create both a dissertation and a new working style at the same time.”

-       Write about the problems you’re having with writing your disst.

-       Can each paragraph be summarized into a sentence? If yes, then you have the para’s central idea; if not, it has too many ideas to be covered in a single para.

-       Make a realistic, tentative time-table.

-       Set easy goals and generous deadlines at first, and reward yourself upon their completion. The point of these is not so much to improve the work as improve your working habits.

-       “Pay close attention to who you are, not who you might like to be.”

-       Writing is writing; if at a certain point you can’t write your dissertation, write anything (temporarily).

-       Try to end a writing session on beginnings, so you don’t have to begin a session at the beginning.

-       “Write one day at a time.”

-       Glorified proofreading VS. Revision

-       Advice for Advisors: “The fundumental principle of dealing with students in the midst of their dissertations is to assume paranoia.”

-       Advice for Advisors: “Don’t write anything on his dissertation draft that you wouldn’t feel comfortable saying to his face.”