Thesis Draft One

Katie D.

May 9, 2010 - 11:41 AM

At long, long last, the end is in sight.

By the end of the day today, I will have a full first draft of my undergraduate thesis.

It won't be a perfect draft, by any means. I started writing way, way back in August, and finally we will have a draft. I'll have a week for revisions and meetings with advisors, and a chance to have a few friends help with the editing process as well. Then I'll be printing the whole thing out and handing it over to my advisors on May 18th. That's a week from Tuesday! A week from Tuesday and the project is over, come hell or high water.

Then I have another week and a half to think about the defense process. Essentially, I have to present my thesis to my advisors and invited friends. I will speak for about twenty minutes, discussing the project's main points, objectives, and findings. Then there will approximately an hour of questions: first from my advisors and then from anyone else present who would like to ask. These could be questions as varied as "I'm interested in this point in section two, would you please explain it more in depth?" to "there is a huge hole in your argument on page 43, would you please address that?" (Just writing those words made my pulse speed up a little...) Then the advisors confer and announce whether or not I pass. The decision is based on the written thesis as well as the presentation.

But the defense is a problem for another day, right? Yes. That will be my problem starting April 19th. Today's problem is the last fifteen or so pages I've got to write today. That's two sub points in section three, plus a conclusion. Home stretch, ladies and gentlemen!

Yesterday I wrote about eight pages, plus did some reorganization of earlier sections. I'm trying to do a little bit of editing each day, in addition to writing new stuff, so that the next phase isn't quite so daunting. Today's full energy will go toward the completion. Eyes on the prize!

I'm also incredibly lucky to have an incredible group of people helping and supporting me on this project. My three advisors are extraordinary: Professor Shankman, Professor McLauchlin, and Professor Bishop. Each has helped me so much, especially in the beginning phases when I was planning out the project. Without their advice in the dreaming stages, there was no way I could have gotten this far. In addition to them, I have five or six people who have offered to help me with editing. My mom will help me, as always (she is my First Reader: the person I have in mind when I'm writing, my editor, and the first person I share my work with). Three friends have offered to read and edit the whole thing. The woman I work with on my internship, Melissa Crabbe, has also offered to read and edit the document in full. Also, both of my coeditors for the Turned Inside-Out magazine will be editing the section about our project. I'm particularly grateful to James, our Inside coeditor, whose editing is extremely precise and whose perspective is so important to me.

A final note before I dive into the actual writing.

I had a bad moment with my thesis about a week ago. It's a huge project, so the attitude goes up and down. The last of my close friends finished her first draft, and I was left alone in my group as the solitary one still writing. Granted, my thesis is much longer than anyone else's, and the scope is much broader. But this was not a rational bad moment: it was simple despair about this project that felt as though it would never end.

A conversation with a friend, and the thinking I've done about this since, has turned me around.

My thesis is much more than a paper. It's more than a passing interest and more than a single project. My thesis reflects so much of what is central to my life these days. I thought through everything I've gained from this project, and everything I've learned:

- I took a second Inside-Out class, and am the first Outside student to have done so.

- I met all those wonderful people (Inside and Outside) because of that class, including Madeline, who is now one of my best friends.

- I got to participate in the documentary "Inside Looking Out," which just won a huge national award for undergraduate journalism.

- I went to the national instructor training in Pennsylvania. This only happened because of my thesis project.

- I met Melissa Crabbe to discuss thesis ideas with her, and she offered me an internship position with her.

- I met David Frank, Dean of the Honors College, to discuss my thesis and not only made a friend, but received funding for my internship through the Honors College

- I heard about the Conflict Resolution Program, applied, and was accepted with a scholarship. My four letters of recommendation came from David Frank, Professor Shankman, Professor McLauchlin, and Melissa Crabbe.

You see, now, the value of this thesis. I am so proud of it as a project: I believe it to be an exciting piece of research, writing, and theory. But it is so much more and so much bigger than its single existence as a document. It is my whole senior year, and my whole next step in life.

I am so grateful to have been a part of this, from start to finish. Well, almost to finish.

Time to write. Wish me luck!