Thesis Throes
by Benjamin on October 20, 2009
My posting has been a bit sporadic of late, as I am now in the last week of writing before submitting what is a first final draft of my thesis – it sounds paradoxical doesn’t it? The good thing is that I feel like the story is coming together, the bad news is that I worry constantly if the text on the page will reflect what I think. After staring at my notes and monitor for days on end, there are a couple of things I wish I’d done while working on the thesis, and a couple I am very grateful that I did. I thought I might share these, during my five minute sanity break, as they might be useful if you’re also getting to grips with having to do a thesis:
-I wish, that on every draft which people have commented on, I’d written the date it was returned, the draft number and the name of who commented. Now I have a pile of useful comments, but no idea when or why they were made on an ocean of paper instead.
-I am happy that I wrote out each of my references as I went along. Especially when I have single sheets of paper with notes, even there I pasted in any bibliographical detail at the end. It’s great! Because whenever I add new material this week I only need to copy-paste the reference off the note sheet into the bibliography.
-I wish I’d have some way of shuffling each chapter reference section into a aggregate reference section. This seems like a lose-lose situation though. Because if you work with a ‘thesis bibliography’ from the start, it becomes a pain putting out papers for conferences as the work is on-going, and if you don’t you get the pain in the last week.
-I wish I had asked more people to read my chapters, and to read them earlier. I’ve had lots of great feedback, and a lot of it from outside sources. But each draft seems to make the point clearer, and each comment tends to sharpen the mind. “If it’s unclear to the reader, then your writing is unclear” – regardless of who the reader is. Rough but true.
-I’m glad I went to conferences every year. Why didn’t someone tell me in my first year that going to conferences means you’ll meet people who are interested in what you do, have expert knowledge, and are generally willing to read your stuff (because they’re interested) and give you comments and feedback. Fantastic.
I’m sure more will come to me as I finish the thing up – and it has to be done – and once this week is over there will be more recurrent blog posts from my side. I already have two or three very exciting things lined up :)
Tags: Advice, Economics, Graduate School, Thesis, Thoughts
“the bad news is that I worry constantly if the text on the page will reflect what I think.”
I definately know the feeling! Ugh. I wish you the best of luck though. And thanks for sharing the tips.
Good luck Ben, and thanks for the advice.
Soon it will be over! Any plans for the post-doc?
just poking my head out of all my notes. Thanks guys, I appreciate it.
No plans for post-doc, starting myself a full-time job this Monday, so the word deadline has a whole new ring.
And back down into the notes I go… Is it half past midnight already? D’oh!