write my thesis

10 minute piece for voice and orchestra based on a friend’s essay.

This summer I will write all the music and by fall semester I can orchestrate it.

Sounds easy enough. We’ll see how it goes.

Others have done it I will do it too!!!

I started a file system with small cards to organise my notes and literary sources in an easy accesible way. Yesterday I had a one day course called ‘train your brain’ and learned, among other things, speedreading and mindmapping, which makes me really motivated. I already started to develop a mindmap for my proposal, and for my research plan. And the speedreading makes me think that, when I control it compeltely, I will be able to reach my goals much more relaxed.

This is going to work! I’m definitly gonna get that 8.5 for my thesis, I’m sure! :)

I’m doing research and completely frustrated. I am trying to keep my mind on the bigger picture because I want a teaching job. So I will just have to keep at this until it is finished. At first I thought I could just sit down and write it from A-Z….but instead I’m stuck in the research phase and just keep spinning my wheels. The hard part trying to finalize my topic. I’ll just have to pick something and move forward.

STEP 1: By the end of this week I will finalize the proposal and work on my introduction. Without those I can’t move on.

So, I had a meeting with my tutor last Wednesday, and it turned out that my new thesis idea wasn’t so bad at all. So now I have to start working on this one and just get started with it.

Goals are now to:
- finish my proposal before the end of January
- finish the rough research work in the archive at the end of Febuary
- do more detailed research in March
- start writing in April
- Finish my thesis (and Graduate!) at the end of June

Hopefully I’ll be able to make this happen. I am so terrible lazy, I just can’t imagine being in the archive four days a week for two months. Brrr. But, I’ll just have to, if I want to graduate before the summer, AND I DO!

The rules for writing in Portuguese have been changed (mostly spelling) recently, supposedly to make it easier to learn. With so many serious problems waiting to be solved in Brazil, who had this “brilliant” idea???? Now I have to learn it all over again, and to re-write everything I did so far. Grrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!

It has been written and I successfully defended it a couple of weeks ago. I’ve turned it into the proof-reader to make sure that everything is formatted correctly.

I can almost mark this one as done.

Not very much yet, but at least I started ;)

I’ve looking forward to writing my thesis ever since I started at Uni, strangely enough. But now I’m under such huge pressure not to disappoint myself, that I don’t dare to start. I have a great idea, I’m evry interested in the topic I’m planning to write about, but I’m really scared that I’ll totally suck. I just don’t know how to do this, how to get started…

It’s about 60 pages long. Defense is in mid-October. The thing is completely written, but I need to edit some things still, and add a little to a few sections. My committee keeps giving me more suggestions. I already feel like I’ve changed it a million times. :)

Definately a rewarding experience, but one of the harder things I’ve done. I’ve noticed I perceive anything that seems to take a long time as difficult because I am so impatient about things.

I’m looking forward to being done with it.