May 27
1 month ago
It will end on that day. That is when I am going to give my final thesis defense. What remains between now and that time seems tremendous and challenging.
How to finish my masters thesis
It made me 
"Got rid of a heavy burden. i am PROUD"
How I did it: My story: took a job after my 2nd masters thesis project turned out boring. Then I struggled for almost 7 years with guilt. Never gave up on the idea of finishing (hence, the guilt while not doing anything substantial).
In 2006 I decided to start over with a new project. It was complete hell, writing and reading, reading and writing, analysing, reporting, but eventually I came through as a bright guy. The results will be published in a journal paper.
How did I do it? One advice: be pragmatic and give up a perfection. Write and re-write. Seek advice but only depend on your own feelings. It's a job. Make the hours. It will pay out with pride and happiness. All you need to do is finish.
Lessons & tips: If you can't find a structure, ask for help. The structure given will evolve, once you put your mind to it.
Stay close to your intuition, even if it doesn't lead you straight to the end. You do know what you are doing.
It's only an excercise to show people you've completed this. Not more, not less.
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Entries
Finish Line
2 months ago
I finally made it! Light, what a relief; what a nightmare. Ended up having to revise my citations the night before it was due and ran it in on my lunch break today.
Bah, but it’s over! And soon I’ll have my degree!
Will it ever end?
2 months ago
I have changed my topic 4 times since October 2007. I am still having trouble with clearly stating my goals and organizing my chapters. My defense is set for April 30th. I have nothing left in me. There is no one to provide the motivation and support I need. My advisor is not the one for me. Wish I could start over and have my year+ back.
Revisions Are Back
3 months ago
Kind of hard to tell how, I did. I have a meeting with my thesis adviser on Wednesday to discuss her comments. Which is good, because I am heartily confused.
I don’t think she liked how I formatted the paper, and I’ll fess up. I got a bit creative with it. I formatted it as I would a report on marketing findings or a short magazine article, in non-connected sections with Heds and Deks. It was just more…fun that way, I suppose. I’m so tired and bored of writing academic papers. English as many of you may know is a writing-intensive degree. Publishing has been less so, thankfully, because the courses are more busisness orientated. The writing assignments we do have though can be quite a bit longer because, hey, it’s grad shcool after all.
smallseeds is trying to figure out the mystery of how relationships survive
woo - hoo!
3 months ago
Just finished the results section…. I see light at the end of the tunnel…
WoW!!!
1/3 Done,
4 months ago
But the rough draft is in two weeks, and I don’t expect my computer to live through the weekend. Will be typing this up on an 7 year old spare laptop.
smallseeds is trying to figure out the mystery of how relationships survive
success! the lit review is done
6 months ago
Well, the lousy weather is conducive to staying inside and writing. I just finished the literature review that would never end. Some days a paragraph was a huge success, others I managed to write a couple of pages. I’ve heard that’s the slowest part. Today I take a break (Happy New Year!!!) and tomorrow I start on my methodology. I have to take advantage of this time off from work…
shoemaker is OVERWHELMED
What with
7 months ago
... all that’s been going on – I totally fell of the train …
Wonder if there’ll ever be a next train to catch?
smallseeds is trying to figure out the mystery of how relationships survive
Its so hard to stay motivated to work on my thesis
8 months ago
There’s no fixed deadline and its a gorgeous day. The process and the project is so big. I need to break it down into sizable chunks and that’s hard. How do I organize everything I’m reading and still need to read.I’m even less motivated since my advisor told me he’s really busy and could I please wait a couple of weeks to see him. Of course he’d squeee me in, but I don’t have antything concrete to talk to him about, I just wanted a check in to keep myself motivated, so I’m waiting two weeks and meanwhile so unmotivated.
I’m also doing things out of order. so the task is bigger because I’m coding data at the same time I’m reading for my literature review. I work full time and loose the train of thought from weekend to weekend when I have chunks of time to sit down and work. Sometimes I feel like if I just keep plugging away and other times I feel like I just need to give up and make myself crazy, work on it in the evenings more. Just be immersed in it. But I’m so stressed with other parts of my life that I can’t seem to make myself.
I hope checking in here can help me out. It helped me over a year ago when i was unemployed and looking for work. I’m hoping posting my goals here might help.
So this weekend I will minimally: finish reading 1 book and write up notes on it. Gotta go.
