Discouraged re: supervisor's comments on thesis

[mikaela]

I've been working really hard for the past few months to get my thesis done. I was hoping to have a final draft by the end of October. Anyway, I submitted a rough first draft to my advisor last week and just received her comments.

I am completely panicked and so discouraged! She says she fully believes I am making an important argument, but that it's not clear enough, wants me to rewrite the introduction, change the structure, says I repeat myself too much, etc etc etc. And the worst part is, I don't understand some of what she wants me to change and I'm not sure I have all the data that the changes would require. She is away on conference right now, so I am hoping meeting with her next week will help clarify things.

The reason I want to get the thesis dones ASAP is because I was offered a great post-doc opportunity (but would have to be in position in January).

[joro]

That sounds really stressful. Sounds like she likes the content, but just not the way you wrote it. I hope everything works out for you.

[Nofia]

Did you really expect a "rough first draft" to be lauded by your professor? Criticism and heavy editing are just to be expected. It's not something you ace the first time through. If you don't understand some of the comments, ask for clarification. Otherwise, get into the editing process and make the changes required. When you turn in your next draft, expect there to be further critiques. I turned in at least 2-3 "final" drafts before my advisor signed off on my thesis. Be grateful that your advisor is reading it closely and giving you constructive criticism--when it's finished you should feel confident that it meets the standards of field and could potentially be published. You cannot let yourself be totally despondant over criticism like this--any piece of writing you submit to professors (and later, for peer-review in journals or as a book) will be subject to similar critiques. Your professor gets similar critiques on articles he/she submits too. It is to make your writing and your argument stronger. You don't have to agree with all of the criticism, but you do need to be ready to make serious edits to your work. Over and over again.

So, buck up, get to work, and make the thesis as great as you and your advisor knows it can be.

[kahlan_amnell]

Of course your first draft needs lots of revision, it's a first draft and that is to be expected. I went though many many drafts of my MA thesis before it got to a point where my advisor was pleased with it.

So, don't be discouraged. If some things your advisor asked you to revise don't make sense, ask for clarification. In the meantime, work on things that do make sense. You have plenty of time to get this done before January.

[purplepepper]

Are you talking about a doctoral thesis? I think in either case, isn't your supervisor's job to cut it up and criticize every single part that he/she can? If it is your PhD thesis, consider yourself lucky...some supervisors don't care enough to do that. Just work on it more, and because of those comments it'll be much stronger in the end.

[Zencarrot]

I agree with mims3382. It's all part of the process. If your paper isn't scribbled on in red beyond all recognition then your supervisor just doesn't care enough to read it. Your first draft will never be perfect. I have had experiences where i've had to re-write an ENTIRE paper. It is a crushing feeling but it is better to come up with a new, improved version than to be embarrassed at presenting incomprehensible arguments at a conference in front of dozens of academics, is it not?

Take it in stride and remember that your supervisor is doing this to mentor you to become a stronger thinker and writer, not to destroy your self-esteem.

[Eigen]

While good advice, being that it's been two years since the original discussion too place, it may or may not ever make it to the right people.

[Zencarrot]

Wow I hadn't even realized these threads were ancient history. I saw the new subforums open up and assumed that they had fresh topics in them!

[rising_star]

Sorry about that. I was moving them to make it easier for people to see if there was a past discussion on a particular topic.

[ZeeMore21]

No need to feel discouraged, seems as though the professor believes in your work. You will have to learn to not be too sensitive to corrections...critiques are only meant to help strengthen your work.

[shirleybongbong]

I think you need to make your writing simpler. Begin by reviewing your thesis again sentence by sentence. The technique is not to repeat the idea in another sentence, meaning you might not be aware that you were explaining again using the same thoughts. If you have explained that, get another thought again to expound on a certain topic.

Thesis statement must be strong. It should trigger interest to the reader to read more on your thesis. Introduction, brief and concise, straightforward. Structure could be the outline that you need to change to provide a better flow of the idea. Before you clarify on things, make a little improvement on the structure so it would be a one go discussion.

I am not sure if this helps you. Just thinking.