So you want to write a thesis [Part II]

CREATE AND STICK TO A TIMELINE

That is what everyone who has ever written a thesis will tell you.  And you will go "I know. I know." and then you won't do it.  We all do it, and it sucks when the time for your proposal is due and you haven't written a word other than your cover sheet. So I propose a new solution "want to stick to your timeline."  

1.  If you are receiving undergraduate credit for this research it's essentially a class.  Create a time in your schedule as if you had to go to a class room or lecture hall for it 3 times a week (or however many credits it is).  THIS IS NOT A FLEXIBLE TIME.  Treat it just as if it was class and unchangeable.  

2.  Start with your residual message, also known as your thesis statement.  If you know what you want other people to get out of reading your paper then you can better approach it.  Also if you have direction, it's way easier to find clarity-- trust me! 

3.  Read this html document from Prof. Stearns from Yale OR here in PDF compliments of UWYO

The document is wonderful and I think the first few points are especially important because they apply to everyone at every level of thesis writing such as "prepare for the worst."  Isn't that the truth?

4.  Write down the wrong date for things. This doesn't mean later then when they're due, but early.  Trick yourself into thinking you only have a week and half to write that proposal rather than 3.  If you get it done early you can get more editing out of the way and half of your proposal will be in pristine condition while everyone else is fumbling around.  

5. Love your topic.  If you do not love your topic, this will not go well for you.  BSing 10-15 pages of a topic you don't care about can be a struggle, image 30+ pages.  Make yourself love it, even if you don't love the whole thing.  Find certain aspects that excite you.  And if nothing does, change your topic PRONTO. 

Thanks all for now-- Godspeed my friends! 

I fell off the wagon...

I used to be a neat freak.

There I said it, I admit it.  I used to be such a neat freak in fact that I would clean my roommate's side of the room.  For the first three years of my college experience that's how I was, and it was great.  My room was always clean my sanity stayed pretty stable because of it as well.   Well my friends this year I fell off the wagon HARD.  Like so hard I hit my head and entered a coma.

I'm too ashamed to fully describe the madness to you, but I will say it's getting difficult to find all of my shoes-- NOT GOOD!  I am usually very organized: my desktop is pristine, everything on my hard drive is in the appropriate labeled folder, my thesis binder has dividers, and my agenda is color coded.  See, I am organized!!

I am going to blame it on the fact that this year my roommates and I are renting an unfurnished single family house (it's pretty hard to find furnished home space).  What does this mean?   This means that we are college students on a budget so we have to get creative with how we use space.  My room, for example, does not have a closet.  So I had to build one using some huge eye hooks, curtain rods and curtains to help hide my clothes a bit.

I made sure everything has a place to go, but with the curtain closet the room still look very messy even when things are clean and organized.  So, why clean if it's still going to look a mess.  Honestly, I just need to get over that.  Today will be the day I will clean. I just have to keep telling myself that.

So you want to write a thesis [Part I]

On Wednesday I had the greatest epiphany of my academic career-- I finally knew the residual message (or thesis statement) of my honors thesis paper that I have been working on since September.

Okay, that's a lie, I am supposed to have been working on my honors thesis since September-- OOPS!   Well now that I finally have some clarity I feel I can give a few tips on writing an undergraduate thesis so here it goes.  Let's first start with 1 of 3 scenarios you can be in.

1. If you don't want to write a thesis and you don't have to write a thesis to graduate-- DON'T
No, but seriously if you don't want to and don't have to there will be not motivation and it won't happen.  Or worse, your product will be sub par.

2. If you have to write a thesis, but don't want to-- TIME MANAGE
In my thesis program we didn't even meet once a week, and when we did meet nothing had to be turned in it was all very abstract.  Make yourself turning something in every week, ask if you can meet with your faculty advisor every week at the same time.  If you don't have something to keep you accountable you will be spending many all-nighters before your proposal is do.  30 sources in less than 30 hours, you're gonna have a bad time.

3. If you want to write a thesis (regardless of whether you have to or just want to)-- KEEP MOTIVATED
You would think this is the easiest scenario to be in--WRONG, so so wrong.  You will lose motivation, you will ask yourself why you're doing this, and you will threaten to end it.  You will also be extremely hard on yourself because you want it to be perfect, but you'll still procrastinate.  You will need to time manage just as carefully as those people who don't want to write a thesis, but have to.   You can do it! You want this, remember?  

I'll continue with specific tips later this week. Have a good night everyone! =)

World's Worst Blogger

I'm officially giving myself that title.

It's been almost a whole year since I've posted anything and I don't think I've actually ever posted anything 'good'.  So here we are a whole new year of Ariel attempting to write for a blog.  I really like to write, I think I'm still getting over the whole putting my words on the internet.  Any way, I have a proposal...

In case you didn't know this past wednesday was Ash Wednesday, which starts Lent for me.  Typically for Lent you don't eat meat on Fridays (or Ash Wednesday) and you give up something until Easter Sunday.  This year I'm not buying clothes.  This is going to be a serious challenge for me as I love to shop.  In addition I will give away a piece of clothing each day I am tempting to buy something and the clothes at the end of Lent will be donated to a food pantry in town that also gives away clothes.  Anyway, this year I think I'm also going to add posting at least 2 blog posts a week to the list.

What will be my topic, I don't really know (that's always been my problem).  Perhaps I'll share my frustration with undergraduate research, my inability to keep my room clean (my backpack is beyond organized though), or the movie I just saw.  Who knows really.  I want to blog, so I need to motivate myself.

So I guess we'll see how it goes.  Wish me luck! =)

P.S. Tonight is $3 movie night (I love college) and I'm going to see this:

And I am very excited.  =)